Creativity in posing makes for much more interesting family portraiture.
Many of my readers are parents. For those that are, we all know how much we love our children. We know when our customers come in our doors that if they are parents themselves, they too love their children. This post will briefly examine the idea of expressing that love from the parent towards the child. For today’s “Thought for Thursday”, we will look at the ideas behind portraying families as they really are, famlies.
When many people think about a family portrait, they automatically have this idea of a composition of people looking towards the camera and smiling. This is pretty standard and there is nothing wrong with it. However, this doesn’t really show a relationship aspect of parent towards child, or child towards parent for that matter. So a quick tip for demonstrating this idea is to throw the whole idea of looking towards the camera and smiling out the window. It is not a new or genius idea. However, it is not the most common thing photographed when a family portrait is taken.
Showing the love between parent and child makes a much stronger portrait than the typical family portrait where both are looking at the camera.
Try having a parent and child look at each other and photograph that. Have them interact somehow. Tell them to ignore the camera for a few seconds while they interact, so you can snap away. This may seem awkward for some, but for most, it isn’t awkward at all.
You can have them play games like closing their eyes until you say, “okay open your eyes on the count of three and have a staring contest”. Or you can suggest that they try to communicate with their eyes only towards one another without using words or any sort of facial movement, except for eye movement.
You don’t even have to have them look at each other. You can pose them where they’re hugging or where they are just doing something together. These make for very memorable photos that show the relationship that they have as loved ones.
In this day and age, families are not cherished and appreciated as they ought to be. They are not strong as they once were in our society. Though some may be strong, families as a whole are not the same and do not have the importance that they used to. So when there is a good strong family relationship, this is a wonderful thing. You, as a photographer, should strive hard to portray that in a good light and really enhance what’s there.
Do you see how photographing parent and child engaged in an activity increases interest in the family portrait?
The family portrait is a beautiful and wonderful thing that we as photographers have the ability and privilege to partake in. We ought to do so with creativity, respect and honor.
