Family Photo Tips

A friend asked me to take her family photos at the beach. Ive been into photography for a while but haven't done a photo shoot I wanted to take some classes before doing something like that. I have four children so classes will have to wait! Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

The bright sand will trick your camera into thinking that the scene is too bright, so you should bracket, but plan to underexpose the shot by a 1/3 or 1/2 step. Also, to make sure that you don't get dark shadows on your children's faces, turn on your fill flash option. This won't overexpose the shot, but instead will add light to the shadows so you can see their faces and eyes, which can sometimes be very dark.

Of course a good way to manage heavy shadows is by going to the beach very early or very late in the day when the sun isn't very high in the sky. If you wait until about 1/2 hour before sunset, you can get some great light, and even have the setting sun in the background. Again, you should plan to use fill flash to make sure there aren't dark shadows. A note of caution on sunset shots--don't aim your digital camera right at the sun. It can burn your sensor and ruin your camera. Instead aim the camera just off the sun. It will still come out fine.

2009-04-26 09:33:58 by Elise Q

Learn how to arrange your subjects, what clothes to wear, and what not to do when you want to take unique family photos that you will want to ...

A family member just had a baby girl and they want some family photos taken. While I have already taken some of just the baby, I'm not familar with taking family portraits, especially not with a little newborn. I am very grateful for any tips or ideas. Thanks

patience is key.

and take advantage of the times where it may seem like absolute chaos, because sometimes you get the best pics from those moments.

and make sure you are in a place that is comfortable for the family...especially the mother and baby.

good luck.

2008-09-08 10:25:52 by creativeangel89

Price: $9.99

I'm about to do my first ever family photo shoot, and have some questions regarding shutter speed, Apperture etc.

The photos will be taken outside and I will be using a reflector for lighing, is this ok and how should I direct the light?

What should my apperture settings on the camera be?

Thanks!

Well Ross you could be heading for a fall, taking a commission without knowing exactly what your camera will give you is asking for disaster.

Working for money on a commission is no time to be experimenting all your experimenting should have been done ages ago by photographing friends under all conditions, in short you need experience before asking for money.

I will give you a few pointers;-

1) Use Ae (aperture priority) and adjust for the smallest aperture (highest f number) that gives you a usable shutter speed, say 1/125th of a second. If the light is low and you need to go slower than that use a tripod, in fact a good tripod and cable release is a good idea as it eliminates camera shake.

2) Use the reflector (handled by someone else who also need to know what their doing) to throw light in to the shadows cast by noses etc. and to put a catch light in the eyes. With group shots you'll probably need more than one.

3) Have ideas of the finished pictures in mind before you go, otherwise it's a dog chasing it's tail scenario.

4) Don't rely on auto focus always 'tweak' it for the eyes. Lots of things you can 'get away' with, slightly out of focus eyes isn't one of them as it can't effectively be cured in post production.

5) Shoot in Raw the any colour balance exposure issues can be corrected later.

6) Turn the histogram on the image view and do a few test shots, you want a histogram that's as close to the left as you can go without actually having any pixels touching the left hand side of the histogram.

7) Watch the background, keep it plain and simple and far enough away to be well out of focus. A pro would use a wide aperture lens for this, helps with the shutter speed as it will be faster, but makes focusing hyper critical. (see 4) above)

8) Its all so much easier in a studio with good flash equipment.

Good luck, and I hope it all goes well.
Chris

2009-05-29 05:32:58 by Ross A

Price: $9.99

it will be me (blond hair) my husband (brown hair) and 3 yr old daughter (blond hair). We wore olive green and navy last year and it did not turn out well..Any tips?

Ask the photographer what they recommend.

2008-04-18 00:59:00 by chas

So, this is my first 'legit' paying job as a photographer, and a family has asked me to do their family photos. Do any pros have any tips? A checklist? Certain poses? How much to charge? Most people in my area charge around 80$ for a half hour sitting, and a half hour at an outdoor location, so I should charge less, right? But how much less? How many pictures do I give them? Etc. I just want to be sure that I nail this on my first time.

find out if they expect a studio sitting or want location work. Then do your homework first and inspect the location site if that's what they want. Determine whether you will need to bring accessory lighting (i.e. strobes, umbrellas, bounce cards, etc.) and what time of day will be the best lighting. Will it be indoors, or outside? If it's indoors, you will get your best results if you have a large picture window as the light source, as long as you don't have direct sunlight coming through the window. As far as the number of prints go, I would show them several "proofs" which are sample images to choose from. Then, let them select the images they want, offer them prices on a variety of sizes and possibly some package deals to get them to purchase more images.

2008-09-11 16:04:22 by Amy