We reached out to our talented community over in our ‘Master Lighting + OCF‘ Facebook community to see what kind of creativity they are bringing to their holiday cards this year and had to share some of our favorites:
Elizabeth Fox – Website | Instagram
“This year my family and I actually got to attend a wedding together and since we were all dressed up and I liked this spot in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at, I said, “family, we are doing our card right now .” My husband gave me 10 mins to pull this off since the shuttle was on its way to get us. I love doing these shots for my wedding parties and I wanted one of my family. I always feel like it has a mob family vibe so we went with it. Plus, my kids killed it with their expressions.”
“This is a composite, I lit each of us and my husband lit me. The camera was on a timer on a drink tray stand I borrowed from the hotel restaurant. I only had enough time to get one shot of each of us and I am so glad I was able to pull it off. Sure in hindsight there are things I would tweak but all in all, I love our card. Also, note the hotel lobby was packed with people who clearly thought I was nuts. I used my favorite MagMod Sphere.”
Jeremy Ellsworth – Website | Instagram
“My family has an annual tradition of going to see The Polar Express during the holiday season. Last year I had the idea to create a version of the movie poster with my kids in it. However, I ran out of time to make it happen. So this year I made sure to give myself plenty of time and all the pieces came together in one day. All images were photographed using a Canon 6D and a 17-40 4.0 Canon Lens. Kids are lit with an Interfit S1 and a 42 Paul C. Buff Octabox.” See how Jeremy edited this composite photo of his two kids for his holiday card here.
Hiram Trillo – Website | Instagram
‘This all started because my wife loves sending out Christmas cards. I, on the other hand, do not like to be in front of the camera so we made a deal. We would shoot Christmas cards, but we could not take them seriously. So we started doing ugly sweaters before it was the cool thing to do. At the time we shot our first one, we were pregnant with our first. Little did we know that this would turn into a family tradition. Once we noticed that ugly sweaters were becoming a thing we decided to switch it up and have not looked back ever since. It is great to see my family grow over the years. We see our children change from year to year. And the best part is they are always excited to do these! Some of the things we have learned is that planning is key. For the last few years, we started planning for the following year as soon as we are done. Second, we get many of the props right after Halloween as many of these are on sale and deeply discounted. But most importantly, make sure you get a nice sturdy tripod and make sure the camera never moves.”
“All of these are composites so making sure the camera is still is essential. The camera I used was a Canon MKIV. I have been using a Geekoto CT32X-MKII tripod. My lighting has evolved over the years, but light control is key. I have been using Magmod modifiers for the last 5 years in different ways, but the MagBox was a game-changer. Last year for our Coco theme, I needed to really control the light spill as it had been the most complex until then. I used two MagBoxes on each side with Geekoto GT200s as main and hair lights and mini A1 from Godox for accent lighting.
This year was our 10 year anniversary of doing these Christmas cards and we knew we had to do something special. My wife is a huge fan of Norman Rockwell, so I decided to educate myself on his style and then added the theme. A Christmas Story has been my favorite Christmas movie since I was a kid and we knew it would be a perfect match since many of the scenes of the film were directly inspired by Rockwell. All in all, it has been an incredible journey and one tradition we want to hold on to as long as we can.”
Jesse La Plante – Website | Instagram
This year’s concept was all my wife Moira’s idea. We filled up red and green water balloons and used a sewing needle to pop them over our heads. Initially, we were just going to use one photo of each of us and composite them together, but I ended up liking the sequence better.
Front-lit with a MagBox, back-lit with a green and red gel accordingly to color the water splash.
Jason Vinson – Website | Instagram
We here at SLR Lounge wish all of you a very Happy Holiday season!
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