Advice on photographing family of 6

[TCUphoto]

Hey all,

I have experience in photographing adults. Recently donated an outdoor portrait session to my college's trivia night and my professor was the winning bidder. I will be photographing her family, which includes 4 kids under the age of 8, with the youngest child 1 year old. The oldest is a girl, the rest are boys. I'm actually kind of nervous about this because it's my professor and first time shooting families!

Please share any suggestions on photographing families, kids, poses, etc....

Thanks!

 

[Jace]

I am doing pretty much the same thing tomorrow! I need lots of practice in EVERYTHING and one thing I've never done is more than 2-3 people at a time, so I'm photographing a family of 7. Five kids, two adults, though the adults may not be involved with the session, dunno. Luckily mine is just straight out free, so nothing for me to worry about other than my pride.

What I am planning on doing is mainly focusing at a max of 3 kids at a time other than a few shots of them all together. Not sure how formal your people want it to be, but I think some candid type portraits of the kids separated will be nice, plus some 'posed' shots of the siblings.

Be sure to get in touch with them and warn them away from extremely patterned clothing, white/black.

Use a wide aperture! F8 and up I believe, so your DOF will be correct and you won't have blurry faces next to sharp ones.


One thing im not sure on though... if you have 6 people lined up/standing together for the portrait, how do you get them all lit with using reflectors/flash?

Oh, right, you may have a studio. I'm outdoors only. Maybe all of this was pointless!

 

[KmH]

Inside? Outside? Golden hours? Mid-day? Lighting tools available? Lenses available to use?

 

[tirediron]

Without meaning to appear obtuse, why is photographing children any different? If are sufficiently advanced to be able to 'donate' a portrait session, I should think that this would not present a significant challenge, however, as Keith points, without knowing at least something about the time, venue, and your equipment (esp. lighting gear) it's very difficult to give any sort of advice.

 

[willis_927]

Most of my shooting this Fall has been families so I will try and offer some advice.. But as Keith and Tiredon mentions its hard to help without knowing the situation.. If outdoors, I would suggest starting about 1.5 hours before sunset if you have the option. It can be VERY hard to get the attention of all the people for a group family shot, even more so when kids are involved. I would suggest getting some sort of noise maker to draw there attention to you right before, or during the shots. Have fun and let them play around... As far as poses, just google it... you will get tons of ideas from it. Maybe you will find a couple ideas from my facebook as well... Mark Willis Photography - Professional Services - Minnedosa, MB | Facebook

Good luck.

 

[SteffJay]

Sorry tirediron, photographing children is incredibly different, especially when shooting so many at once. I've been photographing children for about a year now, and it's a completely different experience.

Here's my advice, at least on an indoors, classic portrait situation. What I've done in that situation is start with a bench, or coffee table, or something of the like. Have mom sit on the bench, holding the smallest child (in your case, the one year old, which is perfect. Have the second youngest child sit next to mom and baby on the bench. Keep the one year old between mom and child 2. Have the oldest and the second oldest stand behind the bench, or kneel on the bench behind mom if its big enough. If they stand, you might need them on a box or something so they're not obscured. Finally, Dad stands behind them, nice and centered. It creates a nice, symmetrical effect, so it wont look like a blob of kids squirming all around.

That's the posing part. As far as the kids go, the kids older than four are way more likely to be good and want to take the picture. Don't count on it, of course, but that's what I've found based on my experience shooting children. Be sure to use a tripod, because you will need your whole body to keep the attention of the kids. Fake sneezing, stuffed animals, crazy noises. Those things work. Make sure the older kids and parents are CONSTANTLY focused on the camera, and not looking at the small kids as you try to make them laugh. This way, you can snap as you do the funny attention grabbing stuff, and get a ton of photos to later narrow it down from. You will get a lot of photos with kids looking up, mom looking at the baby, dad yelling at old kid, etc. If you make sure they're always looking at you, it's easier to just focus on the children and get a good photo.

I know that advice is all crazy specific, so this is more of a "what I would do" reply. I hope you can use any of it!

 

[tirediron]

Sorry tirediron, photographing children is incredibly different, especially when shooting so many at once. I've been photographing children for about a year now, and it's a completely different experience.

If you're photographing children on their own, maybe... (although I've not found it to be the case), but when photographing a family in a portrait situation, there shouldn't be any difference.

 

[philsphoto]

Make sure to use an aperture of f8 or greater for a greater DOF. Use that fill flash for your key lights. Try to tell all the adults and older kids to not worry about the younger ones. Tell them all to look at the camera and that YOU will get the attention of the younger ones. When you get that attention, then hopefully they will all be looking the same way.

Good luck and have fun. Get plenty of candid shots as well!

Phil
Phil's Photography Blog