Tag: family

How to Do Candid Photography: Tips for Capturing the Special Moments

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Taya Ivanova

Formal photographs make stunning portraits, but do not always capture emotion in the same way that a natural, unposed shot can. Candid photography often results in more intimate photographs and reveals sincere emotion. When a shot is posed, subjects may feel self-conscious—this can sometimes show through in the final product.

Luckily, candid photography is all about capturing authentic moments—and it’s surprisingly easy. Oftentimes, the beginning of a photo session is awkward. Unless you’re working with professional models, many people are unsure of what to do with their bodies and wind up looking tense and uncomfortable. The goals here are to make yourself less conspicuous, and 2 make your subject(s) comfortable.

How to Take a Candid Photo by Subject

Individuals

The art of capturing a candid moment of a single person can be extremely difficult or totally effortless, depending on the circumstances. Capturing the true emotional of an individual at an event is pretty straightforward because that person is likely not paying much attention to the photographer; if your subject is uncomfortably aware of your presence, though, it is relatively easy to catch him or her off guard during a distracting moment.

Now, exclusively photographing one person (especially someone with no modeling experience) can be a much more daunting task. Patience is essential, as is a sense of humor. It is important to make your subject feel comfortable, and this will usually take some easing into. Be reassuring and encouraging, and snap twice as much as you normally would. In between those tense, uncomfortable moments, you’re bound to catch a few natural facial expressions.

Couples

If you are working with two or more individuals, the process is a bit simpler. It’s much easier to dissuade any discomfort when your subjects can interact with each other. When I take a couple out on an engagement shoot, I like to find activities for them to do–nothing extravagant, just simple things to direct their attention away from themselves. Props really come in handy in these situations and I often suggest that the couple brings something along.

Even if you don’t have props, it’s not too difficult to capture those genuine moments. When it comes to candid wedding photography, try positioning the couple away from you, and then ask them to casually walk toward the camera and talk to each other. This trick gives them something to do and puts you further away–making them less aware of your presence and giving you a great candid shot.

Children

Children are especially great subjects for a candid portrait because the younger the are, the less likely they are to have developed the sort of self-consciousness that hinders adults.

Also, a lot of kids are naturally curious about the camera and don’t mind being in front of it. My only advice for capturing a candid picture of children is this: Don’t forget about them! They can be some of your most honest and most interesting subjects.

Groups

As a wedding photographer, I have taken more than a few group photos. Most of my clients ask for standard, posed pictures with their friends and family. While the posed photo is important, the group photos with the most life in them are the ones that are unexpected. Getting these shots is easy. Simply shoot the formals, then keep on clicking while everyone is getting readjusted or regrouping. Keep shooting even as everyone is walking away–by then, they have had time to relax and you will be able to photograph them even more naturally.

If you are working a wedding or any other big celebration, there is a pretty good chance that dancing will be involved at some point. This is a perfect time to get some great candid photos of lots of totally uninhibited, blissfully unaware party-goers. You’re guaranteed to capture the true emotion of the party guests.

While these photography tips vary slightly depending on the subject matter, the most important thing to remember is to keep shooting, even if you don’t think you need to. Those brief, special moments in between a thoughtfully composed posed shot often result in some of the most poignant and sentimental photographs.

How to Make Clients Feel Less Awkward While Capturing Candid Shots

Though posed portrait photography is great, it’s not as heartwarming as a photo of best friends having an unexpected laughing session.

A lot of families, couples, and friends want to be photographed in the most genuine way possible. To really capture the beauty of candid portrait photography, you have to make yourself invisible and be quick on your feet. Most importantly, you have to make your subjects feel comfortable enough to be themselves in front of your camera.

Here are a few ways you can make the most of your candid photography photoshoot without making anyone (including yourself) feel out of place.

Talk to the Clients

Whether you’re going to photograph a child, a couple, or a professional model, always prioritize communication. Without it, your clients will feel like strangers and your photos will look stiff.

These simple but effective approaches will create mutual trust and understanding:

Explain why you love your work – truly passionate people give an air of confidence. Be open about your intentions; your clients will feel much more comfortable around you when they’re aware of your creative goals.
Get to know your client’s story – when people open up, they feel like close friends. You can get to this stage by asking your client about their interests, biggest passions, and ambitions. If you show them that you care, they’ll relax in your presence.
Ask for their honest feedback – it’s likely that your clients know very little about photography themselves, but that shouldn’t stop you from asking them for constructive criticism and ideas. If you give them a chance to control the photo shoot even a little, they’ll feel heard and appreciated.

Don’t Get Too Close

If you want to take a truly candid photograph, you should be invisible to your subjects. This means keeping a distance and letting them freely interact with one another. Getting too close to them might make them feel awkward, so try to avoid that unless they specifically ask for spontaneous closeups.

