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From the A*List Newsletter
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Photographing Your Family
From the book Photographing Your Family by Joel Sartore. Photo by Sven Klaschik/iStockphoto.com
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Try a different angle, get down low, and look for beautiful light when photographing your family. |
For a limited time, get 20% off when you buy Photographing Your Family.
Top 10 Tips to Photographing Your Family
1. Composition
2. Rule of Thirds
3. Backgrounds & Foregrounds
4. Closer & Farther Away
5. Macro Photography
6. Lower & Higher
7. Shoot Vertically
8. Experiment
9. Mixing & Matching Techniques
10. Light
Composition
Artful composition means one thing: being keenly aware of the surroundings of your subject and adjusting to make the best photograph. Good composition takes nothing more than a little time and an awareness of what's around you. Simplifying what surrounds your subject is the big first step, but good photos, come in many packages. For every picture with a clean, cluttered background, there will be another that is equally nice despite its busy foreground and background.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is the first rule photographers learn. Take any picture in your archive and imagine a tic-tac-toe grid drawn on top of it. Are there any interesting points in your picture that rest on the four places where the lines intersect? If there are, you have successfully used the rule of thirds. If most of your pictures have the subject centered in the picture, you need to experiment. By applying this rule the pictures become intentionally asymmetrical, and often, more compelling. The next time you take a picture, imagine the tic-tac-toe grid on your camera lens as you compose the shot.
Backgrounds & Foregrounds
Objects in front of and behind your subject are extremely important to your photograph. Get in the habit of looking at surroundings before you shoot and either reducing them (if they're a distraction) or incorporating them. There are a few common mistakes to avoid with foregrounds and backgrounds. First, objects in or around the subject's head can be greatly distracting. Watch out for telephone poles, window frames, intersecting lines, and anything else that might look like it's sticking out of your subjects head. You'll also want to avoid anything of a greatly different color, contrast, or brightness that draws attention away from your subject.
Closer & Farther Away
Note the distance from which you usually shoot pictures, and change it. Just walking a few steps in either direction will radically change the feel of your photographs. "Filling the frame" is a classic and effective way to take great photos, and it can be accomplished by either moving in close (filling the frame with the subject) or moving away (letting the environment fill the frame). This is what composing is all about—changing the idea of your photograph from something simple to something more compelling and unusual.
Macro Photography
Many point-and-shoot cameras have a "macro" function, which is the fancy photo term for "close-up." The mode is almost universally the "flower" setting of a camera's automatic modes. First, find an area where there is ample light, preferably light that is soft and diffuse. Next, pick a background to photograph against. Go for something simple, but remember that using the macro requires a very still subject.
Lower & Higher
Like distance from your subject, the angle you shoot from has probably become a habit—eye-level is the most common. Get high, get low. Get overhead. Stand on a chair or a bed. Or lie down and snap the photo from the floor. You'll be amazed how just changing your angle can dramatically alter your photos. This is exactly what a photographer does to make his or her pictures better: make a little (or a lot of) extra effort to capture a different look.
Shoot Vertically
There are some times when it's better to use your camera vertically than horizontally: buildings, people (both for close-ups and for shooting only one or two people), and anything that is more vertical in nature than horizontal. Also, look for composition concepts to suggest a vertical picture, like lines, color, balance, and weight. Trees, balloons, windows, doorways—these are common objects that lend themselves to vertical photos.
Experiment
Don't limit yourself to just one or two photographs of each scene. Professional photographers will take dozens of shots of every scene for many reasons. They might subtly change their composition, waiting for the right light, or they shoot continuously while waiting for the subject to land in absolutely perfect position. The first rule of composition? Don't center. The second rule? Break the rules. Try something new, shake off old habits, and take risks. The payoff? Fresher photo albums with a whole lot more pizzazz.
Mixing & Matching Techniques
Try as many composition techniques as possible with each photo you take—or at least as many as you have time for. Consider the backgrounds in your photo while also employing the rule of thirds. Use the rule of thirds and break the frame. Go in really tight and still don't center that close-up. Then, break the rule of thirds. Put the subject back in the center of the frame. Change your angle or pull far back. Again, it's all experimentation, trying to find what works best for you and what appeals to you the most aesthetically. There is no right or wrong, so be willing to try anything.
Light
Light is the very essence of a photograph. Light's many qualities offer myriad emotional choices for your photos. A blue cast can feel cool and desolate; while warm, red light soothes. The direction of light also affects how it feels. Long shadows in the evening make a different photo than the harsh, overhead light of noon. And no shadows at all—those few minutes just before or after sundown—can be otherworldly. Shadows can be revealing Soft shadows signify a warm, romantic scene; while harsh, direct shadows show suspenseful moments.
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