3 Pro Tips for Thanksgiving Photos

It’s the week of Thanksgiving!!!! Since you’ll be gathered already and have smart phones with fancy-shmancy portrait modes, I thought I’d throw out a few pro tips to make the most of the family photos that will inevitably take place this week. Then you can post your photos with pride and not find yourself wishing you could just stuff them in the turkey instead.

Oh, and before I start with the pro tips, remember to tap your screen where you want the focus to be. Cameras on smart phones will usually blur everything else, giving you a really pretty photo!

Choose Your Background Carefully
Pick a neutral (mostly the same color) or sentimental background. A few suggestions are on the stairs, a wall with minimal decorations, in the kitchen, on a sofa directly across from a window (move the sofa if you have to in order to get great light on your faces instead of on your behinds where nobody can see it), the outside of the house, or in the yard in front of pine trees or a picturesque fence. If there is enough space, take a couple large steps forward from the background. This will eliminate shadows on the background from a flash, and help the background become more blurry when your camera is in portrait mode.
Avoid the Lean
You know the one - everyone is around the table and someone pulls out their phone to take a picture. Everyone ALWAYS leans into the center, as though there isn't enough room in the picture for everyone to be in it... But there always is... So we all just look like we lost our balance! Get up and stand/sit next to one another in a couple rows, and THEN you can lean into each other (but lean with your waist or hips, not just your head). And... because someone will still take a picture of everyone at the table anyway, just sit where you are, maintain a straight torso, roll your shoulders back, and flash your thankful grin!
Shoot from the Hip
Why are we inclined to lift our phones above our foreheads to take the photos? While it's always entertaining to watch people take photos like that (because their mouths generally do some pretty hilarious contortions), the photos that get more ooh's and ahhh's are the ones taken from hip (or at least belly button) level - straight across from your subject, be it Grandma or Tom Hanksgiving (my family loves naming our turkeys). Try it right now. Take your phone out and switch over to camera mode. Take a picture of something in front of you from the level of your head. Now lower your camera about a foot, point your camera to the same thing, and see what your picture looks like from that level. BONUS TIP: To get a great food picture, actually rest your phone on the table and take the picture. You'll get a perspective shot with the table in the foreground leading the eye to the mouth-watering centerpiece.