Beautiful Family Photos: How To Easily Make Perfect Memories
Beautiful family photos make for perfect memories.
Family photos are one of the most popular sub genres of photography. While making perfect memories of your own family isn’t always easy, I found it’s absolutely worth the effort.
The above image features my dear old mum, Mary, and my younger sister, Gabrielle. The photo was made, under the front verandah, at our former family home in Hamilton, a country town in south-east Australia.
The family home has since been sold, and my mother has passed away. Needless to say, her passing makes this photo even more important to me.
How to Create Perfect Memories of Loved Ones
I remember making the photo of my mum and sister with a Canon camera I owned at the time. I employed a Canon 85 mm f/1.2 L-series USM lens at a moderate f/4.5 aperture.
I love incorporating a shallow depth of field into portrait photos.
Indeed, the beautiful, creamy bokeh one can achieve with a short telephoto focal length and a physically wide aperture is the hallmark of a lot of great portrait photos.
However, it’s difficult to keep two or more people in focus when employing such a shallow depth of field.
I do so by ensuring the subjects are placed in such a way that their eyes are almost exactly the same distance away from the camera’s film plane or sensor, where the image is formed.
In the case of the above photo, I directed my mum and sister to place their heads next to each other and for my sister to lean forward until I determined both subject’s eyes were parallel to the camera.
Not only does this approach ensure both subject’s eyes are sharp, at a relatively wide aperture, but it creates a more intimate and loving portrait.
Given the relatively modest f/4.5 aperture employed, it’s pleasing that I managed to render the surroundings out of focus.
What’s more, the round shape of the out-of-focus highlights does showcase the lens’s bokeh characteristics quite well.
The best way to achieve such significant blur in the background is to ensure the camera-to-subject distance is significantly less than the distance between the subject and the background.
To do so consider the following:
Move the subjects further out from the background.
Move the camera closer to the subjects.
Combine both of the above for an even more pronounced effect.
Notice how I also made use of the overhanging creepers and background shrubs, rendered out of focus by the relatively shallow depth of field, to frame the girls and draw attention towards them.
Introducing Color into a Black and White Family Portrait
Image processing was conducted in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, where I added a very subtle vignette and a lovely warm color tone to further enhance the photo.
I love introducing color into black and white photos in this way.
The idea is to employ color to enhance mood.
In this case the warmer tonal rendering is sympathetic and suggests nostalgia.
Conversely, a cool bluish tone, when combined with very different posing and composition, could suggest notions of alienation, sadness or melancholy.
How to Reduce Dynamic Range in Family Portrait Photos
I was lucky that it was one of those bright, sunny days when folks are happy to go outside and be photographed.
The problem, of course, is that bright light spells death for the portrait photographer.
Take a close look at the portrait of my mum and sister to get an indication of just how high the dynamic range of the scene was when I made the photo.
To manage this situation, I positioned the girls under the verandah and moved myself until I ensured most of the brightest areas in the background where excluded from the composition.
While their faces are side lit, positioning my mum and sister under the verandah reduced the amount of bright sunlight reaching their faces.
Nonetheless, bright light produces darker shadows and I needed to add some light into the shaded side of their faces to reduce the relative contrast between the sunlit and shaded sides of their faces.
I can’t over emphasize the importance of this procedure, particularly when making side-lit portrait photos.
You can use a diffuser to reduce the brightness of the light on the brighter side of the face. By doing so the shaded side will actually photograph less dark than it otherwise would.
If the shaded side of the face is still darker than you prefer, a reflector can be employed to bounce light into the shadows to further reduce the ratio between the brighter and darker sides of the face.
It’s great to have the skill to be able to employ these techniques to craft great portrait photos, in camera.
But that means carrying gear (diffuser, reflector, stands) and often having one or more people available to hold them in position for you.
I’ve got great memories of enlisting little kids and grandparents to take on the role of assistance in villages in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
One of the great things about experiencing these situations, time and time again, is that it teaches you practical, inexpensive and easy to implement solutions that, more often than not, save the day.
In the case of the above photo, the family’s white weatherboard home acted as a reflector to add some light into the shaded side of their faces.
I also employed a white outdoor table, which was standing just behind me, to make this photo.
By turning the table on its side, and positioning it behind me, I was able to use it as a large reflector adding light into the shaded sides of their faces.
It might sound like a lot but, because I’m well practiced, I was able to make all the physical and camera related adjustments and fire off a couple exposures within a few short minutes.
And that’s a good thing because, from my experience, that’s all you’re likely to get when photographing family members.
These days I’m far more likely to move my subjects a little further into the shade which, by itself, reduces the contrast between the brighter and darker sides of the face.
Photography is a physical endeavor, and so many of the portrait photos you make will be improved by doing one or more of the following:
Move the subject
Move yourself
Ensure the background is no brighter than your subject
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Family Photos Are Hugely Popular
Rest assured, you’re not alone in wanting to make really beautiful family photos.
It’s estimated that around 2 trillion photos will be taken throughout 2026. That’s around 66,000 photos per second or, on average, 5.7 billion photos per day.
