Create Seasonal Holiday Card Imagery Without Taking New Photos
A professional family photoshoot can give you beautiful photos to treasure – but there’s no reason those photos can’t be repurposed for your holiday greeting cards. Instead of booking a professional session every time Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, or another special occasion comes around, make the photos you already have work harder!
With Smart Edit in BeFunky’s Photo Editor, a single family portrait can become the starting point for an entire collection of seasonal images. Change the setting, add specific holiday decorations, update clothing, or completely shift the atmosphere with a simple text prompt. What started as a summer family portrait can become a cozy Christmas scene, an autumnal Thanksgiving photo, a bright springtime Easter image, or a haunting Halloween shot – all without the time, expense, and planning that comes with another professional photoshoot.
Once you’ve created the perfect seasonal image, bring it into one of our Holiday Card Templates to design a personalized greeting card in minutes. There’s never been a simpler way to turn one family snap into holiday cards for the entire year!
How to Create Seasonal Family Photos With Smart Edit
To get started, open the family photo you want to repurpose in the Photo Editor. Then, navigate to Smart Edit within the Edit tab to begin editing.
Step 1: Describe the Changes You Want to Make
Inside Smart Edit, you'll find a box where you can type exactly how you'd like your image to change.
When writing your prompt, try to address the following:
- what should change
- what it should become
- what should remain the same
- any other important visual details
For example:
“Give this family photo a Christmas look and feel. Add festive sweaters to each subject.”
Step 2: Generate Your New Holiday Family Portrait
Click Generate to preview your updated image.
If you'd like to explore different creative directions, simply adjust your prompt or experiment with the Variation and Fidelity settings. Variation allows you to generate multiple interpretations of the same idea, while Fidelity controls how closely the result matches your original image.
Once you're happy with the results, click Apply to keep your changes.
Step 3: Save Your Final Image
Finished editing your family photo? Click Save at the top of the screen, then choose your desired save location and format.
Below, you can see the incredible transformation this photo has undergone, all thanks to a fast and simple prompt within our Smart Edit tool.
Step 4: Upload Your Family Photo to a Greeting Card Template
Next, navigate to the Graphic Designer. Within the Templates library, select a holiday card design that takes your fancy.
Click on the existing photo in your card template and click Replace from the Image Properties panel. This will allow you to choose your newly edited family photo from your files, before swapping it into your card design.
Continue to make any additional changes to your greeting card template as you see fit (such as editing the text or color scheme), before saving your design to share with family and friends.
Seasonal Family Photo Inspiration
Above, we’ve shown you how you can easily turn an everyday family portrait into a cozy Christmas themed image that’s perfect for your annual holiday card.
Here are some other major holidays you might consider for your next project!
Give Your Family Photos a Halloween Makeover
Why not use Smart Edit to add pumpkins, autumn foliage, jack-o'-lanterns, cobwebs, or a misty setting to give your photo a frightful twist? You can even experiment with costumes or Halloween-inspired outfits to make the transformation more playful. Whether you want a charming pumpkin patch or a spookier haunted-house atmosphere, try different prompts to find a look that fits your family. The finished image can then be used for a Halloween greeting card, or even a seasonal social media post.
Love your Smart Edit results but want to spookify them even further? Our Fantasy Portrait Artsy category is filled with Halloween inspired effects that can take your greeting card to even scarier heights. Think ghouls, vampires, werewolves, and so much more!
Give Your Thanksgiving Photos a Fall Makeover
Thanksgiving cards shouldn’t just look like Christmas cards with the decorations swapped out. Instead, use Smart Edit to create a distinctly autumnal setting by adding warm-toned foliage, pumpkins, seasonal flowers, or a woodland backdrop.
For a subtle seasonal update, focus on atmosphere rather than adding lots of holiday props. Shades of red, orange, and yellow, as well as soft lighting and natural fall scenery can be enough to make a much-loved family photo feel completely different.
Create a Spring-Inspired Easter Portrait
When spring arrives, give that same family portrait a lighter and brighter makeover! Use Smart Edit to surround your family with blooming flowers, lush greenery, or a sunny garden setting. Pastel decorations and clothing, as well as other subtle Easter details can add a festive touch without overwhelming the photo.
You can also ask Smart Edit to update clothing colors to soft spring shades or patterns, helping your family look naturally coordinated with the design of your Easter greeting card.
Make a Festive New Year's Photo
For a New Year's card, you can utilize Smart Edit to transform a casual family portrait into a sparkly party scene. Add glittering lights, balloons, confetti, or an elegant evening backdrop. You can even experiment with more formal clothing to give the family a glitzy, celebratory look.
This is a great opportunity to take an everyday family portrait in a completely different direction. A photo that originally felt relaxed and casual can suddenly look like it was taken at a special New Year's celebration.
If you want to make your NYE greeting card truly unforgettable, consider applying an Artsy effect to your family photo. With effect categories like Watercolor, Cartoon, Oil Painting, Sketch, and more, there’s no limit to the artistic look you can create.
In this example below, we’ve applied the Watercolor Faded GFX+ effect to give our New Year’s holiday card a more whimsical look.
Turn One Family Portrait Into a Year of Memories
Professional family photography is a great way to capture everyone together, but there's no reason those photos need to be used for only one occasion.
When choosing photos from a family photoshoot, look for a few versatile portraits that could work with different settings and styles. These can become the foundation for seasonal images throughout the year.
This can be especially useful when creating your own holiday cards to send to loved ones throughout the year. Rather than trying to schedule a new photoshoot whenever another holiday approaches, you can revisit photos from a previous session and create something that feels new.
Ready to try it for yourself? Check out Smart Edit in the Photo Editor today!
