Christmas morning.
Everyone is looking top notch, straight out of bed, right?
Well, not so much, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth remembering!
I typically spend my morning behind the camera watching my two kids open their presents through the viewfinder while missing out on the memories because I’m so busy trying to preserve them. I’m not even in the pictures so no one knows I’m there, but my poor husband is front and center for the whole event.
Last year, when going through my camera settings, I decided to explore the ‘interval timer’ further. The heavens opened and I realized I didn’t need to take pictures during the upcoming Christmas morning, the camera could do the work for me with just a bit of guidance. So I set my camera up in the corner (on a coffee table with books piled underneath my 24-70mm lens to keep it propped up where I needed it) and I set the interval timer to take an image once every 30 seconds. These images are by no means perfect. They are noisy, the light gets harsh in the middle and there is a golden yellow lamp glow. You know what they are, though? Real life. Our morning.
Related: 8 Easy Christmas Tradition Crafts to Add to Your Holidays
Seriously. Do this. This year! It’s for your kids. It’s their memories and THEY deserve to have YOU in their memories.
What you need:
- Camera with an interval timer.
- A room with light (I’m not even saying decent light, this is your Christmas morning, not a photo-shoot! Memories are memories whether you get perfect light or not!).
- Presents.
- Tree.
- Coffee Table and some random stuff to jam under your lens to keep it upright and in place OR if you want to be fancy, a tripod.
- Some sweet pajamas, coffee, and maybe a hair tie…
Directions:
- Set your f/stop to be a bit more shallow then you typically shoot (I used f/2.8 for these shots, but I was shooting at 24mm from decently far away. This year I plan to use f/4.0 or f/5.6).
- Focus on someone in front of the tree/where the presents will be and then switch your camera into manual focus so that focus stays put. I actually set the focus the night before and used my husband to stand in front of the tree.
- Set your camera to take one image every 30 seconds for about an hour and a half. It did not take us that long to open presents but I wanted the time to be a bit longer because I could always stop the camera but didn’t want to restart the timer.
- Have the camera begin taking pictures right before the kids enter and finish it after the kids have made their messes and left.
- Position your fine self in a spot where you look half way decent (practice this beforehand – please don’t make your family wait long – you are beautiful, even before your teeth have been brushed!).
- Enjoy your Christmas morning and don’t touch the camera!
No interval timer? Set up the camera like I mentioned in steps 1 and 2 and buy a cheap remote. Every 30 seconds or so, snap a shot.
Related: How to Take the Perfect Holiday Card Family Portrait
Your pictures should show an awesome stop motion display of your Christmas morning with you included… scissor finding, kid helping, and happy smiles included. Practice doing this beforehand. Practice one more time. And maybe once more. Then, let go of perfection. You bought your camera to get memories, now go get them!
Read part 2 of how to photograph your Christmas morning here.
Too bad Canon cameras don’t have the interval feature 🙁
My husband is getting me this remote thing that plugs in and does the interval shooting (and some other stuff I think). He’s my “technical support” lol
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER%C2%AE-Shutter-Release-RS-60E3-Replacement/dp/B003QA0MWW/ref=pd_cp_p_1
This is great! Do you know if they have one for a Mark II? Thanks!
this is fantastic Melissa! I would love to do this too.
Lisa, read her note under #6. 😉 Thanks so much for the great idea, Melissa!
Katie, oh and ha! How did I miss that. I have a remote! Yay!
Soooo great! I love this! Than you for the inspiration!
Love this! Don’t have the interval timer, but I do have a wide angle lens and a trusty remote. Gonna plop my camera down at least for awhile and try this!
What is fstop??? I wish I could figure out how to do the interval timing. I really want to do this!
Judy, the fstop is your aperature setting. It determines how much light to let in. The smaller the number, the larger the aperature – more light in, but shallower depth of field (less of the photo is tack sharp), the higher the number, the smaller the aperature – less light but more of the photo is tack sharp. With a smaller aperature, however, your shutter speed will be slower, somfor indoors you’d want to use a bit lower setting.