What’s more, by 2030, around 2.3 trillion photos will be taken every year.
Needless to say, over 99% of photos are made with a digital camera, around 94% of which are taken with a mobile phone.
Interestingly, these crazy numbers are boosted by lots of screenshots used to save recipes, directions, memes and notes.
Did you know that, on average, we share around 14 billion images through social media and messaging platforms daily.
The most popular platform for sharing pictures is WhatsApp, where over 6.9 billion images are shared daily.
On Snapchat the number is 3.8 billion; on Facebook it’s 2.1 billion via chats, posts and messenger; and on Instagram over 1 billion photos are shared daily.
We’ve certainly come a long way since the first photograph titled View from the Window in Le Gras was taken in 1826.
Family portrait of some members of my extended family in Hamilton, Australia.
What’s Hard About Making Family Photos?
The saying that “There's nothing more important than family” is, to my mind, particularly relevant to photographers.
After all, it’s our specific skills and motivations that can ensure memorable images are made of loved family members that will be treasured for generations to come.
But beware of complacency. The clock ticks for all of us, and my advice is to make those family photos, while you still can.
Being able to make photographs of your loved ones is a privilege for the enthusiastic photographer.
The older I get the more importance I place on making these pictures and the happier I am to share them with my family.
However, it’s not always easy to photograph family members. As a consequence your ability to do so is greatly compromised. Here’s a few reasons why that’s the case.
Your position, particularly when you’re young, in the family’s pecking order may make it hard to gain the cooperation you need from siblings.
There’s no financial transaction (from them to you) to motivate your parents and/or siblings to do what you need them to do to make really great photos.
It’s often more difficult to get family members to do what you want or need them to do, compared to what’s possible when photographing paying customers.
Beautiful outdoor family photos provide perfect memories for years to come.
How to Create Beautiful Outdoor Family Photos
The fact is most photos of people, including family photos made at important events like weddings and family holidays, are made outdoors.
That’s particularly the case on bright, sunny days when people want to be out and about.
After all, sunshine makes us happy and, as long as it’s not too hot, it’s the time when we most want to be active.
But making great family photos under bright light conditions simply defeats most amateur photographers.
Perhaps, one day, artificial intelligence in your mobile device, DSLR or mirrorless camera will overcome this problem.
But, despite significant advancements over the years, there’s still a long way to go to matching the truly beautiful results that are possible when photographing under ideal lighting conditions.
To make a good picture under bright, high contrast conditions you have two options:
Use a diffuser and/or reflector to better control the brightness and quality of the light reaching the primary subject or subjects in a portrait photo.
Employ a flash to lower the dynamic range between the subject and a much brighter background.
Move your subjects into softer, more flattering light.
Over the years I’ve employed all of these techniques but, these days, I usually favor moving the subjects into open shade where the light is less harsh and the people I’m photographing can more easily open their eyes.
That’s exactly how I went about making the above photo of two of my nieces, Anna and Jessica, with Rocky the Wonder Dog, on the front nature strip outside my parent’s family home.
It was late afternoon on a hot Christmas Day.
Fortunately, the sun was low on the horizon which placed the scene into open shade, making it perfect for family portraits.
Notice how all the subject’s eyes are open and looking straight into the camera’s lens.
What a great result compared to photographing earlier in the day when bright, overhead light would have resulted in squinting and dark shadows forming under the subject’s eyes.
Notice also, the luminous quality of the girl’s skin and the lovely texture in Rocky’s coat.
That’s the other great advantage of placing your subjects in open shade, as it provides a soft, diffuse and flattering light for portrait photos.
Of course another great advantage of photographing family portraits in open shade is that you don’t need diffusors, reflectors, stands and/or assistants to better control the outcome.
Needless to say, if you have a mirrorless camera, you can more accurately assess the brightness, contrast and color balance of your photo through the camera’s viewfinder, before the shutter has been released.
No more trying to make decisions, after the fact, by looking at a washed out image on your phone or DSLR camera’s LCD screen under bright sunshine.
Now that’s what I call freedom.
Why Do You Use Lightroom Or Photoshop?
Please be careful not to overly rely on applications like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop for any family portrait photos you create.
Sure, those software applications are part of my usual workflow. But I employ them to enhance an already good photo, not to fix bucket loads of bad ones.
I just don’t have the time nor the energy for such non-creative pursuits. For the most part, I see image enhancements as a creative pursuit and fixing poor quality images as drudgery.
And I’m too old for drudgery.
I hope you feel the same way, because that’s the kind of attitude that will make you a better photographer and allow you to spend most of your time and energy on the more creative aspects of photography.
Clearly, we all need to be on top of our game technically.
But not as a end in itself. Technique is a gateway, a passport into a world of connection and empowerment where, finally, you’re able to more fully explore your own creative nature.
Just remember, if it doesn’t look right in camera, particularly if you’re using a mirrorless camera, something’s wrong and you need to act before you release your camera’s shutter.
