Six tips for taking great family photos

Holding onto family photos can be a precious keepsake of the time you’ve spent together. Here are six tips to making your next photo great!

1. Let everyone know ahead of time

This may seem like an obvious one, but often people will show up to a family reunion, birthday or BBQ without realizing they’re about to be ambushed for the yearly family picture.

It pays to prepare people ahead of time, so there’re no surprises – or complaints from the camera-shy members of the family. If everyone’s aware ahead of time, there can be no excuses about the wrong clothing choice, undone hair or no makeup.

In our family, designated photo day is always Christmas. This may or may not work for some families, but whichever day you choose, everyone will appreciate the advanced warning.

2. Lighting – a photographer’s best friend and worst nightmare

Lighting is one of the key elements that can really make or break the perfect family photograph. Too dark, and you can’t see everyone’s lovely features. But too light, and the end product will end up looking washed out. Achieving perfect lighting can be difficult, but I’d recommend either a large, well-lit room, or a sheltered spot outside in the middle of the day.

If heading outside it pays to check where the sun is – you don’t want the sun directly behind or in front of the camera. Behind the camera will result in a photo full of squinted faces, as your family struggles to look directly at your camera, but directly in front can wash everyone out.

Depending on your camera you may be able to play with the settings to achieve the perfect finish, so it pays to take a few test shots first to check out what the results will look like.

3. Get everyone in frame, and comfortable

Depending on your chosen location and the number of people, there are many ways to line everyone up for a pleasing final photo.

For larger groups, try and use a three-tiered approach, you need to ensure everyone fits within the camera’s fame, and we’ve found this most effective with large groups. Inside, this may mean a group standing behind the couch, some seated, and a few lying or sitting down in front. Outside, or without somewhere to sit, play with levels – have one row standing, one on their knees and one sitting.

For a smaller photo, a variation of this with only two tiers may suffice. Our family photos over the years in this blog will hopefully give you some ideas.

The most important thing is that everyone is comfortable! No one will sit still for long enough unless they feel relaxed.

4. Use self-timer to your advantage

Unless you’ve arranged a professional photographer (in which case, these tips are probably unnecessary) you’ll be wanting to make sure that you, or whoever is in charge of the camera, ends up in the final shot. Most modern cameras – whether that’s your phone, basic camera, or DSLR – now have a self-timer feature. This allows you to hit the capture button, and set a time (10-30 seconds) for you to move into the shot before the picture is taken. Have a designated space on the side of your group where you can pop into once you have hit the button.

If you’re unsure how to use the self-timer, refer to your device’s user guide, as instructions will vary from camera to camera.

To really make the most of this feature, you’ll need somewhere to rest your camera as you make your way into the picture. Personally, I use a tripod, however this isn’t completely necessary if you’re unlikely to use one frequently. Often a stool, or another flat surface can suffice; you may just have to adjust the height a bit until you get your shot perfectly lined up.

5. Encouraging the younger ones to look at the camera

If you have children in your family, you’ll be well aware of the struggle of getting them to sit still when you want them to. This can be particularly tricky when you’re trying to take that perfect family photo. Depending on your child’s age and what works for them, there are a variety of techniques you can try.

For slightly older children, it may be worth offering some sort of reward as encouragement – dessert, screen-time, or another favourite activity after they’ve sat nicely for the photo.

Younger children can be a bit trickier. Gentle encouragement may work, but isn’t always a given. Distracted eyes can sometimes be brought inline with the camera, by holding up a favourite toy until the last second before the camera flashes. At the end of the day, a smile is far more important than a perfect stare at the camera, so talk to them and play with them to encourage laughter during your photography session.

6. Take photo after photo after photo

Let’s face it, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get the perfect picture from just one take. Whether there’s five or twenty-five in your family, it can be really difficult to have all looking at the camera in unison, without blinking.

To get around this, make the most of the self-timer feature, and set it up so it takes multiple shots. Once again, this will differ from camera to camera, but often you can set this up to take multiple shots in five-second bursts. We like to take three shots at a time, instructing the family to use the first two for a ‘nice’ shot, and the last for a silly shot! Check out our pictures below to get a feel for how this can work.

Often we’ll repeat this two to three times, so when it comes to selecting the final picture we have a multitude to choose from.

Hopefully these tips and a generous dose of humour will help you for your next family photo. They’re a wonderful memento to look back on and see how everyone has changed over the years. For a more in depth heirloom, consider telling your Story of a Lifetime with Magnolia Productions. Tell the stories behind the pictures, and pass on memories that will last a lifetime.

Magnolia Productions works closely with families, providing the tools to create a relaxed recorded interview. It’s family interviewing family, in the comfort of their own home, over a cuppa. From here the recorded interview heads to the edit suite, where they produce a poignant interview inserting family photos to illustrate their story. Childhood memories, travels, finding love and how it was in the good ol’ days! All this presented on a commemorative USB or DVD for you, your family and future generations to treasure.

We’re giving away a Story of a Lifetime package for Grown Ups readers – check out our competition here.

Do you think we’ve missed anything? We’d love to hear your tips for the perfect photo in the comments below.