Whenever you go away on a big family holiday, you want to ensure that you capture the best memories possible. Whether it’s loved ones goofing around or a picture staged to perfection, you want to make sure that you get excellent family holiday photos that make you reminisce and laugh.
You also want them to be good to show off to friends and other family members, so they can be just as impressed by your photography skills as they are with the view. Here are seven tips for taking great family holiday photos to show off your talent and make a great bundle of memories. And who knows, if your photos are good enough you could even make some money from them.
1 Think about the location
Showing off the location that you visit is just as important as capturing your family doing something great and having a good time. So making sure that your family and the scenery are pinned together well in photographs is very important. Making sure to capture beautiful rolling hills or sunny beaches, as this can make an excellent backdrop to the perfect family holiday photos.
2 Think about posing
When taking a photograph, you want to ensure that your family at least looks like they’re having a good time. Interacting with the scenery can be a great way to get this across. Whether it’s pushing or holding a landmark through perspective or doing eccentric and large poses to get your enjoyment across, experimenting with poses can be fantastic and fun.
You want to make sure that your fun, spunky and peppy family personality comes across.
3 Consider the time of day
Thinking about the time of day can be more significant than you think. Not only just for lighting and the best view of the scenery, but also how busy places are going to be. This can be a big distraction and take the focus away from your family. This can mainly be because somebody might be doing something eye-catching or inconsiderate people will walk in front of the camera, and it might get really frustrating. This can come across in the photo, and that will be the story behind the photo in question, which can be a real mood killer.
4 Think about opportunity
Catching people off guard when it comes to photos can be great for comedic photos and lead to a lot of laughter. However, it might also make for the best photographs. Taking pictures of your dog running down a beach or the children having a good time on some play equipment, or your mother eating a bagel in a slightly unflattering manner on the steps of some great monument might be great fun. It’s always an excellent opportunity to take a photograph when someone is in the moment and can prove to be fantastic fun.
5 If the photo is planned, make sure it’s flattering for everyone in the picture
If you want a group photo, you had better make sure that it looks good. This is mostly because people want to look good in planned photographs, and it can be upsetting and disappointing if you are the only person who doesn’t look their best.
Self-image is very important to us, as explained in this article in PositivePsychology. So, we always need to feel that we look our best to benefit our self-esteem, and having everybody ready and prepared can make for a far better group photo.
6 Make sure everyone wants to have their picture taken
It can be upsetting if you’re not in the mood to have your photo taken and someone is constantly flashing a camera in your face because you’re on holiday and you have to enjoy yourself. This can make the feeling of not wanting your photo taken to be worse.
Pictures always look their best when they are taken when the subject is willing, as it takes away comments of ‘oh, they were in a grump that day and ruined the holiday.’ It can make people feel a lot better if they aren’t included, and it will probably make the photos better.
7 Finally, take lots of photos and cherry-pick
The best way to get excellent family holiday photos is simply to take lots of them. If there are some bad ones, the likelihood is that there will be some brilliant ones. This can be great for not only your family’s photo collection but also the way your family feels about the holiday. If you do have a lot of photos and a lot of happy smiley faces, people are going to think you had a great time and did loads of things, even if it was only a holiday for a week or so.
