Advice and ideas
How to photograph 3 or more children together
A few ideas of how to get some photos of your children together
Are larger families harder to photograph?
When I first started as a Children’s photographer I used to dread the family photo shoot that began with the telephone conversation – ‘So we have 4 children under the age of 7’!!!! OMG how on earth do you get 4 children to look happy plus both parents to not look stressed out!!
But having photographed thousands of kids over the years, I’ve realised that actually larger families are a joy to photograph. The smaller the family, the more attention and pressure is put upon the children and in my experience this can lead to bad behavour more than with larger groups of kids.
Idea no.1 – A Race
So what can you do:- Well if you’re struggling to get the attention of all of your children, it might be an idea to have a race. Place the kids all in a line, and holding hands. Once they have walked together talking and being silly, get the kids to run towards the camera, shooting as you go. Invariably I have to do this a few times, as one child will veer off wildly into the undergrowth or someone will fall over, but they love it and don’t seem to mind repeating the process.
Along the same theme, find a lovely framed backdrop, line up your children on their own, ready to have another race – when they are waiting for you to say go, you’ll get them just standing there looking expectantly at the camera! Bingo..
Idea no.2 – Bottom Humour and Jokes
Another trick I use for when the kids are in a nice huddle on the floor somewhere, ( this works especially well for younger kids) is to ask them ‘so who’s got the smelliest farts?’ – Bottom humor usually gets a good reaction from the kids, which then in turn, gets the parents to react naturally.
Another ploy is to ask the kids to tell jokes too, I prefer the images where the kids are reacting to one another rather than looking straight at the camera anyway so this is perfect. With really young kids, the jokes usually make no sense whatsoever so it’s great to get the adults laughing.
Don’t do too long with them..
I have to be aware on family shoots with young children, that we are running up against the clock. In my experience we have less then an hour to get finished otherwise kids start to get fed up, want a snack, get tired, or have a tantrum from all of the above.. so I work fast, not so as to stress people out but as efficient as possible then we have happy kids. So I would advice that you do the same, don’t overdo things, less is more etc. If you do 10 mins of fun photos and then leave it, you’re more likely to get them to agree to do more at another time.
If your youngest starts to drift with their attention, get them to do something like jumping behind the other kids, or tickling their older sibling. Or simply feed them!!
Oh and photograph youngest to oldest if you want to take photos of them individually. The youngest is more likely to have a melt down first!
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If you’re a larger family, and need an experienced photographer to capture your portraits, please do get in touch. Take a look at my family portfolio and get in touch.
