I have to be honest. I really hate group portraits. Two people are okay, but three siblings or all the kids with mom and dad is just one horrible subject. 5 people of different size, some of them photogenic, some of them not, dad a little annoyed and the little one crying, but they all have to sit down and smile to the camera. You know the kind of photo I’m talking about. I try to avoid making those. I have made them, yes. I was paid, yes. I hate them from the bottom of my heart, yes. But “customer big boss – me take picture!”
I really try to convince parents that we should make something different – something more alive than people sitting in a row smiling. They could all sit on the floor in a circle and we could make a shot from above with a wide angle with all of them waving. Or they could be fighting a little on the floor with a few pillows, or we could squeeze all of them into the backseat of their car and take that wide angle lens for a spin again. Whatever you do will be a lot better than people in a row. You could also try to adopt some of the classic wedding scenes. You know the kind of photos with the bride in focus and the groom out of focus in the background.
Sometimes it’s easier to do groups outdoor. Maybe you should all go the beach in the sunset or on a cloudy day. In both cases you get a terrific light and a perfect scene for making a lot of action shots that can go into a collage and be a splendid memory of a happy time together. In most cases you want to use a short shutter speed to capture the action, a low aperture (high f-number) and short focal length to get as much of the scene in focus as possible. And hold that button down and make your selections later…
