5 Perfect Holiday Photography Props

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Capture the festive spirit of the holidays in your photos with five simple and evocative holiday props — that won’t break the bank.

With the holidays just around the corner, now is the time to start shooting those festive holiday photos. At Shutterstock, we’re always looking for images featuring holiday photo props that create the perfect holiday scene. Shoot photographs using the latest modern holiday photo props so that customers find your images first in the years to come.

Image by Daxiao Productions

Looking for holiday cheer? Check out this collection of holiday imagery.

With the holiday season being one of the busiest times of the year for photographers and videographers, now is the time to start gathering those seasonal props. To help you stay organized, we’ve outlined some great holiday prop suggestions for you to use when creating festive content.

Holiday Photography Props

Prop #1: Holiday Plants

Bring a bit of the outside inside with pine needles and mistletoe cues throughout your frame. Pine trees, poinsettia, pine cones, mistletoe, ivy, and holly are all fantastic plant options to include in your holiday prop kit. Bonus? They will make your shoot location smell heavenly.

Image by MinDof

Prop #2: Lights and Light Bulbs

Nothing says holiday like a bit of beautiful bokeh on Christmas tree photos! Twinkling lights in the background of your product photographs are a fantastic way to highlight your subject, and bring interest into the frame. Shoot these types of images at a low aperture to get that creamy bokeh technique. Check out this guide on aperture to figure out the camera settings you need to do this.

Images by Daxiao Productions

Prop #3: Ornaments

A small, beautiful ornament can add a lot of visual interest to your frame. Stick to classic and simple ornaments to add a bit of pop into your photo with these festive holiday photo props. If you are shooting stock photos for Shutterstock, make sure the ornament doesn’t contain any trademarked characters, phrases, or images. Click here to learn more about our trademark guidelines.

Prop #4: Snow

Nothing says holidays like snow, so if you are shooting holiday content outdoors try to incorporate snow or ice into your shoot. Don’t live anywhere where there is snow? Bring snow indoors! Check out this DIY for a way to create beautiful artificial snow for your imagery.

Image by HalfPoint

Prop #5: Fire and Wood

A perfect holiday night often involves a crackling fire, hot cocoa in hand. Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, using fire and wood as holiday photo props is another great way to bring the outside into your frame. The warm glow of the fire is a perfect backdrop for a holiday focused shoot, and creates the ultimate warm and fuzzy festive mood.

We hope these tips help spur some inspiration for your next holiday shoot. We can’t wait to see what you create next for Shutterstock. Not a contributor yet? Click here to sign up and get started.

This article was originally published on Shutterstock Custom. Featured image by Julia Pavaliak.

Need more festive inspiration? Check out these articles:

Holiday Gift Guides: Gifts to Give Using Your Photography 13 Tips for Photographing Family During the Holidays 15 Tips on Capturing Holiday Photos for Stock Professional Tips for Magical Winter Landscape Photographs 9 Photographers on Capturing Famous Winter Destinations

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