..or Getting Good Family Portraits with Your Point & Shoot Digital Camera

Maybe you just sprang for a shiny new digital camera. Or maybe you've got the same, reliable one you've had for a couple years now. Either way, you've decided that you're going to get the most out of it and you're going to get some good family shots where your family actually looks...good.

Here are some tips to make your family look their best.

Fill the Frame The subjects in your family pictures are your family. Not the Christmas tree, not the art on your walls, not the knickknack on the end table. So make sure that the majority of the space in the picture is taken up by your family. If you position your family on the couch but set the camera up so far away that you get the couch, the chair next to it, the stairs in the far corner and the stain on the carpet then the picture becomes less and less about your family and more about everything that surrounds them. You're taking this picture to show off your family. All of the other things that clutter photographs distract the viewer from your message, which is your family. The best way to keep that from happening is to make sure that your family is the only thing in the picture for people to pay attention to.

I am one of those crazy dog people. You know the type. My office has a picture of my partner and some art but most importantly it has many pictures of my dog. Luckily my family has a lot of other crazy dog people so when I take these pictures and share them no one rolls their eyes at me too violently. Hands down this is the best picture I've ever taken of my dog Grace.

A lot of elements came together to make it nice (the light on her back, the conversion to black & white, the position she was lying in) but the key was my subject totally filled the frame. I was taking a picture of my dog and I framed the shot as tight as I could on her. Nothing else in the frame to look at, nothing else to be distracted by.

Compose Your Shot If something is going to be in the picture make sure it's on purpose. The picture below of my brother and I would be a lot better if we didn't look like total alcoholics since we're standing near the bar at a large party. It also would be better if the head of the woman standing behind me didn't look like it was growing out of my shoulder. And as we've already addressed it would be even better still if my brother and I were more of the focus of the picture. The trees and the bar are nice and all but they weren't the point.

You've got a digital camera, use it to your advantage. Not only can you look at the shot in the lcd viewfinder, you can also review the shot immediately. Don't waste this option. It would be best to pay attention to heads growing out of shoulders before you snap the picture but nobody is perfect and with your digital camera you don't have to be. You aren't paying for bad pictures to be developed.

Light is Your Best Friend Your camera may take pretty good pictures in low light but why make it if you don't have to? If you're taking a family portrait to send with your holiday cards or give to Grandma for her birthday then do everything you can to make it a great one. The more light you have to work with the more your potential for a great picture goes up.

Where does the greatest and most abundant light come from? Yes, the sun of course. Shocking I know but I'm suggesting that perhaps you consider moving outside. I could, but won't, count the number of dark family pictures that came tumbling out of Christmas cards at my house this year. The intentions were good of course, "ah let's pose our family around the Christmas tree." While a great idea in theory most people wanted the lights on the tree to show up well, which required at minimum, dim conditions. They didn't seem to consider what the dim conditions did to the people in the photos. The trees looked good. The people? Not so much. So step away from the windowless rooms and if possible out into the sun. Obviously don't give your family frostbite while setting up the shot but use your best judgment and figure out a scenario where the details in your family's faces aren't all lost because there just wasn't enough light to capture them.

Or worse than details not being captured, a lack of light is frequently going to lead to your shots being blurry. Your camera's shutter opens and allows light in, that's what makes capturing an image possible. With typical point and shoot cameras the shutter can't open as far as more expensive slr cameras. If the shutter can't open really wide then you need to somehow allow more light into the camera to make up for it. You do that by keeping the shutter open longer. When the shutter is open it's going to catch even the smallest movement and that causes blurriness. The longer your shutter is open the more chance someone is going to move. Even if that movement is slight it's still going to effect the sharpness of your picture. Trying to make your family (espeically kids and animals) sit still in a lowlight situation where your camera's shutter has to stay open longer (like one full second instead of 1/250th of a second) is just setting them up for failure.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "I can just use the flash to help with the lowlight situations." Yes, you could but for the love of all that is beautiful I beg you not to. Have you looked at what a built in flash does to people? No? Let's move on then.

Natural Light

The room was dark, the kid was cute in the mask. What else could I do but use the flash? Nothing, so I did. But am I pleased with the shot? No. Look at how translucent his skin looks. He's like a baby Vampire Lestat. There are sharp reflections all over the place. His eyes were red as well but a little software work took care of that. The point is this was a snapshot that caught a cute moment, not a planned picture that I wanted to show off later on. If you're planning a picture, do just that: Plan it. Plan to take it when you can use plenty of natural light (or at the very least good lamp light) so that your family doesn't fall victim to any of the many problems with using built in flash.

We Can Tell if they Aren't Comfortable I don't know where everyone got the idea that family portraits had to be stiffly posed, formally situated affairs. Most of them look boring, predictable and kind of unpleasant. I mean we can tell when your kids are choking on the bow ties you strapped around their necks, when the baby is pinching your wife just off camera, and when your teenager is miserable in the position you've posed him in. When your family is comfortable they are more relaxed. Their smiles don't seem as forced and they look like a happy family instead of one that's posing as happy. So put your family in positions and situations that aren't unnaturally posed. Don't force them to huddle around the formal sofa once a year. Shoot them in their element, shoot them where they are comfortable.

Let's look at our international baby of mystery again:

Cute in a way but not only does he look like a baby vampire he also looks so uncomfortable. If I'd planned the shot I could have laid him down and worked with him to get a better, more comfortable position for him. But then again, he hated the mask. If he had free motion with his hands he probably would have ripped the mask off. So be flexible. Have a shot or a pose or a location in mind but be open to better options and plan B's. Trust me, if you've put thought into the shot you'll be better equiped to think on your feet if something goes wrong.

Conclusion Perhaps you really don't want to put this much thought or effort into your family pictures. Maybe you're content with the standard, cheesy fake smiled, canned posed shots around the fireplace that everyone else takes. But please, think of your Christmas card list! Think of how many people on your list get the same kind of holiday card pictures over and over. Cut one family out, paste another in. Think of Grandma's picture wall! You have the power to make your put your husband's loser brother's family portrait to shame.