Getting your own Christmas cards printed is a great way to add a personal touch. These days you can upload your photography to various printing companies online and get a pack in quantities of 10 up to 100s. Not only is it a nice treat for your friends and family, you can also make Christmas cards to use in a business context.
When you decide to take photographs for greetings cards, first decide what kind of style you want.
Will it be a plain card with just a photo and some simple text or will you add fancy borders and designs to it? Will it be for friends or family or business colleagues? Will it be a friendly designs or something more formal?
Some ideas of what subject matter you can use in your Christmas photo cards include:
1. Your family – some people take formal pictures for cards of the entire family. These tend to be portraits with the key members of your family and are great for sharing with people who are close to you like relatives that live across the world. You an also take family photos but in more of a casual manner, for example, just focusing on the children. Think about how you can make it feel fun and Christmassy – for example putting a Christmas hat on the kids.
2. Your Pets – not surprisingly everyone loves to see cute animals at Christmas. Your family cat or dog, even small rodent can be the subject of your cards if you wish.
3. Props – if you want to print a more normal card to send to finds and perhaps people you work with, then you can style your own images. For example, some objects are perfect and connote Christmas right away – mince pies or Christmas cake – snow globes and reindeers. Take an interesting shot on a bright background using a macro lens for a greeting card look and feel.
Make sure you use brilliant lighting on your Christmas card images because you want them to look professional. Studio lights are ideal for lighting family portrait images (home lighting kits are perfect) although you can get studio-esque images using soft, natural light.
Remember to order the cards with enough time to receive and send them out to your friends and family because it gets busy around Christmas or use your images for the following year! Some of the companies that you can try for printing your cards include:
www.moo.com
www.greetingsbee.com
www.vistaprint.com
www.americangreetings.com
When you have uploaded your design it’s very important to check the layout and text is fine – you will see what is called a ‘proof’ copy. Check everything is within the borders and looks just how you want it to be printed as quite often, printing companies will not accept responsibility for mistakes if you didn’t check them beforehand.
Print what you need – prices are lower the more you print but there’s no point in having 100s of left over cards! Calculate how many you need for family, for friends and for clients. If you are printing cards to sell say at a Christmas market, then you need to make sure your designs work and are popular – show your friends and family your 10 favourite designs and ask for an honest opinion.
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