This year, you don’t have to worry about making your holiday photos stand out. Here are some great tips that are sure to improve your pictures!

Tip: Plan Ahead
The classic problem with holiday photos is that they have to be taken weeks in advance so you can send out cards and mailings beforehand. Some decorations like live trees aren't available, and you might not want to take the menorah or other holiday items out of storage so far in advance.

If you're like me, you're surprised by the sight of holiday decorations at the mall when most people are still wearing shorts and flip-flops. It seems too early to drag out once-a-year decorations just so you can take a holiday photo before the snow flies. But it's never too early to think about the perfect image to accompany the annual "year in review" letter that describes your nearly perfect family. The solution: Go generic. How is such a thing possible? Find an object that says "holiday."

For ideas, check out the Office Live Clip Art Web site. Do a search for "holidays" or "Christmas" and browse through the results. Find subjects that are festive and non-denominational: for example, an ornament, a sprig of holly, a poinsettia plant. Then try to duplicate the scene for the camera.

Tip: Less is More
f you are taking photos for a card or other holiday mailing, you might want to get personal. Often, you need to connect with diverse sets of people—business clients, neighbors, community members, and family.

Keep it simple. Save family photos for your family. For a non-family card or mailing, consider a straightforward, evocative image. For example, freshly fallen snow on ornate stone buildings and oak trees suggests the beauty of the season. If you don't have fresh snow on hand, gargoyles on buildings and other architectural ornaments are compelling, too.

Tip: Get Candid
There's nothing wrong with pictures that are posed, but create some variety by including candid shots at family gatherings. Get people in conversation or reacting to opening a gift. Keep your camera batteries charged up and your camera nearby so you can catch spontaneous moments.

Tip: Light the Way
In ideal situations, use available light to eliminate problems like flares and the dreaded "red eye." Also, don't take photos in front of windows or other back lights; the foreground will come out too dark unless you use fill flash. Light the scene from several different directions. Don't point bright lights right at people's eyes. Light the space around them and diffuse the light if possible.

Keep mirrors, glass, or other reflective surfaces that can cause distracting light flares away. And ask your subjects not to look directly at the camera to prevent red eye. There are also several helpful tips for lighting in numerous articles on the Windows Vista Web site. The Windows Vista: Pictures and video page contains plenty of tips on printing, editing, and organizing digital images.

Tip: Find a New Angle
This is something I learned from my days as a reporter: looking at rows of people staring at the camera and smiling at you head-on is a bit boring. If you do want to take a photo of your family, simply changing the angle and looking at a familiar scene from a new perspective can liven it up considerably. For example, get up on a ladder and look down; get down on the floor and look up.

Tip: Edit Your Images
Even the pros don't get it right the first time. Professional photographers know that the best way to get the perfect image is to take several hundred that are imperfect. Some of the best photos only emerge after careful editing.

Windows Photo Gallery, which comes with Windows Vista, is a convenient yet powerful tool for editing images.

Above: An unedited photo shows potential of turning something good into something great.

Above: The edited photo shows a clear focal point with less distractions, resulting in a stronger image.

Tip: Don’t Forget Presentation
Anyone who's ever wrapped (or unwrapped) a present knows how important presentation is. Once you have the perfect image captured and edited, you can turn it into a gift by printing it on a card yourself. You can do so by creating cards using a variety of Microsoft Office products.

With PowerPoint, you can assemble a multimedia greeting card, including festive images and sound clips of your family singing their favorite holiday songs.

Jump start the process by using one of the greeting card templates. Since one picture is worth a thousand words, consider weaving your holiday photos into a narrative, complete with music and your own commentary, using Photo Story 3 for Windows.

Tip: Share Your Holiday Moments
You've collected your best picks of cookie decorating, ice skating, carol singing, and present opening. Now what do you do with them all? You can upload your photos to a number of different sites, such as shutterfly.com, and share them with all of your friends and family. With sites like these, your viewers can even have the option of purchasing their favorite photos and have the prints delivered straight to their door, just in time for the holidays!

By Greg Holden
Reprinted with permission from the  Microsoft Small Business Center