A zoom lens or telephoto lens is ideal for a professional photographer who wants to give their clients space without compromising their own creativity. Your subjects won’t be aware of how close your lens really is, and you won’t feel like you’re interrupting special moments.

Make Sure They Know What You’re Shooting

Before your photo shoot, let your clients know that the first few photos won’t look that great. Let them know that it’s okay to feel awkward and self-conscious at first. This information might give many of your clients the confidence to be themselves during your session.

Once the awkward stage passes, show your clients your results. Candid photography isn’t about posing, so make sure you don’t throw too many compliments around as you shoot. However, make it clear that you’re okay with showing them your photos once in a while. This will give them a better idea of your style and give them a chance to provide you with helpful feedback.

Let Your Confidence Shine

Confidence is contagious. When you talk to your clients, don’t be afraid of sharing your passion with them. Let them know how excited you are about your photo shoot. This might seem like a silly thing to do, but it will make them feel more relaxed. Passionate photographers have an unbeatable energy that attracts all kinds of people. The more you value your skills, the more noticeable they’ll be to others, and the more comfortable they’ll feel around you.

Candid Photography Captures Special Moments in an Authentic Way

Everyone is different. It’s not possible to get along with every single individual out there. However, in the world of photography, it’s possible to provide every client with the most beautiful photos they could ask for. You don’t need to have a specific type of personality to achieve this. All you have to do is wisely use your social skills, make your clients feel at home, and take photos that they’ll cherish forever.

Getting the Perfect Family Portrait

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Jennifer Berube

One of the most profitable occupations a photographer can have is shooting portraits. Everyone wants to get beautiful portraits to keep around for memories. Specifically, professional family photography is in high demand. However, working with families can be difficult. Trying to find the right setting and mood for each family takes a bit of time and understanding. Working with younger families and their children can be especially tiring. But, creating a lasting memory doesn’t have to be a bad day at the ‘office’. By following these tips, you can capture the beauty and individuality of each family in a picture that will last generations.

12 Tips for Getting the Perfect Family Portrait

Plan Your Aesthetic in Advance
Pick the Right
Outside or Inside
Get to Know the Kids
Use a Tripod
Lens of Choice
Set Manual Exposure
Keep the Focus Steady
High Shutter Speed
Props are Important
Work from the Top Down
Don’t Get Frustrated

Family portraits are pictures that tend to be cherished for a lifetime. Additionally, the significance of why the family is all together should also be taken into consideration and captured through the images taken.

There are a few things that create a distinguishing difference between a good family portrait session and a great one, This includes:

How to Capture the Perfect Family Portrait

1. Plan Your Aesthetic in Advance

If you’re working with professional models, you’ll likely be providing the props and wardrobe from the company you’re working with. However, if you are not supplying the wardrobe, you need to make sure the subjects of your shot have a dress code. You don’t want to take a group shot where everyone is wearing bold and clashing colors! It would be hard to keep the focus of your final image on the subjects. Know what you’re going for, and make sure everyone involved in the shoot has a thorough understanding of the dress code.

2. Pick the Right Setting

Are you planning a wedding portrait session? Get to the venue early and scout out the right places for good framing and lighting. Are you working in the studio? Set up your lights according to the nature of the group shots. Is it a still photo session, are your subjects going to be moving? What time of day are you creating with your lighting? Know these things going in, that way you can focus on posing and minor corrections the day of the shoot.

3. Outside or Inside

If you’re working in a portrait studio, you may not have a choice in this matter. But if you’re freelancing or have a studio that has outdoor space, you need to decide which is better. Sometimes you can let the family decide, but a lot of clients can be indecisive about their photos. This is where you need to come in and show them the way. Decide beforehand if you’re going to shoot indoors or outdoors and have everything set up and ready to go.

In-studio portraits are actually perfect for younger families with small children. They are also great for families with grandparents. The confining space allows you and the parents to keep track of the youngsters. You won’t have to worry about anyone falling in dangerous terrain. Keeping everyone happy and safe is easy to do in your indoor studio.

Shooting outside can also be a great advantage. Generally, an older family with children who are 10+ years old do great outdoors. The natural sunlight can give your pictures a beautiful glow and enhance the portrait. Taking a family portrait outdoors is especially great for unique shots. Get creative here when posing your models. These are the kinds of photos that families will be able to enjoy long into the future.

4. Get To Know The Kids

If there are kids involved, you should make it your duty to learn something about each of them before you take your camera out. Once the little ones are comfortable being around you, then everything after that tends to be smooth sailing for the most part. It often helps when I carry prize or prop I can give away to each kid so I can get their attention. If this little prize fits into the theme of the shoot, then that would be a plus as well, but always keep in mind that kids are a bit tricky and not all the same. Do your best to gain some knowledge from the parents, as well as interact with the child, and watch your shoot become a lot easier.

