Before you take that Family Photo… (HOLIDAY CARD EDITION)

Shoot Both Ways.

You’re dressed for the occasion anyway. Just get a few more shots while you are out there!

It’s amazing how often the perfect photo isn’t the one you were expecting. Don’t be limited to the vision you have in your mind!

Choose Your Mood Before You Choose Your Outfits

If you want a moody holiday card, you shouldn’t dress in airy colors or vice versa.

No rule is unbreakable here, especially when you figure in lighting!

Scale Matters

A photo in with a family that is “far away” in a landscape might be perfect for your living room wall!  It’s probably not ideal for your holiday cards, because your faces will be so tiny that they are nearly impossible to print clearly.  Photos with less background and more “you” in them almost always print more sharply. 

(DISCLAIMER:  “Sharpness” is not always the goal. Some of our most beautiful prints are cards that lean into the zoomed out “big sky” feel.  These rules are meant to broken.)

Send the Biggest Version of Your Photos to Print

If your files have been texted/emailed to you from your friend who owns a decent camera (or photographer even) and you email them to your print company (Us hopefully:), they can become quite compressed.  If you are wanting to get your photos printed, send them full size.

Photo Quality Is EVERYTHING.

We see thousands of photos every year that are not quite “crisp”.  Often, these pictures look great on a phone or computer screen, but if you zoom in to 100%, there is definite blur in the photos.  This isn’t a huge deal, and almost nobody notices the blur, but printing tends to amplify imperfections like these.