Five Tips For Awesome Family Portraits

Imagine this scenario:  You're at the park.  It's a beautiful day, and your family is all dressed up.  Your photographer is there with you, ready to hit the shutter at any moment to take your perfect family portrait-- or they would be; if your kids were at all interested in having their portrait taken.  Instead, your children are squirming, one is crying, and you are trying desperately to get everyone to all look at the camera -- and hopefully you'll all look good while doing it.

Family portraits can be a daunting task.  You hire a photographer, pick your date, your location, and just hope that everything will work out.  You spent a lot of time getting ready and dreaming of these photographs, make sure it is fun for the whole family (and get awesome photos) with these tips and tricks that you and your photographer should know.

#1 Happy kids make happy portraits

If the kids are happy, everyone will be happy.  It is of the utmost importance to make sure your session is fun for the kids.  Ask your photographer if they have games planned to keep your session fun and interesting.  One of my favorite games to play with my clients is a game between musical chairs and duck duck goose, it goes like this:  First, I ask the parents to sit (posed and ready!).  Second, the children are directed to circle around their parents, waiting for their quo to pounce into a big hug with lots of laughter and fun.  This game is great because it keeps kids active, and it captures natural and fun portraits of you and your children.

#2 "Can you see my eye?"

We all know that capturing your children looking at the camera can make or break their portrait, but how do you convince children of this fact?  Again, you make it fun!  There are several tricks to getting children to look at the camera, and your photographer should have a few up their sleeve!  My favorite is to tell kids that if they look really really close, they can see my eye through the lens.  When you ask them if they can, don't be surprised when they say "Yes!"

#3 Real emotions really work

Real smiles, real laughter, and real happiness.  How do you capture real emotions?  Next to eye contact, real emotion is one of the most important factors of portraiture. Capturing real emotions isn't only difficult in children, but can be difficult in adults as well.  The key often lies in those in and out of the frame.  You know your family best, what can you do help pull out that real smile?  Whether you're tickling your kids or telling silly stories to your husband off camera, you know what will work get those real emotions.  Have a few ideas on hand to help your session go smoothly, and when all else fails, I suggest a huge hug!

#4 Short and simple wins the race

You know your children, and you know how much they can handle.  It may be tempting to book the hour-long session (imagine the outfit changes!  The poses!), but if your three year old won't be able to stay focused, it may be best to skip it.  Instead of a single one-hour session, ask your photographer about doing two 30 minute sessions instead.  This will keep it fun and exciting for your children and will get you the outfits, poses, and the overall variety you want.

#5 There may be no perfect 

Though we can try as hard as we want -- every trick in the book -- family portraits can still be difficult.  When this happens, it is sometimes best to just accept what you can get.  Maybe you wanted classically posed photos, but your child will only be photographed with his stuffed bear.  Or maybe you wanted photos of your twins together, but they refuse to sit within arms reach of each other.  Things happen.  Unless your child has a complete meltdown, your photographer should be able to make it work.


I hope that these five tips will help you feel confident and excited for your next family portrait session.  Remember that your photographer is there to help you, so feel free to talk to them.  If you want to bring your kids favorite book, need to set aside time in the middle of your session for your kids to have a play break or anything else that will help your family portrait go smoothly, let them know.  We photographers can't wait to photograph happy families, so help us out by preparing us for success.  This is your session, and we want to photograph you being you!