I shot a few family portraits over Thanksgiving and learned something from each shoot. So, now that the dust has settled and the food has finally been digested, I wanted to share a few tips that can help anybody when taking pictures of family and friends…just in time for the holidays! But before we get started, here’s one of my favorite shots I took for my friends’ holiday cards.

The baby’s expression and turn to the camera really made this photo special.

Here are my tips and some of the lessons I learned:

• Get close and focus on the faces. The most important part of the shot is the people, so make sure they’re what you’re thinking about most when shooting. Sometimes I find myself trying to fit too much of the scene into the shot, like the Christmas tree and the fireplace and the dog and the archway. But this can create too much distance between you and the subjects and will take the focus off the faces. So forget about trying to fit it all in. Instead pick one thing (e.g. the sunset) and position your subjects in the scene so that they remain the focus of the photo and everything else is a compliment.
• Tell your subjects to wear solid colors. Clothing with stripes, plaid, polka-dots and other patterns are distracting and can stick out in portraits.
• Don’t position the fam under overhead lighting. When indoors, try to place the subjects in front of lights that shine up or straight on. Lights that are directly overhead, like can lights, track lighting, ceiling-fan lights or, if outside, the afternoon sun, create shadows on faces and add editing work.
• Use fill flash to brighten darker areas created by shadows (like those from unwanted overhead lighting). Even if it’s sunny and the shoot is outside, use a flash anyways. If you’re not afraid of a long-term commitment and are willing to shell out some dinero think about picking up an external flash. I have a Canon Speedlite 580 exii and it has served me very well and dramatically improved my photography. If you’re not ready to jump in the deep end, just use the built-in flash on your camera. You’ll still see a difference.

  Granted, sometimes you don’t need a flash, but in general for group photos like the ones I’m talking about in this post, using the fill flash will help you more often than not.

• Take a ton of photos if there are kids and/or babies in the portrait. Even if it’s the exact same shot, and all the adults are getting annoyed holding the pose, tell them to deal with it and keep firing. Kids make weird faces naturally and getting them to comply with smiling for the camera rarely works. So increase the surface area and take as many photos as possible in each pose. There may only be one where they’re looking at the camera, with eyes open, pseudo-smiling with their fingers out of their noses.
• If there are babies in the pics, bring a toy or prop that will get their attention and hopefully make them smile at the camera. I used an American flag and a key-chain recently and surprisingly, it worked. Be resourceful.
• When positioning people, if possible, build a V, a diamond and then build out. Tell the group to breathe in and then lean their heads in. What am I talking about? This short vid helps explain and gives a good model to follow when positioning a large group.
• Experiment with different poses. Take your time and try as many different settings and poses as you can. If you see something that might be cool, try it out. Add your own flare to the shot. The worst thing that could happen is you don’t use the photo.

Did I miss anything?