The interval timing on my camera is with the self-timer setting. I hope that helps you some.
What a great idea, Melissa! Thanks for sharing your steps. 🙂
For Canon users, the Satechi remote (on amazon) is a great option for interval shooting. 34.99-59.99 depending on whether you want wireless remote. I find myself using it all the time, definitely worth the money!
Thank you!!! What a great idea! I can’t wait to break out the old manual and see if my camera will do this!
What a fabulous idea, Melissa. I love this so much. Thank you for sharing. <3
I had no clue that my camera even had that capability!! Thank you so so much for this adorable tutorial!!
What did you use to take the stills and make it into a movie? BTW – great idea!
I used Windows Movie Maker 🙂
This is so brilliant – I love love love the finished product! Can’t wait to try it 🙂
My Canon doesn’t have what I would call an interval timer, but it does have a continuous self timer that I can set as high as 10 seconds. We will have more pictures, per minute, but I’m totally going to give it a try!
Awesome idea, Melissa! <3
I remember watching this a year or more ago, and I did this last year on Christmas day- it was so awesome!! Loved that I didn’t have to be behind the camera the whole time & feel like I missed the “magical moments” of Christmas because I was peering through a viewfinder half the time (although I did run over to it once or twice when I really wanted to capture something specific). So thank you! Thank you for sharing. It really did have a big impact on my Christmas, and I’ll be doing that from now on.
how very inspirational! I might try this! THank you!
Fabulous! Thanks for sharing the idea!
I had no idea some cameras even had an interval timer! LOVE these tips & totally going to try it this year!
Melissa, fabulous! Awesome!
This is a great idea, Melissa! I loved your video! <3
Awesome idea, Melissa!
I can say without a doubt, I will be doing this Christmas morning. This genius, Melissa! Thank you so much!! <3
Oh my goodness Melissa I LOVE this so much!! I’m doing it this year!! Thank you for the great tips!
If feel SO inspired!! I definitely will give it a try!! Thank you Melissa!! <3
I am SO doing this, Melissa. Thanks for the awesome advice!!
This is FANTASTIC! Thank you so much for sharing, Melissa! I can’t wait to make this a tradition in our family 🙂
LOVE this idea Melissa! 🙂 Excited to try- thanks for sharing. 🙂
A great idea Melissa! Thank you for sharing, Merry Christmas.
I’m doing this. I’m so ready to be in our Christmas pictures and the girl is only 3. I think my husband will appreciate not being stuck in front of the camera all the time, too.
Can’t wait! Going to practice today!
Enjoy your Christmas morning, Yazmin! Let that camera do the work :hp
Fantastic idea! I have used interval timer before on my Nikon, but never thought about using it for this, brilliant!
FYI, if you like using your cell phone for pictures, the Camera Awesome app has an interval timer too.
Thanks for the Camera Awesome tip!!!
I love everything about this, but especially that they are Steeler fans! : )
Go Steelers!!!! 🙂
Loving the Steelers gear! This is a genius idea. I have to read my manual to see how to do the interval timer on my Nikon. I’m pretty sure I can, I’m just still a novice with my DSLR. Thank you for the tips!
I have a Nikon! I’m not sure if all of the models have it, but definitely check it out! Go Steelers!!! 🙂
Love this idea!!! I ordered a remote for my camera after reading this article, and it arrived today. Looking forward to some Christmas photos with me in them.
Good luck Miriam! Can’t wait to see <3
How do you convert the pictures to video?
I added all of the pictures to “Windows Movie Maker” and then added the music… and saved. I believe there’s an option on a Mac too, but I’m not a big help with that 😛
What a wonderful idea!
Hi Melissa!
Thanks for this…I will definitely try…maybe not of christmas this year but for diwali(our Indian festival of lights) next year.
have a great christmas and new year!