5. Use a Tripod

The desire to be on the move with your camera is hard to overcome. This is especially true if you are shooting outside or trying to capture natural moments or movement in the portrait. But there are a lot of advantages to keeping still and using a tripod to shoot your portraits. First of all, it allows for more open communication between you and your client. When you always have your camera to your eye it’s hard to be aware of anything else. By making eye contact with your clients and talking to them, you’ll find out more things about the family that you can incorporate into your shoot. By not being constantly on the move, you also ensure that you have the time to check your settings before each shot. There’s nothing like getting the perfectly framed picture on the wrong settings to ruin a whole photo shoot.

6. Lens of Choice

I personally don’t recommend traveling with too many lenses for various reasons. The first of all these reasons are you don’t want to be swapping out your lenses too often on a family portrait session. Swapping out lenses is great and all but always keep in mind that the time spent doing that at various intervals can often lead to you missing amazing shots as well as take a huge chunk out of your time to get creative. A second reason that can also be considered is, are you going use all of the lenses you decided to pack your camera bag with? For the most part as photographers, we sometimes end up carrying a lot of excess loads we don’t really need. Pick the perfect lens for your shoot beforehand and save time as well as having a load on your back.

7. Use Manual Exposure

This is something that is true for all kinds of portrait shots, not just the family portrait. When shooting a consistent subject in a consistent location, it only makes sense to keep your settings consistent. After you get your settings settled, you don’t want them to change. Having different exposures for each photo will make processing and editing a whole lot more difficult. When you set your camera on the shutter or aperture modes it can change the settings without your knowledge. Be sure to shoot on manual to keep all of the settings consistent.

8. Keep the Focus Steady

Another consistency issue can be the focus. If you don’t lock in the focus or have it on the manual setting, it can shift during the shoot. For example, if your focus is set to the shutter setting and someone moves, the focus could fix on the background instead of the family’s faces. Sometimes a picture that was perfectly framed and posed can come out looking fuzzy and blurred. By keeping your focus setting locked or on manual mode you can make sure that your family is always the focal point of the picture.

9. High Shutter Speed

You will more than likely be doing continuous shooting and as a result of that, it might be best to have your shutter count at least 1/250 if not more. If there is room to go higher on your shutter speed they do so to avoid any possible blurred shots. Kids are always moving pretty fast and as I mentioned earlier, you need to shoot continuously to catch them in their pure actions. If you find that the kids are moving faster than expected, for exampling running or jumping then 1/800 might end up being a more suitable shutter speed.

10. Props are Important

Try to travel with props fitting for the theme or holiday if possible. A lot of photographers overlook the importance of having good props and the impact it has on your photos. For example, a few empty wrapped gifts or even some Christmas tree decorations go a far way toward creating the perfect family holiday card photo.

11. Work from the Top Down

Once you have everyone at the shoot, dressed and ready to go, begin by organizing where everyone should be situated within the shot. You want to work with the heights and body shapes of your subjects to create an image that is visually appealing overall. Make sure everyone understands the parameters they can move within while staying in the frame of the shot. You can even mark the outlying boundary of this with tape so that it doesn’t appear in your photographs, but it does let people know not to step outside of those lines!

From there, work with each person on their individual poses. Remember to adhere to the final tone. If you want joyful and energetic, people should either be moving or creating the illusion of movement with their poses. If you want a standard professional portrait, everyone should be looking towards the camera. If you are selling a product, the focus should be on the product. For a family portrait, you have to make sure everyone is equally represented.

First, you set the basic structure by determining where people are going to stand within the picture. Then you work with each individual on how to pose. The individual poses should work together so that the subjects are not fighting for attention within the image. If you’re shooting for fashion, your group portraits should tell a story and focus on the product. If you’re shooting for family portraiture, your final shot should capture a moment in time while focusing on the subjects.

12. Don’t Get Frustrated

Obviously, it can take a lot to organize a group shot. If you become frustrated, your subjects will mirror this in their facial expressions. If you have to walk away for a minute, do it. If you’re having trouble, just tell everyone to have fun and experiment with their posing. While they do this, snapshots off quickly.

Family Portrait Pose Tips & Tricks

Sometimes when a family, especially one with young children, goes into a studio, there’s an air of nervousness and stiffness, and that creates some unnatural and forced pictures. No one wants to look back at their pictures and see strained smiles and stiff poses. Getting natural family photos is all about having fun and capturing emotion.

Top 10 Family Portrait Pose Tips

Bend It
Capture the Reaction
Get the Lighting Right
Break Out the Props
Use Flattering Poses
Sit Close
Tell Someone a Secret
Hold Hands
Have Fun
Embrace

Poses themselves often intimidate unprofessional models. People want to look like themselves in their family albums. Individuals of all kinds want to own heartwarming photographs that their children will treasure in the future, not awkward snapshots of their parents looking out of place. Similarly, couples want photographs that they can proudly share with their friends on social media.

