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I need some pointers in
posing a family in the home. I have a sitting coming up
and I am not sure how to do this.
John
Dear John
When thinking of how you will pose a large family group,
don’t try to do the entire group at once. Break them
up and pose them as individuals. A good pose that works
for an individual portrait is still a good pose. Just
integrate it into the group. If there are separate
families within the main group, try to keep each family
together if possible. Try to build toward a pyramid
composition with the taller individuals being near the
middle of the group and those seated or kneeling on the
ends. You can also work toward creating an inverted check
mark which will produce a pleasing composition. It is
important to not place small children on the ends but
rather near the center perhaps close to a grandparent
where they appear more protected.
To optimize focusing as well as insure that each person
in the group appears normal in size, arrange the family
group so that all individuals are about the same distance
from the lens. If the group is quite wide, it will be
slightly curved toward the camera on each end so the
subject to lens distance is uniform.
Build groups around central figures such as mothers,
fathers and grandparents. Start with these central
figures and build onto each side.
Have individuals touching in some way such as a hand on
the back of the person they are near or maybe a hand on a
shoulder. This will create a warmer, more connected look
to the grouping. When doing this, avoid fingers and hands
growing out of unexpected places.
Parents holding infants should hold them on the side that
allows their face to be lit by your main light source. If
held on the other side their faces will be mostly in
shadow.
Avoid having multiple heads parallel to each other on the
same horizontal line. Also avoid having one head above
another on a vertical line. Try to have all heads at
different heights and on diagonals. A good rule of thumb
is to have the chin of one person at the same height as
the next persons forehead. Avoid greater differences for
adjacent individuals. This is accomplished by using
chairs or other furniture for individuals to sit on. For
example: While one person stands behind a chair slightly
to one side, another person sits in the chair and yet
another person sits on the arm of the chair producing a
pleasing difference in head height and also creating a
triangle or upside down check shape.
Except for the key central figure it is desirable to show
only one arm and one leg per person. This simplifies the
image allowing the viewer to see more faces and less
limbs. This is easily accomplished by positioning
individuals so that they are partially behind another
person.
If there are persons standing, avoid placing others such
as children extremely low to the floor. Instead, they
could sit in the lap of a person in a chair but to one
side avoiding vertically lined up heads.
Camera height is generally chest high for the individuals
who are standing. If you have a number of individuals at
different heights, you may wish to select a camera height
that is about in the middle or slightly above the middle
of the group. Being slightly high is preferable to being
slightly low.
When working with a group of people it is very helpful to
learn each persons first name. This creates a more
personal environment and makes it much easier to pick out
an individual that you need to communicate with.
If there is one person in the group you can pick on a bit
and have fun with it will take every ones mind off what
is going on and lighten things up and help in getting
better expressions. You turn this person into the family
comic. It works in nearly all situations. Find the person
that the others will enjoy teasing. Then you have shifted
every ones attention from having their portrait made to
having some fun with uncle Billy. Uncle Billy will enjoy
the attention in most cases.
When working with a large group, avoid having bystanders
behind the area of the camera. When there are people
moving around behind the camera (other than the
photographer), it is inevitable that one or more of the
group will be looking somewhere other than where the
photographer is directing when the portraits are made. It
is essential that everyone be reminded from time to time
to direct their attention toward the photographer or
wherever he or she requests.
If the family sitting is looked upon as simply several
small sittings that are being combined, it may not seem
near as difficult or as intimidating. Have fun with
family sittings. Most people would rather have fun than
act stuffy anyway. Let them see that you too are having
fun and you will probably have their trust and their
business for many years.
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