10 family portrait tips

Even if you have never taken a family portrait or collective also don't be afraid, frank, tell them you are a beginner, I think they will actively cooperate with and take great pictures in return! To make some planning before taking pictures, both for you and for taking pictures of family fun, the following is ten tips to help you successfully complete the task of shooting!

1.Using three tripod when necessary.

The camera has 2 advantages with the three tripod

(1) You will naturally slow down: This is a good thing, you can check equipment, picture composition and exposure to ensure that no danger of anything going wrong. The camera will usually move to the front of us began to miss a lot of key details, dizzy with success, only to find out later that we either wrong or white balance, the sensitivity is 6400, or you use a low quality JPG format. Don't worry, slow down and avoid mistakes.

(2) You can leave the eyes from the camera, make eye contact with his victims: they are real people, staring at the camera than staring at you so that they may be more nervous, you can use some gestures or to attract children's attention to make faces. In short, interact with his victims than you have been looking at the viewfinder will get better expression.

2.shooting with manual exposure mode

If you have everything in place, carefully choose the time and place, everything in control. Once arranged, it means that the exposure value cannot be easily changed. But if you use aperture priority or shutter priority mode, because of the effect of the meter, the exposure value will be slightly adjusted according to the different composition. You don't want this to happen, so consistency is important. No consistent exposure to increase the processing work, you will have all the pictures to the same. This will lead to slight color change, increased noise (in the case of lack of exposure) and other adverse effects. To maintain the consistency of exposure, you can use with manual mode. Remember, every time you change the position or position to check the exposure. I'll try to take a picture and check the histogram, adjust it if necessary, and continue.

3.lock focal length

As you don't want to transform the exposure value of each chart, you are also not willing to frequently adjust the focal length, assume that you have mastered the first point; it is the use of three feet, so you won't move around. Or you have been arranged for the relative position of the camera, do not need to move, at least do not need to move large, and then we are concerned about the distance from the camera.

Set your camera to the following settings: focus lock, or manual focus. All of the above methods can avoid the change of focal length when shooting different photos. If you use shutter focus, once a person moves a little, the focus will fall on the background, and an accident happens! If you are still not sure how to use it, use the guide to help your camera!

4. Let head of the person staggered

Maybe you've never heard of this rule, not even sure what it means. In fact, you have to do is to avoid the abrupt straight line appears in the picture, a horizontal or vertical and diagonal head, to make the picture more dynamic and more interesting. Use this trick in your group photography!

Imagine that there is a line between each face and another face, and that these lines are positioned to ensure that they are not crossed or at the same level. The use of non diagonal column type structure, with folding chair to arrange some people to sit down, someone standing someone sitting, let them in the background of natural pose. If you don't have props, at least according to height will be shot by the staggered.

5. Relax; bend some parts of the body

It's a general rule in character photography, and it's definitely a good idea. When you pose for them, people tend to dress up and stand stiff, so they should be allowed to bend some parts of the body and look more natural.

6. Let the children do their own

I found that many parents in front of the camera will tell their children obedient, smile!” For kids, it's too much pressure for them to do this kind of work, I usually advise parents to talk to their children like this: we need to take some pictures in the park.

Yeah, don't do anything else but fun. Get ready, bring the props, and bring the kids a favorite toy or book. Usually, I will carry a hand puppet or a bubble game with the equipment.

If children don't want to sit down and don't want to smile, don't force them to wait for them to play around for a while. It's fun to play with them, so they can sit with you for a few minutes. In fact, the children are really understand the life of the people, is our adults destroyed all this. Let the children be themselves, let them play, the time is up to shoot.

7. To help them put on the phase of modeling

This is the bottom line - if moms look fat, they will not be satisfied with the photos, no matter how perfect the lighting and facial expressions are. To understand what people think of their shortcomings and help them overcome, here are some tips:

If the body is fat, do not let them too far away from the camera, the use of wide-angle lens. For a double chin, with a slightly higher angle to shoot, shoot higher than with the eye, let them look up, stretching as far as possible, will be reduced to the minimum area of the chin and neck

If the person is facing the same side, it will highlight the nose; observe their face, to find the most appropriate shooting angle

The couple height difference is large, let a man (that is, the higher a) off stand on two legs, so that he could be a little shorter, narrowing the gap

For people who are overweight (or who are particularly sensitive to their weight), you can choose to let them lie on the lawn, and then let the child lie on their body, this model can achieve good results every time. Hide your stomach, stretch your chin, and just shoot the face, so the kids are close to their size

8 lighting is the key

Lighting can make a photo, but also destroy a photo, in the figure is no exception. The most important thing is to make sure that the person in the photo is bright. This is a big topic, there are many methods, but to achieve the perfect lighting use is still there.

Choose the best time of the day. One hour before dusk is the best time for character photography. Because the sun just below the horizon, there is no glare of the midday sun, when the light is more directional, in the case of some of the spread of mist

If it's not in the evening, look for a place where there are shadows. Keep the shot away from the sun to make sure the background light is not so bright, because the bright background light will grab the camera. Should be taken as far as possible in the shadow of large buildings or trees

Avoid cloudy shooting, although the cloudy day is indeed lighter than the sun, but the direction is poor. Overcast light is straight from the top of the head, will cause the eye is dark, especially for people with darker eye

Using the reflector or the flash when necessary Again, this is another kind of light, light is the face need to remember to use. If the person shooting the lack of eye light, which means that the face is not enough light

Just as important as eye light is the direction of light. We have highlighted the head light and do not advocate directly from the camera light, so the camera's built-in flash does not provide you with good light, even at the top of the camera flash installed cannot achieve good results.

The light coming from the direction of the camera makes the character monotonous, which is not what we want. From the side of light, the camera angle is preferably 30-45.

9 expressions decide everything

If the light is the key, then the expression will decide everything! If you accidentally smashed the lights or shapes, but you can make the audience laugh is a huge success, how should we do?

A photographer means you should also be a good comedian or a clown, know how funny kung fu often comes from experience. Sometimes you will encounter difficult adults, standing in the brick wall of the father is always the same face, I have to take the family for thirteen years, each other is very good friends, so you can joke with him, enliven the atmosphere.

If you have a child or a baby, be sure to attract their attention, if it is a helper is better, you can call your grandmother or friends to help. It usually happens: you are not easy to attract the attention of children, let them smile, what can people doing? Watch children! Oh, bad! I often tell people, "I make you laugh, we must look at me, and do not see the child."

10. Have fun

The last piece of advice is not to take yourself too seriously, and to take some weird shots at the end (if you can do it when you're tired). Let us together, like to squash, remember laughing when we capture ready to separate, let everyone! Stacked on the grass, to jump into the air, or make a face (do), which helps to break the tension to relax