Fortunately, poses don’t have to be awkward. They can make your subjects feel comfortable in your presence. Certain poses can actually strengthen the client-photographer bond.

1. Bend It

A good way to remove the stiffness of any pose is to get the family to move and bend. Sitting or standing perfectly straight is not natural. Make good use of a person’s joints and have them bend at the elbows, knees, and hips. People can hook fingers in their belts or pockets to loosen up their arms. Have the family turn slightly with one knee bent and hips pushed out toward the camera. If they’re sitting down, let them lean forward a bit, or turn to their side and extend one leg while the other stays bent.

2. Capture the Reaction

Most of the time when you’re shooting a family photo you won’t be capturing the action, but rather the reaction. If you want natural family photos, tell the family to do something, and wait for the moment after it happens. Have one person whisper a secret in the other’s ear and capture the two of them laughing afterward. Get the kids to surprise attack the parents and capture the family dissolving into laughter after. Whatever you ask the family to do, you want to shoot the aftermath, when the family is having fun and their smiles are real. Capture a true happy family moment.

3. Get the Lighting Right

Unlike shooting an intense fashion shot or a light and airy nature shoot, you want to get the family in a soft and fun light. Use a light colored background, white is best, and use either a large window with natural light or just one light. Make sure that the light isn’t pointed directly at them or coming from directly overhead. It’s best to have a very bright studio and to use a flash to help add contrast. Set the flash up at a 45-degree angle to avoid odd shadows.

4. Break out the Props

Especially when it comes to photographing toddlers or young children, you want to give the family something to help focus their attention on. Not every photo has to be the family in a straight line staring into the camera. It’s okay for them to let their attention wander to an object, and sometimes even creates the family’s favorite picture. Ask the parents to bring one of the children’s favorite toys or books. Encourage the family to simply play with the child and capture their reactions. If you have your own props, let the children choose what they want to play with, and shoot their play time. Let the kids be kids and have fun.

5. Use Flattering Poses

People tend to be self-conscious about their body. Maybe someone is concerned about their weight, or someone else has a large birthmark they can’t cover up with makeup. It’s easy to pose people in ways that flatter them and make them comfortable with the end result. Study your family as they are in the studio and notice blemishes or anything they are uncomfortable with. Then change your poses to match.

If a family member is worried about their weight, have them lie down on the ground facing the camera. Having the kids climb on top of them creates a natural pose and helps hide their body. Also, in other poses, try to angle the camera so it looks slightly down on them, this will hide any double chins and help slim the body.

For any blemishes, have that person’s face or turn a specific direction. If they’ve got a pimple on their chin, for example, simply have them turn their head slightly so that that side of the face is always facing away from the camera.

When shooting a single parent and young children, encourage the parent to lift the children into their arms. You can also get great natural family pictures by having the parent kneel on the ground and hug the children from behind.

6. Sit Close

At the beginning of your photoshoot, take simple photographs. This way, you’ll have a good variety of photos to share with your clients, and you’ll get to know what kind of posing style they’re most comfortable with. You’ll also have a chance to make them feel at home in your presence without immediately diving into complicated instructions.

If your clients sit close to one another, you’ll have lots of opportunities to take spontaneous photographs that accurately represent their relationship. Encourage them to sit somewhere picturesque and interact with one another. You’ll get lots of great photos of smiles, hugs, and silliness.

As the photo above suggests, you can take photos from any angle. If some of your clients feel shy at first, take photos of their backs. Even faceless portraits can be joyful!

7. Tell Someone a Secret

An effective way to highlight a family’s bond is to photograph them trusting each other with secrets.

Ask your clients to tell their family member a secret, joke, or story. They don’t have to be real, but they should be entertaining. This will inevitably lead to funny reactions, great poses, and photogenic expressions.

8. Hold Hands

Photos of loved ones holding hands may be very common, but that shouldn’t stop you from experimenting with them. Hands are a great way to express bonds, friendships, and familial strength. Here are ways you can use them in your photographs:

Take photos of your clients walking somewhere while holding hands. This will give your photos an air of spontaneity and warmth.
Take photos of your clients’ hands only. This could be while they’re passing something to each other, playing a game, or simply comforting each other.
Ask your subjects to stand in a line or circle and hold hands. If this feels unnatural, play a game such as Holding Hands: players have to pass peanuts to each other without breaking the hand-holding chain. An activity like this will distract your clients, allow them to have fun, and give you lots of time to take great photos.

9. Have Fun

This is probably the most exciting instruction your clients will get. Though having fun isn’t a pose, it’s an opportunity for many posing ideas to emerge.

Bring a few toys that your group could play with. Come up with a game similar to Holding Hands that could entertain, excite, and distract subjects. Alternatively, simply tell your models to have fun on their own. Children are experts at games; the more comfortable they are with you, the easier it will be for them to have fun together.

