Family photos are gorgeous and something that every family wants to have to remember, but getting fantastic photos can get quite spendy. Here are some great DIY family photoshoot tips on how to take fantastic family photos on a budget.
How to Take Fantastic Family Photos on a Budget
Head Outdoors For The Best FREE Lighting
One of the biggest challenges to making a photo turn out great is lighting. The best way to inexpensively take great DIY family photos with good lighting is to head outdoors. You want natural light behind you, but not blaring sunlight. The best times of day are actually right around dusk or a little before. When the sun is already beginning to set, so it won’t be too bright behind you, nor causing you to squint as it blinds you when you’re snapping the photos. Try various times of day to find the coloring you prefer in the month that you are shooting the pictures, but head outside for great lighting.
Practice With The Timer Ahead Of Time
Don’t wait until you are at the location to figure out how your camera or phone camera timer works. Practice with it at home ahead of time. Use it for taking snapshots of the kids, your meals, or anything around you, so you can get use to how it works and make sure you know exactly what to push and when.
Invest In Phone Photo Accessories
No need to have a fancy camera to take a great picture. You can easily take quality images with things like your smart phone. For extra help using your phone, check out things like an cell phone tripod or cell phone camera lens accessory. Not only do these give you a bit more control over how you take your picture, but they are VERY inexpensive.
Choose A Scenic Backdrop
Just like outside natural lighting helps make everything look better, so does a beautiful scenic backdrop. Scout out local areas you could take a great picture. Beaches, fields of flowers, tree lines, and near old fences or barns are often popular for the natural and beautiful look.
Here’s where I am at, there is a very small park near a line of businesses and there are beautiful rocks right there, and the sun comes up perfectly behind them at dusk, creating the perfect backdrop. That is what you see on my main photo on the blog as the backdrop. The colors of the rocks are breathtaking. Wherever you go, if you choose private property, just make sure to ask property owners permission before traipsing across property lines for that perfect picture.
Edit Images With PicMonkey
PicMonkey is an awesome free site, perfect for basic editing. You can crop, resize, rotate, dim, focus, blur, and more in just a few clicks. For additional tools you can upgrade for as little as $2.75 per month. There are dozens of online tutorials available for this site to help you make the most of it on your images.
Bring A Friend Along
Nothing helps like having an extra set of hands when you are trying to take a picture. Not only can they do the actual snapping of the image, but they can do things like wipe dirt smudges from kids faces, let you know when something is amiss or rearrange you in front of the camera for a better overall look.
Send Out For Printing
Sure the local drug store has quality prints, but there are even better deals with higher quality online. Check out sites like Tiny Prints, Shutterfly and more for quality and often free offer printing of your images.
Take a Course Online
Wish there was an online course where you can learn how to photograph from a pro? There is! I HIGHLY recommend taking this course by Click Love Grow. There are two courses, one for photography enthusiasts, and one for bloggers. They are open NOW! It just started today, so it’s early bird pricing right now and the course will begin in January. Hurry! You don’t wanna miss it!!
