Take Better Holiday Snapshots with Your Point and Shoot Camera

For every trick-or-treater and every Thanksgiving toast, and every present unwrapped...

There will be a camera (or phone) somewhere, waiting to snap a shot or record an event.

And in all likelihood, there will be some disappointment. Because "it didn't look that way when I was about to take it." Or you see a great moment and it's suddenly washed out or "not quite" the way you pictured it.

It happens to everyone.

A couple of things to keep in mind when using your point and shoot.

1. Turn off that flash unless you absolutely need it. (If your kids are opening their Christmas presents in front of a four foot window, or by candle light, you might need flash.) Otherwise, you may get some blurry moments, but I'm willing to bet you will end up with more honest moments, the ones that "looked different before I took it", will look a little more like what you had imagined.

What I'm referring to here is called ambient or available light photography.

A flash is a hard light pointed directly at your subject. The results are often a washed out, flat image. Contrast may be lost as well as natural shadows.

2. Another thing to keep in mind is: Look at your circumstances. It only takes a second. Is it day or night? Are there windows? How big? Heavy or sheer curtains? Are there floor lamps or overhead lights?

There are a zillion other environmental considerations, but these few will get you by and hopefully help you get better shots.

Did I say a couple of things to keep in mind? I should have said, "a few."

Here's:

3. Put your camera setting on Portrait mode. You'll see the head and shoulders image on the menu or dial. This is telling your camera's brain to look for a face or the most brightly lit and biggest object in the frame. It's telling your camera what to focus on (ie: a face) and what to make blurry (the background).

This is part of a concept called Depth of Field. It changes when flash is used and when you start zooming or getting closer to your subject. Zooming close to your subject generally takes the background more out of focus. Using flash often makes everything sharp or sharper. It increases that range, which you may not want.

So... Set your mode dial to Portrait... Consider your flash... Then go "capture" that holiday spirit!