posing 4 brothers

[stinkydiver61]

Help, the wife has given me the job of shooting this year’s Christmas card picture of our boys this weekend. We have an old stone building in town that she would like to use as the background. We have 4 boys ranging in height and age from a little 7 year old, to a tall 17 year old, with the other two falling somewhere in between. Due to the location they will need to be standing. Any Ideas or examples of how pose this shot without it looking like they are lining up for a firing squad?

Thanks

[Rainyday]

I gave this some thought and came up with nothing. This may sound weird, but go look at music album covers that have 4 male musicians in them. Might give you some posing ideas. Or the publicity shots for family TV sitcoms. I know-it sounds weird but who knows. Maybe it'll inspire you.

[skylark_sings]

All I could think of was maybe arms around each other o walking towards or away from camera.

[DMPhotique]

if they could stand on steps so the are not all level. Then one in front of the other leaning to the left, right, left right. Does that make sense?

[C-Shuler]

Look through some group posing books. I have one I love. I also like to check out the galleries at www.ppa.com (http://www.ppa.com), it is free to join, you do not have to be a member of PPA. Once you are registered for their forum, be sure to check out:

http://www.ppa.com/community/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5

And here is a portrait of a family I did a few years ago. I was inspired to do this pose from my favorite group posing book. I did this for a photography assignment, and you will notice how I made the mistake of cutting off their feet....the teacher was not happy with me. I know this is mostly girls, however, with a couple hand adjustments, you can make this a very totally masculine pose.

http://www.forevermomentsphoto.com/images/posted/group1.jpg