This is a simple question but if I put the f/stop to 5.6 then what should I set the shutter at so that my 1 and 3 year old are not blurry?
This is great!! I am so doing this this year!!!!! Can’t wait! Now I better go get us some cute Xmas pj’s, haha!!
Giving this a try Melissa! I too have hid behind the camera trying to get the perfect shot and miss everything. Unfortunately my hair isn’t long enough for a hair tie so I think I’ll dig up a hat to hide the bed head 😉
That was the cutest video montage ever! Thank you for this. Crossing my fingers my camera has an interval timer now!
By the way, I love your tree sitting in a tub!
This is a FANTASTIC Idea! Love it. Thank you
Great idea! I set the laptop up and recorded a ustream. Totally doing this next year
This is awesome. I never get to be in the pictures, especially for Christmas. I tried this out this morning, just need to touch up the images in Lightroom and export them. I will try the Windows movie maker, I think I should have that. Thanks for the great tip. It was great being able to be in the pictures for a change!
Loved this, I knew immediately that this needed to be done this year! And, it worked! They aren’t perfect but I’m in them:)
Melissa,
I could hug you and kiss you! As I was reading your article I was nodding enthusiastically and saying “YES my kids deserve for me to be present and IN our photos!!!” And so I did this Christmas morning with my family and it was AMAZING! I mean, SO much fun AND I felt so free without the camera in my hands. I loved it so much, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this incredible gift! And the beginning of an awesome tradition.
Warmly,
Cari Ellen
This was such a great idea! It worked out perfectly for us and I made a great little video using the slideshow feature in Lightroom. The color, the focus, my tee shirt, not great, but all the photos together? So perfect!
I LOVE that song! I have searched Song Freedom high and low and I cannot find it!! Would you share the name please?!
Hey, Stephenie! The song is By My Side by Little & Ashley.
Thank you!!! Such a CUTE song! I was going crazy searching!!! 🙂
Melissa, I did this and I thank you. Not only am I in our first official Christmas as just the four of us (since all the other years we were with family and/or friends) but I live overseas, away from my loved ones, so this idea was phenomenal not only to be part of the images but to share too. What a fab, fab idea. It also made me think how to stop accepting that I’m the one forever taking the pics, I need to think creatively to include myself. THANK YOU!
Omw! Duh!! Thanks for this blog! Even if it was a year ago! 😉
This is so helpful! I was thinking of using the remote and had forgotten about the interval timer. Thanks especially for the reminder that sometimes it’s more important to capture the memories rather than perfection. And I love the idea of having a time lapse video afterwards!
Incase my camera doesnt have an interval timer, where would I buy a cheap remote? Also, how much are they roughly?
They range in price from probably about $25 on up 🙂
Love this post, Melissa! It was so helpful last year. Can’t wait to do it again!! ❤️
What a great idea! Going to try it this year….thanks SO much for sharing this Melissa! AND, Merry Christmas to you and yours!:)
I just thought of something… Im going to set up the camera on a tripod behind the tree. It seems most people sort of face that way rather than away. Plus in my livingroom that faces the door so you can see them come in.
Clever! Thanks for posting this!
This is great! I hope to be able to pull something like this off this year. Although I taught my daughter how to use my camera so I can just hand it off to her when I want to be in a few shots. 🙂
And I can’t help but notice the STEELERS attire. Are you from the Pittsburgh area? We live about an hour north of Pittsburgh and I grew up a STEELERS fan. 🙂
Yay for teaching your daughter how to work the camera! That’s quite helpful! We don’t live in Pittsburgh but my husband spent some of his childhood in Cranberry Township and it made an impression and we are now diehard Steelers fans! 🙂 Go Steelers!
Thanks for the idea! I did this today and it turned out great for just testing it out for the first time last night. I used my iPhone 7 plus and the app Lapse It. Thanks again for the inspiration! https://www.facebook.com/cindymroe/posts/10155776581641164