10. Embrace

Photos of the group hugging will beautifully emphasize their bond. They’ll also make for gorgeous album photos.

Since hugs are often very personal, you have to make sure your subjects want to embrace one another in front of you. Once they feel more comfortable in your presence, gently ask them for permission.

If you don’t want to ask, notice how open they are to public displays of affection. Observe them as they pose for you. Do they enjoy hugging each other, or are they more reserved?

If this doesn’t feel right to either you or your clients, don’t worry. The aforementioned poses will give you lots of interesting results.

Creating Family Portraits that Last a Lifetime

Families are always on the lookout for a great photographer to make lasting memories for them. Once you’ve made a name for yourself a family portrait photographer, there will be no end of clients wanting to work with you. You can create a beautiful family portrait by getting the proper camera settings and encouraging the family to have fun and act natural.

Keeping a steady hand and using a tripod will help your photos come out looking solid. But most importantly, remember to help your family have fun. By following these tips you’ll create amazing family portraits.

Tips for Photographing Grandparents with Their Grandchildren

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Taya Ivanova

Grandparents are true blessings; in addition to inspiring, comforting, and nurturing their grandchildren, they give their own children a chance to relax and be grateful. The bonds between such family members are so indescribable that only photographs can capture their immense value. It’s not surprising, then, that many people want to document these relationships as accurately as possible.

Family photos, like family photoshoots, are unique. Couples, families, friends, etc., all demand different creative approaches. If you learn how to work with different types of people, you’ll attract more clients and significantly refine your portfolio. Whether you’re photographing your own parents or working with clients, the tips below will help you take authentic photos of real emotions.

If You Don’t Know Them, Get to Know Them

Getting to know a family will help you build a strong photographer-client relationship and allow you to take photos that both you and your clients will love. Get to know what your subjects regularly do together. Be politely curious and open to sharing information about yourself. Ask them questions like:

Do you have any mutual hobbies or interests?
Where do you usually go together?
Do you have a favorite location, toy, or activity?
What makes you the happiest?

Questions like these will show your clients that you care and make them feel more comfortable in your presence. They’ll also come in handy during the photographing process, as you’ll see now.

Observe

Subjects of any kind (especially children) shouldn’t have to pose throughout an entire shoot. Their true nature will show when they play, talk, and don’t pay too much attention to your camera. Instead of asking your subjects to say cheese, let them interact with each other. Ask them more questions (now that you know them better, you can have comfortable discussions), give them fun activity ideas, and most importantly, observe. The advantage of having multiple subjects is that they’ll feel more comfortable in the presence of someone familiar. Don’t take this for granted.

Observation will show you details that you overlooked in the past and give your artistic self-more room to grow. Your clients will love this spontaneity and admire your ability to document life at its purest. There’s nothing quite as special as knowing that an artist lovingly crafted a world just for your family. Be the kind of person who makes people feel this way.

Photograph Mutual Interests

Having a proper conversation with your clients before a shoot will give you valuable information about their relationship. Think about what your clients love most. Do they like to cook, read, walk, or play certain games together? Knowing this will let you take the best photos of their bond and let them have lots of fun. Photos of people enjoying one another’s company are nothing short of delightful and portfolio-enhancing.

Choose a Familiar Location

Think of your favorite place. How does it make you feel? Mine is a tranquil park located on a mountain; it feels like my very own secret place with neat surroundings and few visitors. There, I have the opportunity to take joyful photographs of myself and my family. If I had a shoot in an unfamiliar environment, on the other hand, my self-awareness would be intense and my smiles would probably be forced.

If you let your subjects interact with each other in a place they love, it’ll be much easier for you to take fantastic photos of them. They’ll be too immersed in their surroundings to even notice your camera!

Your creativity and skills will freeze time in the best way possible; by photographing grandparents and their grandchildren, you’ll store precious memories that your clients will cherish forever. Most importantly, you’ll give your subjects a reason to spend even more quality time together. Imagine that: you’re a photo-taking wizard who can lift people’s spirits, store heartwarming moments, and give families a reason to smile. You are more than enough. Go out there and document valuable moments that no one will forget.

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Posing Models Part 5: Family and Group Portraits

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Jennifer Berube

Posing one model can be difficult, and things naturally become more complicated when you add more people to the mix! How do you get everyone smiling at the same time, all looking in the right direction, and everyone angled correctly according to the position of the light and camera? Planning, coordination, and a good attitude, that’s how!

To properly plan, you need to know a little more about what to expect on the day of the shoot. Here are some general tips and tricks that will help you capture beautiful group portraits.

Plan Your Aesthetic in Advance

If you’re working with professional models for a consumer shoot, you’ll likely be providing the props and wardrobe from the company you’re working with. However, if you are not supplying the wardrobe, you need to make sure the subjects of your shot have a dress code. You don’t want to take a group shot where everyone is wearing bold and clashing colors! It would be hard to keep the focus of your final image on the subjects. Know what you’re going for, and make sure everyone involved in the shoot has a thorough understanding of the dress code.

