FAMILY PORTRAITS
Use your time in isolation to capture stunning portraits of your family and pets at home
For creative people, being unable to leave the home and explore the outdoors can be either a blessing or be exceptionally difficult. While this unprecedented time gives us an unusual opportunity to concentrate on perfecting certain artistic skills, for photographers who usually love capturing landscapes or environmental portraits in exotic locations, it can be highly frustrating to be limited to the confines of a house and garden.
This is because many of us see little potential for awe-inspiring images in these settings, and they present challenges for balanced lighting and engaging backdrops, simply because they are so familiar to viewers – most kitchens and gardens look pretty similar. However, with a professional approach we can reveal surprising opportunities for beautiful family portraits.
The key here is to look at our own home as we would a location for a client photoshoot. Take a few moments to analyse the core challenges you might expect to find while shooting, the ideal spots for even lighting, and where to position your camera for optimal background contrast and interest. Next, select which gear will give you the best results, and finally decide how you will direct your subjects on the shoot.
The home location can be perfect for gorgeous, intimate portraits of your loved ones – the reason many photographers choose to shoot clients in a home location is to inject a sense of personal style and emotional relevance. Once you start to look at your home as an asset, you can begin to see how best to use it to capture cosy yet energetic portraits.
Here we’ll explore 30 of the most essential tips and techniques from some of the top pros working in the field of family portraiture. Use these to capture wonderful shots of your own family, and use this time to hone some new skills to apply to your portfolio going forward.
While individual portraits of your loved ones can make for beautiful photographic studies, group shots of your family all together are likely to be the ones that get framed and prominently displayed. It is for this reason that it pays to perfect your group portrait skills, as these images tend to sell well to clients and will appeal to your own family.
There are a specific set of challenges when shooting family groups, from impatient infants, and needing to capture each group member at their best, to technical aspects such as focusing, lighting, and colour balance.
The central concept is to master your communication skills, so that you can effectively instruct each member of your group, but also to adapt your camera work to account for multiple faces in your frame. When shooting groups, anything we can do to streamline the shooting process and ensure a high success rate per image will help to make the experience more enjoyable for all.
Here, Nina Mace outlines some main steps to capture better group shots.
“I carry three main Canon EF lenses: the 200mm f/2.8L and 135mm f/2L primes, and 70-200mm f/2.8L zoom – which I keep almost permanently on 200mm for lovely background separation for my subjects to stand out,” Nina says.
2 CONSIDER POSING AND EXPRESSIONS
According to Nina, “People often worry if their subjects aren’t looking directly towards them, but you can sometimes capture more evocative shots by doing the opposite. In the image on the left, you can see that you don’t always need people to be looking straight down your lens – it works well when they’re looking at each other, as if it’s a shared moment, caught on camera.”
3 RIDE THE SHUTTER
“When shooting, I tend to leave the aperture wide open at f/2.8 and ISO on 100 or 800, depending on light levels, then ride my shutter speed if the sun is dipping in and out,” Nina explains. “This can be up to four stops of
On an overcast, cloudy day, the sky works like a giant softbox, diffusing the light
difference, starting at 1/500sec and up to 1/4000sec. I constantly check images on the LCD, adjusting the shutter speed if I need to.”
4 CHOOSE WARMER COLOURS
“When it comes to taking portrait shots, photographers need to find a white balance to suit their image style. For me, I set my white balance on my Canon 5D Mark III to 6400 K – warmer skin tones are my preference, whether indoors or outdoors. This also means the white balance stays consistent, so images look good together for clients’ galleries. I sometimes even go up to 8000 K in the golden hour! However, 5500 K is much better for accurate colours that still have warmth, so see what works best.”
5 USE OVERCAST LIGHT
“On an overcast, cloudy day, the sky works
like a giant softbox, diffusing the light on your subjects,” Nina says. “You still need to avoid top light – when the sun is directly overhead, as it is during the day in summer – so consider heading under tree canopies for your shot. Always try and avoid direct sunlight, otherwise you’ll get harsh shadows and squinty faces on your subjects.”
6 REDUCE AF POINTS
Nina sets up her 5D Mark III so that only the cross-type AF points are active. This way she can access them quicker than using all 61 points. She also switches autofocus modes for rapid AF responses. “I prefer to use the AI-servo AF mode as my family subjects are always moving around, so I use this focus-tracking method for a better hit rate. I set back-button focus, then constantly hold down the (AF-on) button so my camera is continuously adjusting the focus for sharp shots.”
7 GO FOR PAPARAZZI MODE
For the shot mode, Nina says, “Most cameras have two burst modes – Continuous and Highspeed Continuous, the latter offering at least seven frames per second – ideal for family portraits. By firing off multiple shots, it gives you more chance for successful shots, and means that, even if somebody blinks or pulls a face, you’ll likely have a few winners.”
8 MAKE THE MOST OF GROUPS
“When photographing the family as a group, get them to squeeze tightly together for a better pose and shape that’s not so spread out. Get the family to mess about – the dad tickling the kids works well, rather than posed. When in a pile together, it’s a good opportunity to grab some close-up headshots of each subject, especially if the kids look more comfortable sat with the family. This way you can get better facial expressions. These can also look nice in black and white, as the faces stand out against everybody else’s clothes.”
9 BACK-BUTTON FOCUS
“I use the back-button focusing method. I find that it’s faster and more accurate, since I’m constantly refocusing as families move around and kids fidget. In the Custom Function menu of your camera, you set it up so that the AFon button is exclusively used to focus – you need to disengage focusing from half-pressing the shutter button, so that it’s only used for metering. Once you get used to back-button focusing, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll never go back.”
10 CONSIDER COLOUR WHEEL & CLOTHING CHOICES
“Analogous colour schemes use colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. They usually match well, are often found in nature, and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye. Ideally, I choose one colour to dominate, a second that supports, and a third colour that is then added
(along with black, white or grey) as an accent. The dominant colour is that of the backgrounds we intend to use outdoors, so at this time of year it’s green, which means that blues and yellows work especially well, alongside neutrals like greys and whites.”
11 FACING GARDEN CHALLENGES
“Sunlight reflecting off green grass can make people look like the Incredible Hulk!” Nina exclaims. “Move your subjects to a different spot of the garden so that you can ensure their skin tones don’t have a green cast.”
Nina Mace is a professional family portrait photographer based in Hemel Hempstead, UK. She won the 2014 Children, Family & Lifestyle Photographer of the Year award with the Guild of Professional Photographers, and runs masterclasses for the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP). She offers 1-2-1 mentoring and photography workshops.