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Family Portraits Don’t Have To Be Planned Or Posed

Family Portrait Posing

Family photos are a funny thing. Many families believe that they need to be posed to be good. To be enjoyed. When in reality, if the family acts the way they would on a typical family day then the photos would be so much better.

Family Portrait Posing

Here is an example. This family had a 2 year old and a few month old baby. The baby is extremely difficult to get to look at the camera. The 2 year old doesn’t want to stay still. So how would you force them both to pose? You can’t. It’s nearly impossible. (notice I said nearly)

So instead, why not have them enjoy the time and let the photographer capture quality candids. Posing individual pieces of the photograph rather than the entire thing.

So what I did was let the mother and daughter sit posed while the father and son had their fun on the slide.

In the end, this was the favorite from the session. It’s half posed, where posing was possible. Not only does it provide more of a fun feel, and a more natural feel, but it better displays the personalities of the family members.

So next time you think you want an entire family posed perfectly, think again.  Try posing parts and think outside the box for the rest.

Thanks for reading,

Scott

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Comments

3 responses to “Family Portraits Don’t Have To Be Planned Or Posed”

  1. Nice composition, I like the shape and color of the slide through the centre.
    I agree that if the family are having fun through the shoot then that’s likely to come across in the images, whether posed or candid. Some photographers are very specific in their directing too, which is sometimes necessary but can lead to less natural looking shots.

  2. I luckily stumbled upon your website after google searching “wordpress photography plugins” and up popped your page where you recommend specific plugins. Anyways, that lead me to here, and I really appreciate your work. Thanks

    1. Thanks Mike, much appreciated.

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