It’s that time of the year again where family and friends come over to celebrate the holidays. While everyone is around, you probably want to take some good photos to commemorate the moment. But sometimes these don’t come out as great as you expect them to. So to help you take some good photos of the festive season here are some tips that you can follow.

Step back from the action

It can be tempting to only focus on people smiling, laughing and having a good time. But this means that you don’t get wide shots of what is happening in the room. So take a step back and take some shots of people opening presents, everyone eating at the table and so on.

Don’t only focus on the people

While you aren’t focusing on the individuals, you should also make time to take shots of the decor, food and overall scenery. Get some shots of the presents under the tree or of the food on the table. This way you won’t only have pictures of people, which can get kind of boring.

Take candid shots

Once you have pictures of the overall feel of the space, you can try and get some shots of the everyone else. However, you shouldn’t just get posed shots of people smiling awkwardly. Try and get some shots where people aren’t looking at the camera. You may need to take quite a few of these until you get some really nice ones.

Do burst shots

You’ll never get the perfect photo on the first try, which is why you should set your phone or camera to shoot in bursts. This way you’ll be able to capture some great moments which go by in a flash, such as the kid’s expression when opening presents.

Don’t use the flash

If you want to get some great photos of the Christmas lights, then you need to turn off your flash. This will only blow out the lights and annoy your family and friends as you go around taking photos. You’ll want as much of the natural light as possible mixed with the artificial light to give the photos a Christmas feel.

If you want to get some great shots, then you’ll need to practice taking some photos over time. So make sure to follow these tips, and to get some practice in, so that you can get some great Christmas photos.