BEST OF FAMILY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Many group portraits are family portraits. Taken every few years, the family portrait provides cherished memories of how the family looked “back then” and a fond record of the children’s growth. Family groups taken in the home show the familiar warmth of home and according to many, probably bring the largest economic return. Outdoors family portraits are a close second, with the studio portrait usually ranking last in terms of popularity and sales.

A great family portrait captures the warmth and love between family members. In this delicate portrait made by Judy Host, a mother and her two children bask in the cool shade of a summer afternoon. Judy enhanced the image with diffusion and grain effects produced in Photoshop to lend an emotional veil to the image. Photo made with Kodak DCS Pro 14n and 50mm lens.

A family all in one place allows the opportunity to photograph a number of secondary family portraits, which will increase sales considerably: mother and father together, all the children together, mother and daughters, father and sons, mother with all the children, all the men or women in the family and so forth.

The modern day family portrait should be a fun experience for the family members. Almost gone are the days of rigid posing, replaced by less formal more emotional imagery. Photograph by Marcus Bell made on a white seamless with diffused lighting.

According to Monte Zucker, “The first thing to remember is that each person in the group is interested primarily in how he or she looks. So, that means that you have to pay attention every person in the group, individually. No matter how good the pattern of the group, if people don’t like the way they look, all your time and effort are wasted.”

Robert Love concurs: “Each person in a group must look great—as if they were photographed alone.” Love makes it a point, in fact, to pose and create great individual portraits within his groups, a technique that takes time and patience to perfect.

When the entire family is pictured, often a more formal pose is called for. Here Tibor Imely created a timeless composition that features the mom and dad as bookends in the composition. A popular feature of family portraits is detailed coordination of clothing tones within the photo. A trademark of Imely’s seems to be khaki and white. The light is twilight with a blink from a Sunpak 120 barebulb flash, two stops less intense than the daylight reading. Image was made with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II and a zoom lens at the 150mm setting.

Family portraits have changed over the years. With so many extended families, due to remarriage, the family portrait often doesn’t resemble the family portrait of years past. Not only has the structure of the family changed, but also so has the attitude of what constitutes a family portrait. A mother and her kids, two young sisters, a dad and his newborn son, even a man and his dog all constitute the modern-day family portrait. The primary connection in any family portrait is the love shared between the people. There is a bond that is deeper than association or friendship and so it becomes the task of the family portrait photographer to render that connection with emotion and honesty. That is what makes a great family portrait.

It is my hope that you will not only learn the technical side of family portraiture from this book—how to pose, light and photograph family groups on a higher plane—but that you will also become a fan of the design systems used in creating compelling group portraits. This is the path to a higher level of photography and self-expression.

To illustrate this book, I have called upon some of the finest and most decorated portrait photographers in the country. Some, like Monte Zucker, and Bill McIntosh are living legends among modern day photographers. Most are not only gifted photographers but teachers as well, who lecture throughout the country. Some of the featured photographers are newcomers to the limelight. But in all cases, their photography is exemplary. Many of the photographers included in this book have been honored by the country’s top professional organizations, the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI).

I would especially like to thank the following photographers for their technical assistance and boundless expertise: Robert Love, Bill McIntosh, Norman Phillips and Monte Zucker.

Marcus Bell photographs families, weddings and landscapes with equal skill and one of his trademarks is to never settle for the cliché, always trying to reinvent the moment. He has done so here in a humorously affectionate portrait of father and son made in his studio.