DIY Christmas Cookie Photo Shoot

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A few years and two kids ago I decided it would be fun to do a Christmas Cookie photo shoot of Emma and Levi baking cookies.

For some reason the kids were home from school that day so we ran to Hobby Lobby where I found the adorable baker hats for dirt cheap. It just so happens that I stopped at Hobby Lobby tonight and they have the same hats! They are $5.00 but all their Christmas stuff is 50% off right now. 🙂

We borrowed the cute kids aprons from my good friend, Cassie. Now, I have learned A LOT since this photo shoot and one day I will probably do another one because it was so fun. We did the photo shoot at night and the lighting was terrible. The house we were in at the time had the weirdest color of walls that looked really green in some lighting. The great news about technology and photo editing is that you can usually somewhat salvage bad pictures. I LOVE Adobe Lightroom and used it to edit these photos. At some point I would love to take a class to learn how I am supposed to use the program, but for now I am self taught. Here is a side by side comparison of before and after editing.

Adjusting the light and colors changed the feel so much. They are still not very clear pictures and would have been much better if the lighting was good when I took the pictures, but I am happy with the afters.

Watching the kids make these cookies was so fun! I’m wishing I would have saved the recipe. They were an Oreo peppermint chip pudding cookie and were so good.

Levi has the funniest personality. 4 years later and he still acts like this. Another thing I edited in these pictures was Levi’s apron. Like I said, we borrowed it from a friend and it said “Chef Pace” on the front in black letters. I just used the clone tool in Photoshop Elements to get rid of it. On a few of the pictures I edited the words out using Lightroom. Usually for the blog I will edit my photos in Lightroom first and then open them in Photoshop Elements to size them and add my watermark.

Speaking of personalities, this girl is still sweet as can be. She was always AMAZING with Levi and the two of them are still so close, but she has really impressed me with the way she takes care of her other two baby brothers, Lincoln and Luke. I don’t know what I would do without this sweet girl who is always willing and happy to help me out. Oh! They also have these cute spatulas at Hobby Lobby.

When we did this photo shoot I wanted the Christmas tree in the background so the kids were actually standing in the front room…I even moved the couch…and I was standing in the kitchen to take the pictures. I think it gave the pictures a more “Christmasey” feel to them.

They cracked me up as they tried to stir the cookies. It’s tough work!

Also, can we take a minute to appreciate Emma’ eyelashes!

They really had a blast!

Dumping in the peppermint chunks. YUM!

Time to scoop the cookies!

Ready to bake!

They were pretty proud of their cookies. (Overdid the exposure on this picture.)

After the cookies were done we switched gears and put Christmas jammies on to take some more pictures by the tree. We have a tradition of opening one Christmas gift on Christmas Eve that is always Christmas jammies. Do you have that tradition?

We tried to get some serious pictures…nailed it!

It was tricky to get good pictures in front of the tree with the lights. We need to practice this some more. Also, Levi would not stop blowing bubbles!

This one was my favorite. Man, they were cute!

I’m so glad we took the time this day to have some fun together and do this Christmas cookie photoshoot. We even used them for our Christmas card that year which also included a picture of Ivan and I that I’m sure should be in an awkward family photo book somewhere. 🙂

 

You might recognize Levi’s red jammies from his gnome costume. I love re-purposing things we already have.

We hope you enjoyed this post and these pictures because we sure enjoyed taking them and sharing them with you! Please share with us if you do your own Christmas Cookie Photoshoot.