When photographing people, you should look for the moment to occur naturally instead of using studied poses.

Introduction

Families are a favorite and frequently photographed subject. Ultimately, these are the pictures we cherish the most. When photographing families, one should look for natural expressions and use different photographic techniques to capture memorable moments.

A term often used in photography is “less is more”. Getting closer to your subject means less background and more subject. This is a good photo technique to take better picture.

Baby Nick

When you get really close to your subject,  your whole picture can be your subject.

You have two options to get closer. The first is to move physically closer to the subject. The second is to zoom in on your subject using a lens with a longer focal length. Zooming in is often preferable because there is less distortion. The natural properties of a camera lens mean that getting in close to your subject with a normal focal length of 50 mm can distort a face, making the nose look big and the ear small. However, in this picture taken with a 135 mm focal length, there was no lens distortion.

Baby Nick

When taking pictures of children, it’s often best to let your subject be at home in his or her natural environment. In this picture, the child is moving freely through the grass while the photographer is lying down to keep the camera at the child’s eye level. 

Playing in the Grass

In this picture, the child is playing freely in a park with a stone. Again, the photographer is keeping the camera at the child’s eye level. Taking pictures this way requires more time, but yields better results.

Playing with stone

Side lighting can be an interesting element in the composition of a photo because of the shadows created by the subject. Here, both the lighted and shadowed areas of the child are emphasized, plus the shadow itself serves as an additional three-dimensional element in the photograph. The lone shadow also emphasizes how the child is being allowed to walk freely.

Walking in the Square

Family pictures are usually taken to capture and preserve the intimacy and emotion of a given moment. In many cases, emotions can be transformed into subtle works of art. 

Mother and Baby

By moving in closer and keeping the background to a bare minimum, the photographer lets the expressions of the mother and child dominate the picture, capturing an everyday moment in an artistic way.

Mother and Baby

Conclusion

Outstanding family pictures can often be best achieved through the use of close-ups, capturing the subjects as naturally as possible, and remembering that techniques such as side lighting can add artistic elements to the photograph.