How to take your own holiday family photo with a phone and a tripod

Photographers book up fast in November, and most families end up with a holiday card photo taken by whoever was holding the phone, which means that person isn’t in it. The phones most people carry can take a photo good enough for a card. What they need is a steady place to stand, decent light and a way to press the shutter from inside the picture.

Find the light first

Light decides more about the photo than the phone does.

Indoors, use a big window. Face the family toward the window, with the camera between them and the glass, so the light falls on their faces. Turn off overhead lights, which add a yellow cast and harsh shadows.
Outdoors, use open shade or the hour before sunset. Shade from a building or a tree gives soft, even light. Midday sun overhead makes everyone squint and puts dark shadows under the eyes.
Keep the light in front of people, not behind them. A bright window or sky behind the family turns them into silhouettes.

Set the tripod at chest height

Put the phone on a tripod a few steps away, at about chest height on the adults, angled very slightly down. A camera much lower than that looks up noses. Much higher, and everyone looks small. Use the main camera on the back of the phone, which is usually sharper than the front one, and frame with room around the group, so the photo can be cropped to a card later.

Check whether your card template is horizontal or vertical before you start, and turn the phone to match.

Use a remote and burst mode

A small Bluetooth remote, which many phone tripods come with, lets you take the picture from inside the group. If there’s no remote, use the phone’s self-timer, set to ten seconds, and walk into place.

Take a lot of frames. Burst mode, or on some phones holding the remote button, captures several shots per second, which is how you get one where everyone’s eyes are open at the same moment. Plan on taking a hundred photos to get three good ones.

Arrange the group close

Families in photos almost always stand too far apart. Get closer than feels natural.

Stagger the heads so they aren’t in a straight line: someone standing, someone sitting, a child on a lap.
Have everyone touch, with an arm around a shoulder or a hand on a knee. It reads as warm, not stiff.
Put the youngest child in the middle or on a parent’s lap, where they’re contained.
Leave space on the sides for cropping.

Keep it to ten minutes

Small children last about as long as a song, and adults start to look tired soon after. Have everything ready before anyone is called in: tripod set, light checked, remote paired. Take a few posed frames, then a few where everyone looks at each other, then one silly round. The silly round often produces the photo on the card.

Bribery is allowed. The promise of a small treat after the last shot keeps the mood up for one more round.

Do a test run the day before

Ten minutes the day before saves the real session. Set up the tripod in the spot you chose, at the same time of day, and take a few test shots of one person sitting where the group will be. Check the light on their face, the background and the framing.

While you’re there, charge the phone and any LED light, check the remote’s battery, clear space on the phone for a few hundred photos and pair the remote. Mark where the tripod legs stood with a bit of painter’s tape, so setting up again takes one minute.

Pick fast and order early

Choose the best photo the same day, while everyone remembers which ones they liked. Do light edits only: crop, straighten and brighten slightly. Card printers set holiday deadlines, so order soon after.

What to actually buy

The tripod. A UBeesize 72-inch phone tripod and selfie stick with a wireless remote, made of aluminum alloy, with a phone clamp that turns for horizontal or vertical shots and a mount on top for a small light.

The light. An Ulanzi VL49 pocket-sized LED light, rechargeable, with a daylight-balanced 5500K output, that fits on the tripod’s mount to brighten faces when the window light runs short.

Who this is not for

If you want photos to frame for the next decade, a professional session is worth booking early.
If your family photos happen on Christmas morning in pajamas, prop the phone on a bookshelf and use the timer.
If your group is larger than eight people, borrow a second pair of hands to press the button and wrangle the kids.

Start on any Monday

This week, pick the spot and check its light at the time of day you’d take the photo.

Order the tripod and remote, choose the outfits, and set a date on a weekend afternoon. On the day, set up first, call everyone in last and keep it to ten minutes.