The holiday season is quickly approaching and that means it’s time to take some great family photographs! Whether you’re using your phone or a professional photographer, there are ways to make sure these pictures turn out great. This blog post will share five amazing tips for taking better family photos.
Tip # 1:
– Stand at least ten feet away from your family. When you put some distance between you and the subject and instead zoom in with your camera, you get an effect called compression. Generally speaking, compression gives a more pleasing look to the photograph.
Tip # 2:
– Be sure everyone is smiling and looking into the camera for a great photo! Believe it or not, adults are the worst culprits here. They get so worried about what the children are doing that they are constantly looking at their kids trying to make them smile whilst they just look frustrated and concerned. Tell everyone to just look at the camera and then it’s up to you to make funny faces or tell a funny joke to get everyone to smile. If you like you can make it a game where they are not allowed to look at each other.
Tip # 3:
– Don’t just take one photo. When you are photographing more than one person, there is more chance of getting someone blinking or someone looking away so always take more than one photo, this way, you will have a selection to choose from once you get home and review your images.
Tip # 4:
– Always place your subjects in shade. Ideally, you will have the sun behind your subjects lighting the back of their body and head whilst their fact is in shadow. This can take a little practice to get right but it will make all the difference in the world to the image. You will end up with a photo where there are no ugly shadows on their faces and they will have this beautiful glow around them from the sun.
Tip # 5:
– Zoom in. This is a big one. One of the biggest differences between a professional family photography and an amateur one is that a professional photographer will always zoom in so that it focuses on the family. You might be taking the photo in a beautiful scenic location but this is a family photo and not a landscape photo. The background should compliment the people in the photo and not the other way around so make sure that you fill up all the real estate with people and not the surroundings that can distract the viewer.
As you can see, there are many things that you need to consider when taking a family photo. It is not as simple as pointing and shooting or using automatic mode on your camera. You have to understand the basics of photography otherwise it will be difficult for you to take good photos. If this sounds challenging, don’t worry about it. Most smart phones are good enough to capture images that can be printed to a large size. Don’t get caught up on the technical side of things, just make sure you get great expressions and lots of smiles and you will get amazing photos.