Your guide to family portraits for private sessions and events
Often times when we think of family portraits, we automatically envision the oh-so-perfect photo of everyone together smiling, looking right at the lens of the camera. While this is obviously an essential part of any family photo collection, I want to tell you more about other combinations I aim to capture during any family portrait session and why they are so important in completing a collection.
Scroll through to see the 10+ combinations you can do with 4 people!
More family combination ideas
The samples I’ve shown you above are what I consider essential in every family photo collection. Depending on how many children you have and if they are boys/girls here are a few more options to consider:
Just the Boys/Girls: Mom and daughters, dad and sons, just the daughters, just the sons
Grandparents: JUST THE GRANDPARENTS!!! Everyone always forgets this combination but trust me the family will want this one! Even better if you can get both individually. Other than that, both grandparents with entire family, grandparents with just the grandkids, grandparents with their child and the grandkids
Grandma: Grandma with entire family, three generations with daughter and granddaughter, grandma with grandkids, grandma with their child and the grandkids, grandma with just granddaughters, grandma with just grandsons, grandma with kids individually
Grandpa: Grandpa with entire family, three generations with son and grandson, grandpa with grandkids, grandpa with their child and the grandkids, grandpa with just granddaughters, grandpa with just grandsons, grandpa with kids individually
What about the “girlfriend” or “boyfriend”?
In some cases such as a family reunion or party, your children or even your sibling might have their new partner present. I NEVER want to make someone feel uncomfortable so I always take a photo with and without this person. After the session when you see the photos you can always decide if you want to keep the image with them or not. I’ve never come across a case where anyone was offended when I asked them kindly to step out of the photo, as long as they were included in the initial shot.
Filling out your questionnaire
Whenever you schedule a family photo session with me, you will receive a thorough questionnaire asking for the names of every person involved in the session, that way I know exactly who to expect. We can go through these combinations prior to the session to see exactly which ones are a “must have” for your shoot so I have a shot list ready. While these are some examples of different combinations the list is endless! Feel free to create your own combinations for the session.