any suggestions for first time family portrait shoot for a fellow photog

yet another give me advice thread haha

so a local photog that comes to me for lots of advice on photography and running her business has asked if i can do family portraits for her family. i initially explained to her that i have limited experience with portraiture much less family photography. most of my knowledge of lighting, composition, photography comes from my strong background in television and corporate video work. so with that said when it comes to lighting getting a nice composition and background i have no problems. she pretty much really wanted me to do their photos because she like some of the work i have done.

was wondering if there is any advice as the only time i have ever done photos of a group is for corporate events and awards ceremonies.

i do not think i have much of a kit to execute the shots i would like but i have enough to do a really nice job. pretty much one of the main reasons she really wanted me to shoot as well was because i shoot on lights and since her business is new she wants to learn how to use speedlights as well since she has started to master natural light family portraits rather well.

i was planning on taking:

5D3
24-70 f2.8L mkII
135L
2 speedlights with triggers, stands, single umbrella (wish i had 2) and leaving the softbox in the car unless she requests individual photos which then id use the softbox.

any advice or should i just do my thing and have fun and hope that she will help out with posing and whathaveyou lol

First of all, your gear is more than sufficient for family portraits. You have one of the best cameras ever made by Canon coupled with the best medium wide angle zoom. Not to mention arguably the best portrait lens ever created.

Second of all, will the portraits be indoors or out; natural or artificial light, or a combination?

How many people are in these "family portraits"?

And lastly (and most importantly), BE CONFIDENT! She comes to you for a lot of advice. She came to you because obviously she admires your work. She wouldn't have asked someone who she didn't respect. Own your craft and be confident. Look up ideas on Pinterest. Look up ideas on Flikr, Google, and wherever else. I do all the time.

Recently, my mentor in photography came to me and asked me to do family portraits. I was very nervous, because he has taught me just about everything from the ground up. I know he surpasses me in technical skill and knowledge by quite a bit, but I agreed anyway. I'm glad I did too, because he loved the photos! It's an amazing feeling when you make someone you look up to proud. It sounds like this other photographer already respects and looks up to you, so the pressure is off. Now just go out and take some pictures!

Here are a few from that session with my mentor:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/p8so​jA

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q7Sx​UZ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pQuf​aJ

it will be 4 people total husband/wife, 10 year old, and infant thats 5 or younger (i am terrible at guessing age as i have little experience around children)

will be outdoors with mostly mixed light using the umbrella for fill.

my plan i guess is to find great backgrounds and just work each spot. im not sure as far as the approach.

for your first shot were yall just walking around and you captured a candid shot or is that posed?

i want to take advantage of speedlights as much as i can without it causing the shoot to slow down i guess because that little bit of umbrella fill can really make a shot go from being cool to really popping out and being a wow shot

she also mentioned them being christmas cards as well because she was excited about the fact that she just noticed the tree that went up in the park. so one shot will definitely be them in front of the tree when the lights turn on and blasting it out of focus for some cool holiday bokeh

The first shot is posed, but the beauty is you can suggest an "open pose" where you start it off and they decide what to do next. It gives you that candid look. For example, I had everyone look at the youngest child. They proceeded to lift her up and you can tell the smiles are genuine, not something I told them to do. You could tell everyone to "walk toward you and talk to each other". After about 1 second they will not be paying attention to you and you can get some good candids. Or make different people the focus. Example: Everyone look at __________ (the 5 year old) and laugh. Have the child stand in the middle with his parents on either side. Everyone looks at him and laughs (Have him look toward mom or dad. Looking forward will be awkward.) Be careful though, on a shot like this you don't want them looking in too far. Pictures of the tops of their heads are no good, you want facial expressions.

If you're bringing multiple flashes and umbrellas, will someone be helping you? Carrying all that around while trying to pose, find pretty backgrounds, and change lenses will be quite challenging. Remember, children have no patience, and once you've lost them one or two times you've lost them for the whole day.

