Taking a good family photo can be difficult, especially if you have young kids! So our photographers have put together some tips to help you make a great photo.
Welcome to Brading images. We are a Photography and Videography studio in Manchester, Salford, Irlam. We primarily do music videos and family photoshoots in the studio. We particularly enjoying doing: Newborn photoshoots, one year old photoshoots, toddler photoshoots, kids photoshoots, fairy photoshoots, mother daughter photoshoots, maternity photoshoots and siblings photoshoots, here, in manchester!
Outside the studio, we run a kids club called The Stage and Screen Academy, so we have lots of experience with kids!
Photoshoot order
The order you take the pictures in matters if you want things to run smoothly. Start with everyone in the shot. This is best because upon arrival, everyone is excited. After this prioritise the youngest kids, and do anything that includes them first. Young children will get fed up fast, so do their shots before they get fed up!
Family Outfits
For a family photo, outfits play a big role. Having coordinated colours always looks fantastic. Avoid colours that clash with each other! Take into account your background. If you’re having a black background for example, avoid wearing black or you’ll fade into the background. Pick something that will in fact stand out from the background!
A good example of an outfit that doesn’t fade into a black background is purple:
Check out some other outfit choices from the families below:
In this mother and daughter photoshoot, bright pink was their chosen colour. You don’t all have to dress from head to toe in that colour. As you can see, touches of colour work just as well, like a bow! This worked great as there’s a little bit of pink in the background, but it’s mainly white and yellow, so it ties everything together without being overwhelming.
In this next example, the background is quite colourful, so to stand out, from it, a plainer colour like grey works really well!
Where to stand for a family photo?
Well, if you have a large group an easy way to handle this, is having everyone at different heights. Have some people standing, some sitting on a stool in front and if needed, some sitting on the floor below. This will allow everyone to get nice and close, without hiding each other’s faces.
If, in smaller groups, family members have very different heights, it’s a good idea to get people to sit. A generally good plan is to have people’s face on more or less the same level. Sitting down, this is a lot easier. Check out how that worked out for this toddler and her big brother:
Natural family smiles
The best way to have lovely smiles is to try and capture natural ones. If the smiles are getting too rigid, the shoot should be more fun! Sometimes having one of the kids tell a funny story will make other family members naturally smile.
In the siblings photoshoot below, we had the kids play rock, paper scissors, do a don’t laugh first staring contest and piggy back rides! Although we did some more formal, posed shots, after getting all the natural, fun smiling ones, they were a lot more relaxed for the formal ones too!
Another idea to get them to relax is asking them questions, like: what’s the cheekiest thing you’ve ever done? Sometimes mum will chip in on this topic and hearing mum say something cheeky they’ve done, will naturally bring a smile to their face.
If you want a relaxed face, asking them to imagine and describe things for you is usually best, because they have to think about it! A good one for younger kids is: If you had your own fairy castle, what would it look like? What colour would it be? Would it have a name? Who would be allowed in? If they are nervous about the photoshoot itself, this helps them not think about the photoshoot directly.
