If you love taking pictures but always struggle when taking group or family photos, here are a four tips that can help you.

Avoid the “Police Line Up”

Instead of having everyone line up shoulder to shoulder, try something more natural looking and stagger the people in the picture.  For example, you might stagger your family members on the front steps of a porch or on and around boulders near a pond. You should also have some family members standing and others sitting to have varying degrees of height in the picture. By using a staggered pattern this also helps squeeze in more people if you have a large photo to take.

You should also try to avoid having everyone face their bodies directly at the camera.  Instead, have there bodies angled slightly and their heads looking directly at the camera. The simple trick of having the individuals at an angle in the picture will help improve the look of your portraits significantly as it’s a common technique used by most professional photographers.

Show Relationships

You can do this with the placement and proximity of the people in the picture. Show family togetherness by spacing relatives close together. And for large group pictures,  place couples, siblings or families together in the picture. For example, Grandma and Grandpa might stand next to each, a toddler could be in Mother’s arms, two siblings might have arms slung over each others shoulders. This will not only show the family relationship by grouping immediate family members next to each other but having them stand close to each will also help represent the closeness of the family.

You may also want to consider adding the family pet if they’re calm and will hold still long enough. If you have animals in a picture make sure to raise your shutter speed priority to 1/125 because even the smallest movements will be blurry.

Have the Picture Be Personal

Often family portraits or group photos don’t turn out very good because everyone in the photo looks unnatural. So, your job is to get everyone in the picture to relax enough where they look natural. One way is to use props of something that represents the family or that the family loves doing together. For example, if a family is into baseball you could have each member of the family hold a mitt, ball or bat. Or, if there is a special place the family spends a lot of time like a park or backyard this will also lighten up the mood of the picture.

You also want everyone to get rid of the forced smiles and “frozen” looking bodies. This may be tricky but if you’re good at telling jokes or telling a story this will help lighten the mood. The goal is to distract them enough so they’re smiling naturally. And once you’ve got the smiles and pose you want, tell them when you’re going to take the picture and give them a signal so they know you’re taking the shot.

Lighting

Lighting in a picture may seem like a minor point, but it can “make or break” your shot. Nothing is worse than having everyone posing perfectly and the lighting is bad and the picture turns out too dark or too bright. So, before you start positioning everyone for the picture, know if the lighting will be appropriate for the camera you have. For example, if your camera has a built in flash and you’re inside in a poorly lit room, you may need to find a different location. If you have a built in flash, the best lighting you can get is by going outside.

Outdoors lighting is almost always preferred because it gives more natural tones. And, if you decide to go outdoors avoid taking photos during mid-day as the shadows will be too harsh. The best outdoor light is an overcast or cloudy day or an hour before sunset and after dawn. If this isn’t possible for your group photo then find some shade outdoors that isn’t too dark.

Hopefully these four tips will help you the next time you need to take a family or group picture. Have fun taking pictures and don’t forget to frame them!