Pick the Right Setting

Are you photographing a wedding? Get to the venue early and scout out the right places for good framing and lighting. Are you working in the studio? Set up your lights according to the nature of the group photo. Is it a still shot, are your subjects going to be moving? What time of day are you creating with your lighting? Know these things going in, that way you can focus on posing and minor corrections the day of the shoot.

Know the Posing Basics

Parts one and two of this series discuss how to pose models for basic fashion shoots. Parts three and four look at specific tips for posing hands, feet, and face. Take a look at these articles and take note of the basics. This will help you when posing individuals for group portraits. It will help you make sure that your perfect picture isn’t ruined by someone looking in the wrong direction, a foot in the foreground, or an odd body shape created by a stray arm. They will also help you learn how to use the limbs to frame different parts of the body.

Work from the Top Down

Don’t Get Frustrated

Give your subjects a break, and take that time to look through your initial photographs. You’ll see from them where you’re going to have problems. Who turns their face the wrong way? Is a particularly tall person overshadowing others? What unique personality characteristics do family members show, and how can you get them to portray that naturally in the final shot? Have fun and experiment, and eventually, you will capture an excellent image!

Making Family Portraits Perfect Using the Chasing Light Lightroom Bundle

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Jennifer Berube

A good family portrait will hang in a house for years. Everyone who comes through that house will see that picture. So it’s important that the best family picture looks the best that it can. If you’re trying to create the perfect portrait, the Sleeklens Chasing Light Lightroom Bundle can help. The bundle is also useful for perking up any pictures your family has, but that weren’t edited properly. Here, we’ll give you an in-depth guide for turning your family portrait into a perfect memory. Follow along as we transform this picture.

The All in One

The all in one section of your Sleeklens Chasing Light bundle is perfect for a quick fix. If you’re a beginner in Lightroom this section is a great place to start. The all in one section will combine the best of the rest of the bundles. Try out the different presets until you find one that works best for you and your picture. For our example photo, we used the preset Matte Glow to darken the background and bring out the natural shape of the outfits.

Base

The base section of the Sleeklens Chasing Light bundle is the most important bundle. This will be your building ground for creating the perfect photo. For the example picture, we want to tone down the bright background and create more of a focus on the family members. To achieve this, we used the base preset in the shadows. This does create more of a highlight on the family’s skin and clothes. However, it darkens the background, and draws the attention to the family. The problems created by the highlight will be fixed in later presets.

Exposure

In order to adjust the brightness of a photo you’ll want to play with the exposure. Normally this is done when taking the photo. However, the Chasing Light workflow can help you adjust this in the editing section. To help darken the example picture we used the preset Brighten Shadows. This toned down the light of the family’s skin, and brought out their outfits.

Color Correct and Tone

For the color correct, not much needs to be done in this picture. Mostly color correct is used to tone down reds, yellows, blues, and greens. However, since the color of the family’s outfits is a focus of the picture, it’s important to leave them bright. We used the preset Fix Red Skin to bring out the family’s natural skin tone a bit.

Chasing Light’s tint/tone presets can help the colors of your photo pop rather than get toned down. However, be careful when using the preset color pop. As you can see in the picture below (on the right) bringing out the bright colors of the red tops actually drowned out the patterns on the outfits. Instead, we used Warm It Up (on the left) to bring out the colors.

Polish and Portrait

In the Chasing Light bundle Polish, you can fix errors that occurred in the editing process. This includes fixing colors and highlights. For this example, we used Base Cool. This toned down the red that’s been appearing in the background of the picture. The action also washed out the color of the outfits. However, this was fixed in the next bundle of presets.

The portrait bundles are ones that are used to specifically edit portrait shots. These are groups of settings that are made to match people’s skin tones and outfits. To help bring back the family’s clothing, we used the red/green preset to help pull out the brightness of those colors.

Vignette

Normally vignettes are used to surround the family and pull the attention to the people. For this picture, we used the Medium White preset. Sometimes a white vignette looks better than a black vignette. In this case, with the sweaters, the white vignette made the picture feel more like a winter setting.

As you can see, using the Chasing Light bundle is an excellent way to edit family portraits. You can help make a perfect picture for your clients or touch up an old family memory. Either way, this bundle is perfect to help create natural looking family portraits that will decorate your home for years.

5 Tips for Shooting Natural Family Photos

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Jennifer Berube

Doing portrait photography is a great way to have a career as a photographer and have fun at your job. Unlike shooting professional models, when working with a family you have the opportunity to not only be silly in the studio but also create lasting memories for said family.

