Help! Photographing Young Cousins

[JohnG]

I am a very amateur photographer and a friend requested that I do family pictures for her and her cousins. She is 19 and her cousins are 13, 10 and 8. Any advice on how to pose such different age groups would be great! She also wants the "natural" looking non-posed shots also but I cant figure out how to make this group non-posed and still get good pictures. I think its the ages and the whole distant family thing that is throwing me off. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[wulf]

Could you start with some portraits of her first? Working with one person you know will probably be easier than working with a group. Get some practise in and it will reduce the pressure later on.

Wulf

[Benji]

Most people mistakenly think that because an image looks unposed it was unposed, but that is seldom the actual case. If the example image looks really good chances are a lot of thought was put into it as to how to pose everyone yet make them look unposed.

Good images are thoughtfully created not mindlessly stumbled upon. If you think posing people is hard, wait until you try and not pose them and attempt to get a good image. That is not to say it can't be done but it is hard. I suggest finding a place with good natural lighting outdoors (hopefully you live where it is warm year round) and then asking them to simply "do their own thing" then modify it as needed. Try and keep the faces close to the same height, which means seating the taller people (or even laying them on the ground) and standing the little ones.

Benji