Make the family portrait fun again
With the digital age, and many individuals owning smart phones and digital cameras, we take pictures on almost anything that we see and experience. It is sometimes funny to know that there are times that even before eating you take a photo of the food that you are about to devour and have it posted in social media. We tend to keep most of these photos since they are all valuable to us. Family pictures are the ones we never learn to let go. We cherish every moment with our family. Even the simplest activity or event is precious to us. This we do because sooner or later, we might be leaving due to work, studies or even have our own family.
Before leaving our family, why not try to create an out-of-the-box ideas on how to create a fun and exciting family portrait that would be memorable to all the family members. After having the shots you like, you may also opt to display them in the form of photo wall, which is one of the innovative ways in displaying our family portraits.
Tips in creating fun family portraits
Here are some tips on how to have awesome family portraits that you will love:
1. When needed use a tripod – the use of tripod can have many advantages especially if you are new in photo shooting. There are times that when you shoot, you tend to focus on your handheld camera and may be inconvenient to you at some point. The tendency of which is the lack of interaction with the subject. Sometimes we need to interact with the subject to comfort them and simply just to have conversation with them while doing the shoot. You want the subjects to feel comfortable with what they are doing. You can also simultaneously do some adjustments in your camera when needed at a comfortable manner.
2. Use the manual exposure mode – you can use this setting if you are well acquainted with the environment. If you think that you are in control of all the elements in the surroundings that would affect the quality of the picture, then you can use this setting in your camera. A family portrait would be best if you have the right consistency.
3. Staggered subjects – the most common style in taking photos is when the subjects are in straight line, which can be considered boring. Try arranging your subjects in diagonal lines which may look more dynamic as compared with the former one. Position your subjects in a way such that their heads would not appear like they are directly on top of each other, or beside each other. Use stools to set some of them while the others are standing up. In this way, the height of the subjects are staggered.
4. Locking on the focus – this is when you are using the tripod and that assuming that the subjects will not be moving and you will be the only one who will be moving (to get closer or farther from the subjects), you need to use the focus lock function of the camera. In this way the focus will not change fro the different shots you will be taking for the family portrait.
5. Let them act natural – Kids are kids. They would always look like they are playing or even doing some mischief. Let your subjects pose naturally. If they want to bring props, let them do it. In those ways, the photos would look dynamic and not boring as with the traditional ones. Let them have fun and comfortable.
6. Bending the subjects – people tend to be stiff when their pictures are being taken, which makes them look like statues of heroes. We do not that to look in the family portraits. We like them to look natural as possible, so ask some of them to bend so that they would not look stiff or rigid.
7. Freedom of expression – as the photographer, you need to communicate with your subjects in order to have the right and natural expressions of their faces. So sometimes you need to be a comedienne or a clown to make them smile naturally.
8. Get some light in their eyes – make sure that you let light into your subjects’ eyes. This can be done on various ways like choosing the right time of the day and the use of reflector and camera flash.
9. Pose them – you may also want to fix the stance of your subjects to hide some details in their body. For instance, pose people who are horizontally challenged sideways so that they may be able to hide some of their belly fats. They may also be posed in prone position on the grass and kids piling on top of them with faces close to each other. This would hide tummies, double chins and at the same time kids are closer to each other.
10. Have fun! - traditional photos for a family portrait is that the subjects look serious. Trend nowadays is to have subjects in wacky shots. Ask them to do anything such as jumping, making funny faces...anything just to break the ice.
Some family portraits are fun when you use props that would add spice to the final photographs. Never be afraid in experimenting. You will learn through your own experience.
Having your family portrait in photo wall
One innovative ways yo display your family portrait is through photo wall. You can display your family portraits like a wall mural. In that way, displaying family portraits is not just for relinquishing memories but also for designing your interior.
All you need to do is select the photos you wanted to be included in the photo wall. Hire professionals to arrange the lay out up to the printing stage and installation stage, and lo and behold, yo now have an interior design and a family portrait gallery on your wall.