Family Portrait Photography: Excellent Family Photos outside the Studio
If you take the time to learn it well, family portrait photography can become a huge part of your photography business. To put it simply, as long as there are families, parents who lack the skills of the professional photographer, there will be a need for portrait services. The family portrait is most family’s main method of capturing moments in time as they grow together.
As a photographer gaining an understanding of family portrait photography, and what it takes to excel in this area, is an important step building your business.
What is Family Portrait Photography?
Before we even begin to discuss skills, let’s first consider what is a family portrait? In most people’s minds it is that studio photograph; the one taken with a professional backdrop and that expensive lighting. Of course that admonition is correct, but only partially. A family portrait is a photograph taken to draw attention to the faces of the family.
It doesn’t need to be taken in a studio, your subjects are not required to be formally lined up sitting or standing in a row, and you won’t always need a backdrop. In fact some of the best family portraits are those taken in different settings, and with completely different setups.
Understanding this is the first step in getting good in this area of photography. Studio photographs will likely be a portion of your business, but truly exceptional photos are rarely taken in a studio. To build a real name, get good at different settings. Outdoors, unique poses, and stylish photographs are likely to get you many referrals.
Getting the Skills that It Takes to Excel
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what it takes to get good at family portrait photography.
Know Your Equipment: The most important thing to understand, before you take any photos, is the equipment you use.An understanding of your camera, your lenses, exposure time, and aperture, are all important. Learning your equipment well, will help you to understand what it takes to capture a great photo in any conditions.
To further your understanding, try practicing with your wife or child. Take their photo indoors, outdoors, at different times of day, and with different settings on your camera. Understanding how setting (both of the camera and the picture) affects skin tones, contrasts, etc, is your first step.
Clothing: Help your subjects by discussing what they will wear to their photo session. Remember that the key to a good family portrait is with the focus on the subject’s faces. Light clothing against a dark background is a bad idea, and by the same notion so is dark clothing on a light background. Work with the family to plan where the photo will be taken, and what they should wear for the occasion.
Simple Ideas that Really Work: Now we really get to the fun part. You have your camera, you have a family that is dressed for the occasion, and you planned ahead of time where the photo would be taken. You’re almost ready!
All that’s left is to pose and capture that perfect portrait. To accomplish this try something different: that nose-to-nose photo of mother and child, the picture of baby sleeping on dad’s chest, or that special moment with the kiss on the cheek can all make excellent photos.
Stay open, and try new things, to really get outstanding family portraits that your clients will cherish for years to come!
