How to Capture Your Beautifully Imperfect Holidays

Grandad’s dance moves, the liveliness of family games, or the delight of tearing into a gift. All these moments are one-of-a-kind and can happen in the blink of an eye.
1. Start by checking your lighting – that'll help you decide whether to go with or without the flash.
2. During the festive morning or day time, skip the flash. Just steady your camera and you’ll avoid any blur.
3. No tripod? No problem. Keep your photos crisp and clear by setting your camera on a flat surface to rest your elbows on.
4. When it gets dark, you’ll need a flash to freeze the perfect moments.
5. Remember that flash power decreases with distance. So, stay up close to the action for those picture-perfect moments.

The heart of the holidays? It's all about getting everyone together. Whether it's your big family or your chosen circle, these moments of togetherness are what make the season truly special.

1. Get everyone close together. The closer, the merrier and it’ll guarantee everyone’s in focus.
2. Use the viewfinder as your guide to make sure you’re not cropping out anything important.
3. And for those big gatherings, go for daylight - it'll help capturing a well-exposed shot.

Mum’s excellent plating skills, or your epic gingerbread cookie masterpiece? Whatever you’re capturing, when you get close remember this:
1. Stick with a 0.4m distance range.
2. Got a big holiday spread to capture? You can go all the way back (until infinity) but maybe try standing on a chair to get the epic shot.
3. You can always get creative with different distances and perspectives. It might just make that shot extra magical.

One moment, you might be in your Grandma's kitchen with less-than-ideal lighting, and the next, at a lively party with your friends - be covered for everywhere.
1. Want to illuminate your subject? Stand closer and if you don’t want the strong intensity of flash, take a step or two back.
2. In dim light, have your subjects stand by a light-colored wall. It keeps the background visible and avoids losing details in the shadows.
3. If you want to capture food or objects with flash, remember light or shiny objects could become over exposed.
4. To avoid this, slightly underexpose using the flash or use some darker objects in the scene to absorb some of the flash light.

If you see things from a different perspective, we say go for it. There’s plenty of ways to play around and make your festive moments uniquely yours.
1. Try going all the way up, as high as your tree and see what it's like to capture from up there.
2. Or go really low, change the angle and see how a lowdown perspective might give you an epic result.
3. Get creative with composition using double exposure. Take a photo of the same thing twice or two different things to make your shots more dynamic.