how to photo 7 children?

[tammi]

i have a photo shot tomorrow--7 kids between 24 and 4--outside--do you have any posing ideas

[Trainboy]

In a line, smallest to largest.
Is that cliche? If the idea occurs to me, I'm sure it is =)
Edit: Taken looking down the line, smallest kid closest to the camera, all of them with their head turned towards you and body straight...well, I think it sounds cool.

[collierportraits]

Uh, wow. Trainboy has an idea. Of all the ideas I've ever heard, well, um, that's one of them. ;)

Build your groups in a pyramid is the time honored way to do portraiture, but if you're looking for something a little different, maybe stand some and have some of the younger guys crouching and then you can sit one or two of the older ones. You can always stand the youngest ones next to an older child that is sitting or crouching. Hard to give you ideas in writing, so keep looking on here for ideas...

[The_Duke_Of_Eli]

Having a fisheye would be handy for circular group shots. A fun formal-type shot would be to have the smaller kids on the shoulders of the average (middle) height kids so that everyone looks to be the same height. It would do wonders for framing. For creatives, get down to the youngest's level and experiment with shallow DOFs.

[Ryan W]

Sweets
:)
good luck! lol

[madhatter04]

Definitely try an abandoned warehouse/cannery, railroad tracks, or under a pier. ;)
In my experiences, I think the best thing to do in this case would be make it as fun and natural as possible. Then again, stuffy portraits ain't my thang.

[Svetlana]

so how did it go??

[theveed]

Setup your camera in advance, place little stickers on the floor where you want them to stand, tell them to pick a spot while you're remote trigger on the ready. At the last minute when you'll trigger the shutter, do something silly to get their attention (a silly hat or face mask works wonders on the under-7 crowd).

[letsmakeart]

4 year olds never stand where you want them to of their own accord, and capturing that is part of capturing them.

[_Jo_]

get them to lay down - heads just touching in a circle (feet sticking out) - you stand over and take the shot - make sure your camera is around your neck and firmly attached so as not to drop!

Another idea is you crouch down and the stand in a circle put arms around shoulders, lean over you, you take the shot directly up and get faces looking down.