{Photo Tip No. 1} Find the Right Light

All this week, photo guru Arden Prucha Jenkins will dish out tips on taking the perfect photo for this year’s holiday photo card. First of her tips? Finding the right lighting for your photo. Today, Arden, a professional portrait photographer, gives tips to help you capture a great family portrait, taken just like the pros.

If the only camera you have is a point-and-shoot, no worries! Her advice? Shoot where there is plenty of natural light. You can still take a professional-looking photo by using natural light, instead of your flash, which can create harshness and that oh-so-annoying red eye. Arden suggests setting your camera to a low ISO setting and staying out of that bright noon sun. All of these images below were taken with a point-and-shoot camera, with the flash turned off.

Also, there are great free photo editing websites out there to use. Arden suggests using Picasa or Picnik to help you touch-up your photo a bit, but she does advise that less is more. Don’t go for oversaturated, odd color washes or overly contrasted photos. For the holiday season, Arden says stick with classic. Instead, use natural-colored photos, or black and white for a timeless look, like these photos below.

Stop back by Tuesday when Arden will discuss location, location, location…She will give us fabulous out-of-the-box ideas for where to set up your photo shoot.

Join Friday’s Q & A session with Arden, too! Comment here with any of your photo-related questions or tweet us, and Arden will respond in Friday’s blog post.