family portraits in the park

[candleman]

OK,
Well, I’ve got a family portrait session in the park coming up..

What I want is a guideline as to posing and particularly head placement.

I’ve been reading allot of Zeltsmans approach to classic portraiture, as I want a timeless pose. So I have a few good handles from this.
I DON’T want the “choir” type look with everyone bunched together. however this doesnt cover the outdoor look particularly well.

Do you have any links to how to pose a family, IE flow, space, head placement, seated/standing poses?
We will be going to a large garden with benches, flower beds , a stream … yeah, it’s a pretty big botanical Garden.

The group will comprise of Mom, Dad (40’s) daughter and son (18 and 15 roughly) and a dog of some description.
Heres an example of what I’ll try to achieve but in an outdoor seting.

Again.. any guidelines or hints for posing groups naturally, but with a sense of purpose and deliberate placement?

[i speak in math]

I don't have any tips for posing but I can put up some recent shots of, well, family portraits in a park. Take from them what you will.

From Portraits

From Portraits

From Portraits

From Portraits

[candleman]

thanks Eric, i appreciate it.
the first one is pretty close to what i'm aiming at.

you used a strobe in these camera right?? (left in the third)


got a week so plenty of time to compile a shotlist.
better start before that week is over
"WE SHALL SEE"
i'll post the results

[agresbach]

i'm actually interested in opinions on this also. i'm doing my first senior photo's this weekend (my niece) at a historical park w/ tree's, a stream and some old kind of buildings and possibly a botanical garden also coincidentally. being my first time i'm going to have to wing it for poses also. i was going to ask the same thing w/ the strobe usage in the posted photo's above (very good ones by the way). i have a 430 speedlight and a stand for it w/ a hot shoe adapter (16ft) i was thinking of using off camera to enhance the natural light a bit. i have a 5 in 1 reflector coming today too i'm hoping to use (i was recommended this can help quite a bit if used properly)
hopefully we can get some good opinions here

(sorry to jump in on your thread....just seemed like we were looking for the same thing so i didnt want to do a too similar thread)

[i speak in math]

I had two strobes going for these. Very basic setup. Actually,one was a canon 430ez!

I had the strobes on stands with white shoot through umbrellas placed about 45 degrees on subject left and right. The 430ez was at about 1/4 power and the other (much weaker) was on full power (about 1/8 equivilent of the 430ez).

Aperture was at about f/5.6 and shutter speed was kept up to avoid camera shake with ISO.

More examples:
From here to the end of the album are shots taken using this basic setup or a modified version such as just one of the strobes.

[Reflections by Scott]

Hey everyone, new here....

I like to shoot families in a more casual style, get them off their feet and on the ground. Take you two teens and have them sit down in a position of comfort, then move them in closer to each other, add the parents and start shooting.

I try to avoid the "choir" look as much as possible, keep any sitting positions as a "position of comfort" I simply tell them to sit down as if they were hanging out with friends, then add people into the frame from there.

All of my family portraits are archived on disk & in storage, here's one I did with a younger family of 3 a few yrs ago

[candleman]

thanks everyone

heres a couple teasers i've sent to them,
the day went well, perfect weather and happy family.. doesnt get better.

i used one strobe bounced from white umbrella,
their tag-along became my assistant with the gold reflector.







theres a few more in my photostream if anyone is interested.
more to be posted soon.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by candleman

thanks everyone

heres a couple teasers i've sent to them,
the day went well, perfect weather and happy family.. doesnt get better.

i used one strobe bounced from white umbrella,
their tag-along became my assistant with the gold reflector.

theres a few more in my photostream if anyone is interested.
more to be posted soon.

Those look fantastic

[candleman]

thanks Eric
it turned out as i was (roughly) hoping.

i appreciate your comment allot dude,

[JodyGall]

Great job my man! I really like the one of mom and dad. They look very relaxed and happy. A+!