Family Portrait Photography Gallery
(Critques of Family portraits)

Readers of Digital Photo Tips have requested a family portrait photography gallery to be added to the web site, so here it is. Studying a portrait gallery is a good way to get more family portrait ideas for posing and clothing choices.

I try to be critical of my own portrait photography and analyze posing and lighting success when I get back home after each portrait session.

A terrifically nice client of mine wanted an outdoor portrait in their beautifully landscaped back yard.

Because of the clothing choice they made, I placed the mom in between her son and her husband to create color balance.

Normally I would place the tallest individual (the father) in the middle, between his wife and his son.

In this instance I felt that I should have the mother in the red shirt hold the small dog in front of herself and make it a more symmetrical family portrait.

If anything, I could have had the son stand on something like a book to raise his level just a few inches and it would have created a "U" shape for the pose.

I don't do many standing poses like this, but it worked quite well here with their clothing choice and the background.



Beach photography can be tricky because of quickly changing weather and lighting conditions.

A fog rolled in as the sun went down and the un-retouched photos were lacking in contrast.

I had to do quite a bit of retouching in PhotoShop to increase the fine details and give this family portrait more contrast.

The neutral color of their clothing and the rocks, combined with the hazy background really bring out the flesh tones nicely.

The idea for this family portrait was to have each family dress in a different pastel color.

The grandmother wanted it to be a casual portrait so everyone agreed to wear jeans and to go barefoot.



As you can gather if you've read some of the tips on lighting found in other articles, I use Open Shade for outdoor portrait lighting whenever I can.

I put this family portrait in the photography gallery because it was a unique situation.

The parents did not have much luck in taking their very-active 3-year old triplet boys to a traditional studio.

They thought their own home environment would be a better situation to photograph their active children.

To get this portrait I actually had to stand in front of a large screen television. This is where the boys attention was was riveted and was the only way I could get them all to look in the same direction at once.

I used a studio strobe aimed at the wall above and behind the television to the right, to create a large, soft light source.

It might not win an award for artistic design at a photography print competition but it was a definite hit with the parents and I was glad I could capture this family portrait for them to enjoy for many years.

I used my longest telephoto to take this portrait from across part of a lake.

It was natural lighting at it's finest. I posed this family portrait of 5 so that each of their heads was at a different height.

I then cropped it at waist level which eliminated some distracting things in the foreground.

The sixth image in this Family Portrait Photography Gallery was taken just after sunset.

This beach portrait is a classic example of the "M" pose.

As your eye travels from left to right, draw an imaginary line from head to head of the subjects.

Yes, the dog is definitely a part of the family and was posed in that specific spot to make it a pleasing composition.

As you gain experience with your photography, you develop a feel for better posing and composition without having to think about strict composition rules.

If you've enjoyed the tips on family portrait poses in this family portrait photography gallery, please share them below with someone you care about.

Happy Portrait Photography Shooting!
Photo TipMan

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