Four practical tips to improve your photos all year long

1. Embrace the chaos

Nothing puts a damper on the festivities more than attempting to wrangle 16 grandchildren hyped up on Christmas and candy for a posed photo. My advice for capturing your holiday images, is to grab your phone or camera at various moments throughout the day and snap several candid moments. The cousins laughing over a glass of wine, or a child looking at a book on Grandpa’s lap – don’t interrupt the moment, but observe and grab a quick photo. Candid images often become favorites amongst my family members.

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2. Play with depth-of-field

If you are using an iPhone, and choose portrait mode on your camera, you will see the letter “f,” in the top right corner of your screen. This is your “f-stop,” setting which controls the depth-of-field. The lower the number, the smaller the depth-of-field and the more blurred the background becomes. The higher the f-stop, the more crisp and defined the background.

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3. Adjust your exposure

Another iPhone tip for adjusting the light in-camera is to tap the screen on the subject you are focusing on. A yellow box with a sun next to it will appear. You can slide the sun icon up to increase the exposure (letting more light into the frame) or down to lower the exposure if it is too bright. Adjusting the exposure in-camera allows you to capture the mood of a moment more accurately and efficiently.

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4. Fall in LOVE with the results

I hope these easy pointers are helpful and you have fun experimenting. Thank you so much for being here, and I wish you the merriest of seasons as 2023 comes to a close. Cheers!