Family gathered outsidewith grandfather holding cooked turkey with title: Capture Missing Family Photos at Thanksgiving for Your Family Cookbook

Capture Missing Family Photos at Thanksgiving for Your Family Cookbook

One of the fabulous benefits of Matilda’s Fantastic Cookbook Software is that you can add photos of your family members when making a family cookbook. With a little forethought, Thanksgiving can be the ideal time to capture those missing family photos!

Here are some useful tips for taking missing family photos for your family recipe book:

5 ideas for taking great family photos for your cookbook

Planning your shots

To take great shots for your family recipe book, think about who will be attending the Thanksgiving family gathering and what type of photo would be appropriate for their recipe or bio page.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to capture shots of family members in various poses.

Candid shots can give you priceless personality photos; posed group shots can be fun and add humor to your family cookbook.

Thanksgiving family group photo suggestions

  • All the family cooking together with pots and pans, spoons and aprons.
  • Youngest and oldest cooks grabbing for the turkey leg.
  • All the men with recipes in the family cookbook together with beverages in hand.
  • Small children gathered around the turkey (raw or roasted).
  • Pumpkin pie eaters holding whipped-cream laden spoons.
  • The classic “here’s the turkey” shot – always fun to have!

Simple backgrounds for family cookbook photos

Make sure the background for your family cookbook photo is neutral. This doesn’t mean it should be boring. Keep distraction to the minimum but use a location that is evocative of the place where you’re gathered.

For example:

  • the front porch steps would identify the location better than, say, the wood siding on the house.
  • casual group photo on a sofa would be more interesting than in the busy Thanksgiving kitchen with the refrigerator in the background.

Using flash in your group cookbook photos

Indoors, use your flash option to take the missing photos for your family cookbook. Stand about 12 feet away and make sure there are no mirrors, glossy walls or windows behind your subjects as these will reflect and put a glare in the photo that even Photoshop masters dislike fixing.

Outdoors, try to avoid direct sun (especially high noon), or poses under trees (the leaves will cause a mottled shade on everyone’s face). If the day is shady, it will be almost perfect lighting!

Herd the family pack!

If your family is anything like mine, good group photos for your family cookbook will not just happen.

You will have to herd family members together and bulldog them into posing according to your plan for your family cookbook.

Once they’re posed, take several photos of the group, including ones at different angles of the same pose, if the room size allows.

When you are ready to shoot, have a funny comment ready to get relaxed smiles from everyone.

I hope these ideas help you capture some great family photos for your cookbook! 

Happy cookbooking to all.

Erin

About Erin Miller

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