Family portrait session with friends

A few weeks ago, friends of ours asked if we could take their family photos, for holiday cards I suppose. We wanted to get some of ours takes as well, so we agreed quickly, set time and place and I started gathering gear.

I always say how photographing people is not exactly my thing. Yet, I really enjoyed the session. I came prepared- used Evernote to quickly gather a collection of posing ideas, including this useful post from Digital Photography School. It was not even necessary, they new what they wanted to do and what look they were after. They even did the clothing matching thing. I was there just to keep pressing the shutter. The late autumn provided a great background for shots, especially this one small meadow we found by the lake, full of leaves to play with or sit on.

I really like how the session turned out. I was surprised how many images I liked from all the variety I took. It was a great confidence booster.

Few lessons I learned:
– for my style of shooting, flash does not work in this situation. When I had to wait for the flash to recharge, I was missing the facial expression or interaction between family.

– portrait photography has its own rule for basic success. For photojournalists it is f/8 and be there. For family portrait, it is f/2.8 and continuous high speed shutter release.