1. Bend It

A good way to remove the stiffness of any pose is to get the family to move and bend. Sitting or standing perfectly straight is not natural. Make good use of a person’s joints and have them bend at the elbows, knees, and hips. People can hook fingers in their belts or pockets to loosen up their arms. Have the family turn slightly with one knee bent and their hip pushing out toward the camera. If they’re sitting down, let them lean forward a bit, or turn to their side and extend one leg while the other stays bent.

2. Capture the Reaction

Most of the time when you’re shooting a family portrait you won’t be capturing the action, but rather the reaction. If youwant natural family photos, tell the family to do something, and wait for the moment after it happens. Have one person whisper a secret in the other’s ear and capture the two of them laughing afterward. Get the kids to surprise attack the parents and capture the family dissolving into laughter after. Whatever you ask the family to do, you want to shoot the aftermath, when the family is having fun and their smiles are real. Capture a true natural family moment.

3. Get the Lighting Right

4. Break out the Props

5. Use Flattering Poses

If someone is worried about their weight, have them lie down on the ground facing the camera. Having the kids climb on top of them creates a natural pose and helps hide their body. Also, in other poses, try to angle the camera so it looks slightly down on them, this will hide any double chins and help slim the body.

If you’re working with a couple where there is a huge height difference, have the couple sit down. In standing poses, get the taller of the two to stand with their legs apart a bit to help bring them down. When shooting a single parent and young children, encourage the parent to lift the children into their arms. You can also get great natural family pictures by having the parent kneel on the ground and hug the children from behind.

Shooting families can seem a bit scary; you don’t want to mess up precious memories. But forcing the family to stand still and smile at the camera creates memories that family may not want to remember. Just let the family be natural and have fun. Make sure they don’t stand or sit too stiff and always try to bring the family’s original personality to the pictures.

Family Photography Activities To Enjoy Together

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Sara Rodriguez Martinez

As a photographer, you can spend a lot of time learning about your craft, looking for perfect locations, setting all your gear, taking the shoots, editing the photos… it might seem like it is not compatible with a family life. I totally disagree! Family photography activities are perfect way of combining photography with having a good time with your family and friends. You just need to find activities that will be appropriate for all ages and that will be fun for everybody. Besides, they can also be an educational tool. I collected some ideas that might help you to set up your first family photography activities. Soon you will be designing your own!

ABC photos/colors/numbers

For the ABC photo activity the whole family should look for objects that start by a certain letter. You can do several letters by day or just one letter by day/week. Once you have all the ABC letters you can build a collage. You can print it and hung it in your kids’ room or in a shared space at the house. A more advance project would be to take photos of objects that look like letters. In this last one you can build words combining the different photos.

Family photography activities — Apple, book, cup… the ABC activity is fun for the whole family and you can always get surprised from the ABC of the other family members.

In the same project style, you can take photos of colors and numbers too. I think that the most important thing in these type of projects is the collaboration of the family members in both taking photos and in designing things with the photos.

Family scavenger hunt

Set a list of objects to look for in the house and send all the family to take photos of all of them. The first person that photographs all the objects wins. Or take as many photos of one thing as you can (flowers, cats, trees…). The idea is to turn it into a challenge that will keep the whole family active.

Create stories with daily objects

You can create a story with simple objects or toys and take photos of it. It doesn’t have to be a long or elaborated story. Here the fun is in being creative and let fly your imagination. Once you have the photos, you can put them together and add some text. You can also sit with your family and work together in Photoshop or any other editing tool in order to make the photos look a bit more as like a cartoon.

Document your traveling toy

Let your kids take photos of one of their toys in several locations: garden, park, at home, in your holidays… You can create postcards with them, make a collage or even to write a story about the adventures of the toy.

Light painting

Light-painting is fun for all ages. Using this technique you can draw with light: you can make shapes or even write something. You can also use light-painting to animate some objects. You just need to find a dark place to set all the equipment. You can do it both at home and outdoors (it is a perfect activity for camping nights). Light painting can go from simple settings to really elaborated ones. Make sure to choose the appropriate level for your family and have fun!!

Family selfie project

Family selfies are always fun. Grab a selfie stick and take family selfies at different moments of the day. You can also do longer projects and take one selfie by day for a month. Or even one by week for one year. See the option that suits better your family and go for it! For making it funnier, you can let all family members to participate in staging the selfie: with huts, clown noses, eating ice-cream… all the ideas can be good for making the selfie project outstanding. You can share your family selfies with other family members and friends. This project is also a great way of recording the changes of your family during the time that the project lasts.

One photography skill by month

If you want to develop the photography skills of your family, you can teach one thing by month and let them practice. At the end of the month you can sit all together and show to each other the photos. You can then celebrate that all of you learned something. How to celebrate it is up to you!

I just want to add one last thing. Photography projects are fun when everybody wants to participate. If some member of the family hates photography, this kind of activities will be a nightmare for him/her. As we are passionate about this craft, it might be hard for us to understand them. But it might happen. And it is OK. They don’t have to do it. We are all different and in consequence, we like different things.

