Well as October comes to an end the dreaded holiday season starts. The amazing amounts of food, like grandma’s apple pie and getting together with family and friends. It’s a great time and you want to capture every minute of it. While Uncle Bob is showing off his fancy new Nikon Digital SLR you just have your Canon Powershot. But never fear great pictures of this holiday are actually in your hands.

Here are some tips to get some great pictures even with a simple camera.
Get into your subject.
Composition is the game here. But moving in to the subject you will add a sense of life to the picture and capture the moment so much better. You will help the viewer understand your photo and also reveal details that would have never been seen from a distance or overall shot. If you have a zoom, then zoom in, utilizing the optical zoom not the digital zoom however.

Also but getting into your subject you find the image more captivating than if you stood back to capture that moment.

Do not be afraid to change your point of view. You can get down closer to the ground, or move higher if possible. Try capturing a moment right over the person’s shoulder.

Anticipate the moment.
Most point-and-shoot digital have a slight delay between pressing the shutter button and when the camera takes the picture. Try to anticipate the action and literally be quick on your toes because those moments will just pass you by.

Take it higher.
Make sure you are using your camera’s maximum resolution. You won’t get a better picture but you’ll get a scalable one. So when everyone wants that family picture you took, you won’t have any problems turning it into a 8×10 and in some cases larger.

Use the light padawan.
Natural light is the way to go. But sometimes the room is a bit dark so how do you fix it. Well the built-in flash of course. But this is a big no-no and you should try to avoid the built-in flash as much as possible. Since the camera is set to adjust the shutter automatically utilize a study object to balance the camera (tripod, shelf, wall, table etc) and turn off the flash.

Since the flash will drown out your subject you get a flat and unflattering picture. However if the situation arises that you must use the flash here is a rough and tough technique that will help.

Ready?

A napkin.

That’s right by placing a napkin over the flash you create a simple light diffuser cutting out the usual harshness of the flash. Now you will have to do a couple of test shot to find out how much paper to use but you’ll find the shots a bit more pleasing to look at.

Change your ISO.
What the heck is a ISO? ISO Is the sensitivity of the uh film, kind of. It is very similar to the speed of the film. Since digital cameras don’t use film it gives you the equivalent.

Lower ISO >200 are generally used for brighter light situations (ie outdoors etc) These slower speeds are also great for portraits (given you have the right light).

Higher ISO <400 are used for lower lighting (indoors and night time). You should stick to this range for your holiday shooting. Take Note: Higher ISO’s will produce something called Noise in the picture. You will notice it as little color dots all over the darker regions in the photo. The higher the ISO the more noticeable it becomes. So be careful, I wouldn’t go higher than 400. Read your manual to learn how to change this.

Capture a moment, capture a memory.
Generally you are trying to capture the joy of the festivity but often there are times that are just great moments that will make a memory, that will make you laugh or cry sometime down the road. So take many pictures but keep an eye out for those little moments that don’t always stick out. (Such as Grams and little Bobby reading a book, or Dad and little sis having a dance).

Flip the camera, like pancakes.
But flipping your camera upright (portrait) you have instantly changed the look and feel of the subject. This is especially great if you have a tall subject. You don’t necessarily have to capture the entire subject but just enough to really give the impact (See first tip).

For a little extra something try tilting the camera just slightly at a 45-degree angle or so.

Rechargeable batteries, Deletion and Viewfinders oh my.
The LCD uses a lot of battery power and before you can say where’s the turkey your camera is dead. Preserve the battery by using the viewfinder.

Digital cameras consume batteries rather fast, so Invest in some rechargeable batteries. Also keep extra batteries on you or in your case. So if you initial set dies just recharge them and swap in the new set.

Delete unwanted or bad pictures. This will save you time down the road. No fun in missing out when the memory card says full at the opportune time that Uncle Bob has dropped his precious Digital SLR into the cake.

Also it would be good to invest in a larger memory card. More space = More pictures.

I hope these tips will help you this holiday season to get the most out of your point-and shoot camera.