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Family Portrait

Create Dramatic Family Portrait Poses!

In order to direct family portrait poses successfully you need to put your self in the shoes of the family members. Find out some of the things they like doing together as a family and what they share in common. Try to capture the relationship these people have to on another.

You may want to group all of the grandchildren together rather than putting them with their respective parents.

When you are capturing families, especially large groups, color coordinated clothing can help to identify each family.

For longevity purposes, you may want to suggest to the family to try to stay away from trendy clothing and accessories that might out date the portrait quickly.

Try to set your photograph against a background which adds information about the people. Example, if they love the beach, this maybe a great place to take the photograph. If they like being in nature, go to an area where they may be surrounded by trees. If the location is a family room, sometimes a good place to start is in a corner of the room which will create a pleasing setting for the family to fill, or maybe they are musical an have a piano as a centerpiece of the room. This would be a good place to gather the family. Be creative.

Consider Lighting and Planes

When setting up your family portrait poses, establish one or several ‘planes’ to help make your lighting simpler as well as make it easier to include everyone within the camera’s range of focus. For example, a setting such as a gentle sloping hill or a staircase can provide a natural organization of planes.

If you can arrange them in rows, give them some focal point, perhaps center front. Depending on the size of the family you can have one row of people sitting, and another row standing.

Make sure the tallest is in back and that your camera is raised as high as possible so that everyone’s face is seen. You can elevate your self by standing on a hill, or a stair way. Take plenty of pictures because there is certain to be someone with their eyes closed or looking away.

Family portrait poses almost, always call for a full main light. Depending on the size of the family, you may need to add accent lights. These will help to add depth and perspective more easily.

If you are shooting indoors, try to use as much natural lighting as possible, by opening curtains and letting in more light where necessary. This help give the colors of the portrait a more natural look.

When shooting outdoors, diffused sunlight is great for providing overall illumination, and adding a portable flash can help with directional light as well as light into the eyes.

Avoiding Red Eye

One photography portrait light tip that is most overlooked is avoiding red eye. Red eye is caused by the flash being to close to the axis of the lens.

The ideal way to avoid red eye is to have the flash aimed upwards in the bounce mode or, if the ceiling is too high, off the camera, but connected to it by means of a short lead.

Most importantly, first get some images shot quickly, don’t forget to compliment the group on how well they are doing. This way you will get the cooperation of the group and they will happily allow you to fuss around with the family portrait poses and equipment in order to get the perfect shot.

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