Are you thinking in trying one of these activities? Do you have any other activity to add to these list? I would love to know about them!

Have a happy shooting!!

How to work with Forgotten Postcards: Vintage Effects in Lightroom

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Pia Lopez

Hello, today we have a tutorial on applying vintage effects with our “Forgotten Postcards” workflow. This is a really great workflow since that vintage aesthetic is really popular right now, which “Forgotten Postcards” is great for, with all of the tools to add rich tints and hazy atmospheres to your photographs.

I have my photo pulled up, so let’s get right into it!

We will start with one of the “Forgotten Postcards” Vintage presets, Scroll down and we will go with Matte Autumn. Once applied, this preset doesn’t only darken the photo, but also adds a bit of a brown tone to it.

The next thing that we’ll do is polish this up a little by applying the Polish – Sharpen preset.

Then, we are going to stack a Base preset on top, let’s go with Base – What Dreams May Come to add a little more light.

Now that we have applied three preset to this photo, it has already made a big difference. Now it’s time to move over to our “Forgotten Postcards” brushes.

With the brushes open, scroll down and the first brush that we are going to use will be the Face – Sharpen Face brush. Although I want this photograph to have a hazy look, I don’t necessarily want that on the subject’s face. So, we will turn the Clarity up and apply this brush to her face to help keep her in focus.

Click New to start a fresh brush, then the next one that we are going to use is the Light – Brighten brush. Similar to what we did with the Sharpen brush, we will apply this brush to our subject, turning up the Exposure as we go. I will tweak this brush just a bit more by turning the Highlights down and the Contrast up a little.

A lot of times when applying this kind of vintage look to a photograph by using warm, rich tones, the eyes can often get washed out. So, the next thing that we’re going to do is basically color the eyes back in to make them a little less muted. Let’s go into our brushes and scroll down to the Color – Aqua brush. Before we apply this brush, let’s make the brush smaller and adjust the color a little, moving the blue down to a less bright tone. Then, just run the brush around the iris of each eye.

Once I have colored her eyes, I will turn the Saturation, Exposure and Contrast up a bit, adding more light and contrast.

We took a nice photograph and wanted to give it an old school, vintage look, so we have added a hazy atmosphere and a rich, warm tone to it. But, we kept the detail of the subject and the color in her eyes.

Let’s move along to our next photograph.

In this next photo, I am going to start with one of the “Forgotten Postcards” Base presets. Scrolling down through those, we will go with Base – Auto Tone to add more light to the photograph.

Another common effect that you will see with vintage photos is a matte effect, so for this one we will scroll down to the Matte presets and apply Vintage – Matte Watermelon, which has added a warmer tone to the photo.

Now we will move over to our “Forgotten Postcards” brushes. Let’s open them up and select the Light – Brighten brush. I am going to turn up the Exposure and Contrast, then apply this brush over the girl in the picture, since she is the subject, we want to add more light and pull her out a little.

We will click New and start a fresh brush.

Now we are going to go back into our brushes and select the Color – Mustard brush. This brush has a really nice yellow color, adding a nice tone to your photograph. Turning the Exposure down, we will run this brush all around the edges, adding a richer tone to the scene.

As we look at the before and after of this photograph, you’ll see that we started with a nicely exposed photograph. Then, we added a matte effect and a hazy atmosphere surrounding the subject. We also added a warmer, richer tone with that mustard colored brush. Finally, we added a bunch of light to the subject to bring the focus in on her.

Now, on to our third photograph. This clean and modern looking photo is kind of a less conventional photograph to give a vintage look to, but we are going to do it anyway, since I think it will work out nicely.

To get started we are going to apply the All in One – Yesteryear preset, which will add a matte effect with muted colors. The one thing that happens when applying this preset is the Clarity get raised way up, but we can tweak that by just going into the Basic tab and turning it back down some.

Now we are going to go down to the Nostalgic effects, for this we will go with the Nostalgic Effect – Vintage 1preset, which will brighten the photograph while adding a rich, warm tone.

I am going to tweak this a little by turning the Highlights down, as some of the highlights were kind of blown out and really bright around the windows and curtains in the background.

Even though we are going for the effect of muted colors, I do want to bring some of the blue back into the photograph because the blue details in the clothing will work really nicely.

So for that, we will go into the Color tab and under Saturation, we will turn the Blue and Aqua up a bit. Once turned up, it brings a lot of that color back to the clothing.

The last thing that we will do is add a vignette to this photograph which is traditionally seen in old or vintage photography. Going back to our “Forgotten Postcards” presets, let’s scroll down and select Vignette – Subtle Black which will add a subtly darker toned border around the outer edges.

Hope this guide helps you out and don’t forget to check our videoguides on how to edit photographs with “Forgotten Postcards Workflow” – you can ace vintage effects in only a couple of minutes!