Need TIPs on people photography

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if you guys can give me some tips/advice on how to best take photos of people. I will be going to a family event this coming weekend and need some people skills. I'm just an amateur who is still trying to master people photography, any advice,tips or experiments will be a great help for me to succeed. I understand that you need to have the focus point focus on the eyes of the individuals, but how do you focus when you have multiple individuals at different height and size?

p.s. Thanks in advance and hopefully

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that for your subjects to be relaxed, you must be relaxed. For most of us, that's much easier said than done. When you look at other peoples images, remember what you liked and try to replicate them. That will give you the experience to point you toward your own style.

During your family event, get a good mix of posed and candids. You may want to start with younger people (kids) to get into the shooting mood.

Also, when you look at other peoples work, remember that you're only seeing the ones that they want to show you. No photographer nails every shot, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Shoot lots and learn from your successes as well as your failures.

So far as mastering people photography? Good luck! I've been working on that for 30 years. Be patient. Think before you shoot. Enjoy yourself!

---woof!

Based on your post, I'm not sure how far along you are in understanding photography. Do you have a fairly firm grasp on the dynamics between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO? Really, those are the issues you need to concentrate on (as far as the technical aspects.) There are a ton of resources on the net for this as well as great books.

As far as the personality part, just be calm and engaging and try and be a natural as you can.

Good luck and shoot RAW and don't be afraid to put the camera on the AUTO setting for the first few times.

SamuelYCWang wrote in post #5675787
I understand that you need to have the focus point focus on the eyes of the individuals, but how do you focus when you have multiple individuals at different height and size?

You need to use small aperture for group photos (f8 or f11) to keep everyone in focus.

About the focus point, I think you can point on the middle person in the group. experts may have better view on this...

Thank you all for those advice. It just goes to shoe how much more I need to work on.