suggestions needed for portraits

Hi all, my brother asked me to do some family portraits for him. I don't really do them, so Im not sure on what I should need for these shots.

My gear consist of S3 Is no add on lenses or anything except for Polarize filter. I did order a slave flash w/mount, it does do bounce and swivels. His thoughts are too use the natural light coming thru the window.

any help would rock thanx in advance

My suggestion....just have fun with it. Set up a chair next to the window for some natural light shots of individuals....Maybe have the family all crowd in on the couch for a family shot, bouncing your flash off the ceiling or wall behind you for light (bouncing off the ceiling can yield dark eyes if not there's not enough distance between you and the subject). Experiment and have fun.....

Unless he has a lot of windows in his home to let in natural light, then most homes would require higher ISOs to get anything but moody dark photos, and I've heard that the compact digitals like yours don't perform well above 400, so my recommendation would be to use your flash. I do like the look of incorporating natural light, but also using flash. I'd get/make one of those on-camera flash diffusers - Gary Fong makes one I think, or it would be a snap to DIY one. Watch bouncing - if they don't have white walls, you'll get a colour cast.

I'm sure somebody more experienced than me can offer more help.

Hi,
i'm no pro but I will try to give you the best advices I can.

First of all, try using the Av mode to play with the dept of field. The advantage of a bridge camera is you have pretty much the same max aperture than a very good lens, might as well use it!

Also, try the manual focus on the eyes of the subject. to try to put everything else out of focus.

Like its been said before try to keep the iso at the lowest possible.

the best advice would be to simply take alot of pictures!!! out of the bunch you will get some you and your family will like for sure!

Thanx for all the tips, I always take alot of pics just to be on the safe side