If it were me, I'd think about not using the speedlights and finding good natural light spots. If using the 135 and you're not doing a close crop, the flash will have minimal effect outdoors anyway. Consider instead a reflector (only if you have an assistant to carry it) or nothing at all. The above pictures were natural light only. I think all were taken at 135-200mm. A flash wouldn't have helped them at all, even if I was using one.

i will likely not have an assistant to help out. looks like the smart plan is to shoot natural light majority of the shoot and then end it on the best found background for posed shots with the umbrella and then the last shot of the tree with lights and umbrella for key. i guess this would be easier if there were people that all had patience and long attention spans but that would make it too easy and i enjoy the challenge

greatly appreciate your advice

I think you'll do great! Can't wait to see pictures. Just make sure that you're not scared of natural light. It can be your friend! No flash on any of these, if you care to look: https://www.flickr.com …edmjarvisphotog​raphy/sets

im not too scared of natural light but i have so much fun crafting light and mixing sources that its been forever since i shot 100% ambient :P

ill definitely share some samples if they are cool with it which im sure they will be because they are pretty cool people

Brian_R wrote in post #17282405
i have so much fun crafting light and mixing sources

That's a good way to approach it! Get creative and have fun!

Jarvis Creative Studios wrote in post #17282277
First of all, your gear is more than sufficient for family portraits. You have one of the best cameras ever made by Canon coupled with the best medium wide angle zoom. Not to mention arguably the best portrait lens ever created.

Second of all, will the portraits be indoors or out; natural or artificial light, or a combination?

How many people are in these "family portraits"?

And lastly (and most importantly), BE CONFIDENT! She comes to you for a lot of advice. She came to you because obviously she admires your work. She wouldn't have asked someone who she didn't respect. Own your craft and be confident. Look up ideas on Pinterest. Look up ideas on Flikr, Google, and wherever else. I do all the time.

Recently, my mentor in photography came to me and asked me to do family portraits. I was very nervous, because he has taught me just about everything from the ground up. I know he surpasses me in technical skill and knowledge by quite a bit, but I agreed anyway. I'm glad I did too, because he loved the photos! It's an amazing feeling when you make someone you look up to proud. It sounds like this other photographer already respects and looks up to you, so the pressure is off. Now just go out and take some pictures!

Here are a few from that session with my mentor:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/p8so​jA 0007 by Jared M. Jarvis Photography, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q7Sx​UZ 0017 by Jared M. Jarvis Photography, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pQuf​aJ 0002 by Jared M. Jarvis Photography, on Flickr

Great shots! Great locale and wonderful execution
What was your lighting setup, if I may ask?

He said at the end of the post that it was all natural light. I agree, great work!

chexjc wrote in post #17328460
He said at the end of the post that it was all natural light. I agree, great work!

D'oh...
Who says you have to be able to read to be an engineer

I have done a total of 4 family shoots in the last couple of months. Still learning along the way. Here are a couple of observations that I have learned in even those few efforts.
1. bring 1 speedlight on a light stand with no modifiers. Umbrellas are essentially sails and will fall over and break if you don't have someone there to help or weigh down your stand.
2. Pick early or late day photos. The natural light will be much better at those times, but even then the speedlight will help with filling the shadows.
3. Ask the older child to help you with your gear, the less expensive stuff obviously. But asking them to help makes them a part of it and they will love that.
4. Get photos of single family members, then mom with one and then both kids. Then dad with one and both kids and then some with just the kids and some with just the parents. When doing the parents, have the kids help you pose mom and dad. Even if the photo is not great, the memories created with the family will give them reason to call you again.
5. Scout for locations. Especially this time of year. I had several locations picked out for each shoot because is one the fall colors disappeared when the wind kicked up and the trees were bare. We had to move that to someplace else. The other was inundated with other photogs, so having a back up location was key to not impacting the timing.
6. Avoid mottled light like the plague. There is nothing worse than a great shot with horrible light. The family wanted them in a certain spot but the trees were moving and the light was all over the place. I hated the shots and the family was not happy with them, but they did not know why until I pointed out the lighting on their clothes and faces was mottled.
7 Have confidence in what you want to shoot. If they have suggestions do what they want first, but also make sure you get your shots in. My first shoot, I let the family dictate that poses and I hated them. The second shoots on, they got the shots they wanted, and the shots I composed they liked much more in the end. Don't be afraid to tell them what to do to pose.
8. This is one a friend suggested that worked wonders. Getting everyone in a family to focus on you is tough. I have them all close their eyes and tell them when I count to three to open them. During the count, I move to the left or right of where I was originally. When I say three, they open their eyes and then they all look for me in the new spot and those shots are almost 90% all of them looking right at me.
9. Take shots on continuous shot mode. You might get the first shot right, but when you don't that second, third or fourth shot might just be the one that is the "ONE"