LOS ANGELES — Sunday's annual outing with Mom happens to be the third-largest card sending occasion of the year, and one of the biggest days for the whole family to gather round and take pictures.

But how can you improve those shots to get professional looking snaps on your smartphone, the device that most folks will be using this weekend?

We're here to help.

1. Use window light when possible. It's soft and flattering.

Smartphone cameras are great in well-lighted situations — it's in dark rooms where they fall apart. So try to get your shoot together in the morning or afternoon.

One of the common mistakes made by smartphone photographers is shooting directly into the window, where the camera is thrown off and exposes incorrectly, putting your subject in silhouette.

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Instead, I recommend using the window light to your advantage. Turn your back to the window, and the subjects the other way. Use the window to illuminate. With window light, everyone's face is nice and flat, everyone looks beautiful and there are no harsh shadows in their eyes.

2. Location, location, location.

Most family shots are done wherever, with no thought about how distracting the background is. We want to see the faces not the junk in the background, items sticking out of people's heads.

So look for a spot with the least amount of clutter.

In the accompanying video, we started off taking pictures of our USATODAY office family, Barbara, Michelle and Shana, in the company kitchen, where they looked great. But I would have preferred not seeing the microwave, refrigerator and towels on display at the same time.

So we moved around the office until I could find a plain white wall, which is great because you can see everyone's faces without having to look at all the junk in the background.

Chances are, somewhere in the home, you've got a blank wall. Maybe your wall is filled with art or photos. So take a minute and them down — for the photo it's worth it.

3. Chairs are your best friend.

For family photos, it's hard to get a group of people together and look natural. They're usually standing, arms to their side, like they're in a police lineup.

So for the photo you see here, we put Barbara in a chair, and wrapped Shana and Michelle around her, for a much more natural, loving shot.

And what if you have lots of people in the family? Use lots of chairs.

Put your chair line-up in the middle and have the rest of the brood stand behind them. This will break up the line-up, and make it easier to see everyone's faces, as no one will be hiding in the back.

But what if you have even more folks for the photo? Have them kneel in front of the gang in the chairs.This way, you could easily do 15-20 family members, and get everyone in the shot.

And what if you don't have chairs?

Line everybody up, and you stand on a step-stool so you're looking down at them. That way, you can see over everyone's faces, and no one is hidden.

After you've got the shots, pretty them up with an app. This is one of the main benefits of shooting on a smartphone — you've got ready access to Photoshop-like materials, usually for free. I used the Camera Awesome app (free; Apple, Android) to boost colors, crop, and add borders.

Those are my tips — what are yours? Let's chat family photos on Twitter, where I'm @jeffersongraham.

Jefferson Graham is a USA TODAY tech columnist, the host of Talking Tech, and the author of nine books, including "Video Nation: A DIY Guide to Planning, Shooting and Sharing Great Video." He is also a Los Angeles based portrait photographer and jazz guitarist.

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