10 Tips for the Family Portrait Photographer

Easy-To-Use Portrait Photography Tips

Sep 28, 2009
Caroline Thompson

Neutral Background - Caroline Thompson

For those digital photographers looking to take better portraits and family photographs, then these ten tips are key to taking more creative family portraits.

Nothing is worse than having a tree limb sticking out of your head. Many times amateur photographers focus only on the subject and not what is behind subject. The following tips are for those photographers who have been deemed the family portrait photographer. These 10 portrait tips are a guide to taking better portraits and headshots indoors or out. These tips are for the amateur photographer who is looking to take better photographs and they do not require any special lighting equipment or knowledge of lighting. (Other than that offered here)

Look behind the subject. This is probably the easiest tip and the most overlooked. Look at the background and see if there are distracting objects or people standing behind the subject. Are there tree limbs behind their head? If so, move the subject away from the tree. The same thing with people standing behind the subject, either have the people move or move the subject. Anything that merges with the subject's head and does not look natural the photographer needs to move or move the subject away from.
Find a neutral background for the subject. If photographing outside, look for a large hedge or bushes. Plants and bushes make great backdrops. They need to be large and repetitive (Like a hedge) so as to not distract the eye. If there are not any plants around, find a monotone wall or something that will fill the background and be neutral. If photographing inside, look for a wall without pictures. The glass will reflect the flash. A great portrait tip is to use stairs, a brick wall or window as a background.
Frame the subject. It is easy to create interest and mood with framing. Look for windowsills, doorways, arches, stairs or anything that creates interest and frames the subject. If photographing on a city street, position your subject on a stoop in front of a building and create interest and mood. By using framing, a creative photographer can capture the personality of an individual.
Change your perspective. Change the shooting angle. Shoot down on the subject. Lie on the ground and shoot up towards the subject. This adds more drama and interest in the picture. Fill the frame with a headshot. Move in close and at an angle for a different perspective. This will make the portrait more alive with personality. Another great effect is to leave space on the left or right of the subject. If they are looking to the right, leave extra space on the right.
Use available light. The best light is either in the morning or late afternoon. Position the subject so that the light source is coming from the side. Overcast days are great for shooting portraits. It is like a giant softbox. Shoot in the shade for even light.If photographing indoors and there is a window with light, position the subject next to the window light. This gives a soft and reflective look to images. Use a flash for fill light to brighten the face. Bounce the flash off a white wall or ceiling to soften the light.
Use Reflectors. They are lightweight, easy to use and are a great way to control the light. Anything can be used for a reflector. A white wall is a reflector, white ceiling, white poster board, etc. Use more than one reflector to fill in darker areas or hightlight facial features.
Crop. The common assumption is portraits need to have a full head with plenty of space around the edges. Not so, move in close and crop part of the head. Play with eye contact. Have your subject look away, but keep a sharp focus on the eyes.
Use a compass. It is a great tool for many reasons. Many times at a family gathering people want a group photograph, knowing where the sun will be setting is important to planning where to photograph the group later. It is also handy on cloudy days when photographing outside and there is a need to know where the sun is behind the clouds.
Use the Sunny 16 rule. This translates to an aperture of f/16 and 1/ISO speed. If the ISO setting is 200, then the settings would be f/16 at 1/200th of a second. For cloudy days use f/8. This is for those who wish to use manual settings.
Shoot with a shallow depth of field. For those with manual cameras or who wish to set their settings, using f2.8 or f4 can separate the subject from the background and set the focus on the subject. It is also useful when there is a distracting background.