Thrifty Thursday: DIY Family Portraits
Thursday July 2, 2009
Nothing is as dear to the hearts of parents and grandparents as family photos, but professional photographers can be pricey. For special occasions, it is pure folly in my book not to hire a professional. In between those special occasions, why not try your hand at creating your own family portraits? With a digital camera, you can take ten times the number of photos without paying more, and professional photographers who post their photos online have turned the Internet into one big photo tutorial. Here's how to get started:
- Unless you are planning to photograph only adults, you'll need to read these hints for photographing children.
- Browse some professional photography sites on the Internet, making notes of settings, poses and accessories that you like.
- Shoot some photos, but don't have your expectations too high. You'll have more misses than hits at this point.
- Learn to use a photo-editing program. There are a number of free photo editors. Pick out your best shots, and figure out how to make them better.
- Print your best efforts. You can either print them yourself, or send to a print service like Snapfish, Shutterfly or Kodak.
- Frame and enjoy!
See more Thrifty Thursday hints from Parenting and Family Guides:
Comments
This is a great idea! I can’t stand the terrible school portraits the kids bring home every year. And then on top of just being bad they are expensive! So this year I took my own portraits. I used an exposed brick wall that’s painted white as the backdrop. I printed them out in wallet size so they could exchange them with their friends when the rest got their school portraits.
But I’m not as quick as the school photographer, so they got bored with it quickly. I used a trip to the corner store as the carrot to get them to cooperate until I was satisfied.