How to capture your holidays

This is a guest post from photography educator Katrina Kennedy.

It’s Christmas morning. You can feel the anticipation in the house as little ones wait to unwrap gifts.

You’ve taken care of all the necessary preparations: The camera battery is charged. Memory cards are clear and at the ready. Your camera is set to P to keep the evil flash from firing.

You take a photo; look on your LCD and it’s blurry. If you squint you can identify which child it is. Maybe.

So you decide to ignore the Internet and press the tiny flash button on the side of your camera to get the flash to pop up on its own.

You’ve heard the evils of flash, but you want to recognize your children.

You flash away. Now you can see your children. Yes, they look lit for police interrogation, but you’ve got the memory.

Then you spy the little arrow with a +/- symbol next to it.* What’s that? You press it revealing a light meter type indicator. You dial it to the left hand side of middle. Three clicks to the left, maybe even four.

You shoot again.

Wow. Your children look less interrogated. Not blurry. You’re not fiddling with anything else. The memories? Finally. Captured.

A few other helpful tips:

• Indoors, set your white balance to tungsten to avoid the yellow color in your photos.

• Keep you shutter speed faster than 1/50th of a second if you are holding your camera to avoid camera shake, and 1/125th of a second to avoid motion blur.

• Find a setting you like, stick with it to lesson your holiday stress.

• Be okay with al little imperfection, the holidays move quickly.

Do you get caught in the holiday bustle wishing you could take better photos? Do you find yourself standing in front of your tree wishing someone could adjust your settings for the situation?

Join Katrina Kennedy in a 14 day mini-class Capture Your Holidays: Through the Lens. In seven lessons and two videos, she will describe how to take the classic photos of the holidays with the equipment you have. You can ask questions, post photos, and interact with classmates and Katrina throughout class. You will not be alone with your camera this holiday season!

*If you are looking for the symbol on your camera, look up flash compensation in your camera’s manual.