All it takes is one tip. Even if the only pictures you ever show are landscapes, closeups, flowers or horses; someone is going to ask you to make a family picture.
Here are five inevitable facts about family portraits, and one tip to beat them all.
- Kids under five always put a hand in the mouth. Always.
- Middle children under 11 always make funny faces.
- Parents are always stressed about the kids making faces and putting hands in their mouths.
- The best picture of the kids is the one with Dad scowling and pulling hands out of their mouths
- Older kids (and dads) hate family pictures because Dad was always pulling on their hands and scolding them for having fun.
One tip: Don’t say don’t!
The one tip I can give you to beat all these issues and he make family pictures is this: Don’t say Don’t!
If you (or Dad) say, “Don’t put your hand in your mouth,” the kid only hears “Put your hand in your mouth.” Instead, try, “Put your hand on your mom’s hand,” or, “Put your hands in your pockets” or, “Put your hand on Dad’s leg.”
Giving kids something to do is infinitely more effective than telling them something not to do.
(Hint: this works when teaching kids to ride a bike, too. “Go that way and don’t hit the mailbox,” always ends up with a kid wrapped around a mailbox.)
Similarly, when kids make faces say, “Oh, that was a good one; what else you got? OK, how about mad? How about a sad face? Now do ‘cool.’ How about serious? Can you do thoughtful? OK, let’s see a gentle face.” Fire off a bunch of frames. Give the kids a direction to go in, and they will follow.
The most important thing to do before you start, however, is to talk to the parents. Try something like this, “I’ll take all of the kids’ faces and poses, you guys just keep looking at the camera and smiling. The best picture of the kids is usually the one where Dad is looking down to make sure they’re smiling, so you just keep looking at me. I’ll make several exposures to be sure we get the right expressions.” Give the parents something to do (look at the camera).
Kids hear don’t all day long, and it’s not an enjoyable word. At picture time, if parents aren’t scolding kids and yanking on their hands, everyone has a better experience, which means next time the kids will enjoy themselves more. With this one tip, your subjects will rave about what a great photographer you are before they even see the pictures.
Check out more portrait tips here.
Good tips
well said Levi!!
Simple and effective idea!
Reblogged this on Jesse Gross Photography.
“Don’t so don’t” is a great tip and could probably be applied to almost everything! Thanks for that one.
This is genius ! (and such simple concept !) lol Great article :)
Thanks, gang! I know it’s helped me to have happier shoots, which means happier clients. Let’s see the pictures you make on the Facebook and the G+ community!
This is a great tip. I’m just starting out as a photographer, and a bit antsy about photographing kids. Thanks for making the idea slightly less intimidating!
Some truly excellent tips here. Have used a number of these previously but it’s always a good thing to learn better and more effective ways of working! Thank you for sharing these. Best regards, Rob @ RLP
Great tips :)
Great tips Levi!!!
I like when you said that kids hear don’t all day long, and it’s not an enjoyable word. At picture time, if parents aren’t scolding kids and yanking on their hands, everyone has a better experience, which means the kids will enjoy themselves more next time. I plan to surprise my family is going to the photography studio next week. This is very helpful because we will have family pictures in a studio, keeping this in mind.
Great ideas. Kids do not do “don’t” well. I like saying “Don’t smile” and they always smile!
I like how you mentioned that typically, the finest photograph of the children shows Dad checking to see if they are grinning. My parents are planning to have family portraits taken during this coming holiday so we can have a memory we can display in our home. You did a great job of explaining your article, I’ll make certain to let my parents know about this so they can control my little sibling’s facial emotions during the portrait session.