We have all done it, gathered up our family and friends lined them up and taken a posed photo. Sometimes we have gotten a special photo other times something goes very wrong. Like the time my daughters and I got together and we got dressed up too, curling our hair and everything! Just before we left for our special “girls night” we took a quick posed portrait of the three of us. We had a great time and I was so happy that we would have a photo to remember the lovely evening. However, looking at the photo a few days later I was very disappointed to see that the photo didn’t turn out that great, even despite the fact that we had tried so hard to look our best! It wasn’t us! It was how the photo was taken that ruined this photo! If only we had paid attention to the tips below, then our photo would have turn out just right and we would be enjoying it today! These tips can help with posed portraits!
This blog article will explore some tips to help improve our posed photos!
Tip 1: Lighting, Lighting, Lighting! In my experience the wrong lighting is the culprit behind many ruined photos! Inside or outside too much or to little lighting makes photos look disappointing!
Here are some pointers to help with lighting indoors first. Placing your friend near a window on a cloudy day to have the light shine on their face can often produce a nice effect. (However, don’t place them in front of the window as the camera adjust for the lighted window and their faces will be to dark in the photo.)
Outside having your family in direct sunlight often makes people squint….not that exciting in a photo! A cloudy day is often a photography blessing and many very good photos come out of those day with more diffused lighting. While a cloudy day can produce a good photo, a shadow from a building, tree, or something else can also ruin a photo making people to dark for the rest of the photo. Their faces hidden in the shadow hiding the details!
Whether inside or outside some flashes make some lighting problems too. Giving some people red-eye, or making them look overexposed and ghoulish. Using a softer more natural light might be the way to go in some photos to lighten faces without the overexposure or red-eye. One very nice thing about digital photos and posed portraits is that you can take a test photo – look at how the lighting effects the photo you want to take and then make lighting adjustments.
Tip 2: Look for interesting backgrounds, or at least ones that are not distracting! I remember several wonderful photos of my children with plants growing out of their heads! Not really, but the way the plants were placed in the background behind where the girls were standing made it look like the plant was growing right out of their heads! It is good idea to look around before you click the shutter! See what is in the background and move your children somewhere without the green plant wigs in the background! (Again now that we are in a digital world – after you take the first photo, just check your camera screen to see if something in the photo is distracting. If so, make the changes and retake the new photo without the distracting item!)
Also, it is fun to look for natural backgrounds that frame your son, or friend that adds extra interest in your posed portrait. Many good wedding photographers scout out the wedding setting ahead of the wedding to find the perfect places to pose the couple for that unbelievable photo! It is ok for us to do the same thing! Look for good places to take the photo, some place that would focus the eyes on the person being photographed or as an interesting background for the photo. However, don’t let the background upstage the person in the photo – try to get a good background that compliments the person being photograph and not distracts from the person!
Tip 3: When photographing a group add some interest in the posing of the group. For example, when photographing a group of people instead allowing that comfortable space between them them, try placing them closer together, with their heads at different heights. Also, try to create an interesting compositional shape in the group arrangement. In other words, don’t line everyone up in a straight line! How many times have we all done this!?! Get your friends to pose in a slightly different ways to add interest and focus to the group photo! Another idea to use with groups, is to turn their bodies to face each other instead of the photographer. This makes some for some really interesting photos!
Try some of these tips next time you are going to take posed photos, and see if this helps to improve your photos!
Have a very nice day — get out and take a few planned and posed photos!!!
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Check back tomorrow as we talk about a few tips on taking candid photos!
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