Why Professional Family Portrait Photographers Love Botanical Gardens
When it comes to making beautiful family photos, most issues will be resolved by situating the family group in the shade against a darker background.
There’s a reason why professional wedding and portrait photographers love making photos in botanical gardens.
And it’s not because of the flowers.
It’s because big, leafy trees create large areas of even shade.
What’s more, by using trees to cover up a bright sky background, professional photographers are able to fill the background with tones that are darker, or at least not a lot brighter, than the people being photographing.
Please take control of the situation, before you make any photos, and you’ll be saved from the tedium of having to invest time and energy into editing poor quality, unattractive family photos after the fact.
Let’s not forget, your job is to create beautiful, life-affirming family photos.
By adhering to the simple to follow advice I’ve provided in this post you’ll achieve better results, more easily, and be able to provide the family in question with truly beautiful photos that will serve as perfect memories for many, many years to come.
What I Don’t like About Flash Photography
When using a flash you usually have to make one or more test images before you’re confident you have the right brightness, contrast and white balance.
Personally I find working with fill flash to be a little stressful. I’m perfectly capable of doing it but, for the reasons I mentioned above, I just don’t like it.
There are other, quite technical reasons why fill flash can be problematic, but that topic is for another day.
Nonetheless fill flash can really save the day when the lighting conditions are against you and you’re unable to move your subject/s to an environment where the lighting is more conducive for pleasing portraits.
There have been several commercial jobs where my understanding and application of fill flash really saved the day.
One of those jobs involved photographing former world champion Aussie swimmer, Ian Thorpe, in various locations around Australia for a two-part TV show on the environment called A Fish Out of Water.
Thorpie is a great guy and I found him to be easy going yet totally professional. Frankly, he was a joy to work with.
However, the job required me to make still photos of Thorpie and the crew at locations such as Kakadu National Park, Heron Island and the Blue Tier Rainforest in Tasmania.
These are fantastic locations for landscape and/or wildlife photography, particularly under optimal light and weather conditions.
Unfortunately, more often than not, I was required to make my photos under extremely harsh lighting conditions.
What made it worse was that, in many cases, the subject’s of my photos were backlit.
Needless to say, that’s a recipe for disaster for portrait photography.
What saved me was fill flash, which I was able to employ as follows:
To reduce shadows on faces and light them in relatively even light.
To reduce the dynamic range of the scene by minimizing the difference in brightness between the subject’s face and the much brighter background.
Unfortunately, because the dynamic range of the scene was often so extreme, and the lighting so harsh, I still needed to post process the images on the desktop.
Nonetheless, fill flash allowed me to produce a decent starting point that substantially reduced the amount of post processing I needed to do.
If only I’d been able to control the situation by moving Thorpie and others into better lighting.
But that was not my brief and, as still photographers are at the bottom of the food chain on film sets, you adapt or your die.
So, while I don’t like using fill flash, I’m glad I know how to use it.
In a photographer’s bag of tricks, fill flash is a bit like some of those super cool devices on Batman’s utility belt.
They’re not for everyday use but, when the going gets tough, you’ll be glad of those gizmos assuming, that is, you know how to use them.
Black and white photo of my mother, Mary Guy (OAM), at home in Hamilton, Australia.
The Eyes: The Key To Powerful Portraits
Referred to as windows to the soul the eyes are probably the easiest way by which the viewer can interact with the subject featured in a portrait photo.
What’s more, when the eyes are open, their color is revealed and facial wrinkles are often reduced.
The best way to ensure your subject’s eyes are well illuminated and facial wrinkles are diminished is to do the following:
Get your subject out of bright light
Ensure the background is no brighter than your subject
Words to live by for the aspiring portrait photographer. And just as true whether you’re photographing individuals, couples or larger family groups.
I made the above photo of my mum, with the aid of very soft window light, in the family home in Hamilton, Australia.
Within a few years she’d move into a care facility and, not all that long after that, she passed on.
Sadly, I have so few photos of my mum. That’s why this one is so important to me. And, while she hated it, I like the way my mum interacted with the camera and, by extension, with me.
Actually, I think it’s a very honest and authentic image.
I made the photo with a wide-angle lens. My normal practice would be to make a more flattering portrait, which I’d do by using a medium telephoto length lens.
On a full frame camera that would be a focal length in the range of 70-135 mm.
Actually, my favorite focal length for portraits is 85 mm though, when using a fixed (non-zoom) lens, I’d simply purchase the focal length offered by the manufacturer in question that’s as close to 85 mm as possible.
Over the years that’s resulted in me purchasing 85 mm, 90 mm and 105 mm focal length lenses, depending upon whether I was using Leica, Canon or Nikon cameras.
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The Value of Family Photos
Is it possible to make beautiful portraits of your family and friends?
Absolutely! And it’s easier to do so than you probably think.
If you live in or around Melbourne, Australia and you need some private, one-to-one coaching feel free to contact me directly so we can discuss the options that will best meet your own specific needs.
But whether you engage a photography tutor like me or not, do ensure you practice making family portraits whenever an opportunity presents itself.
We live in precarious times and beautiful family photos do provide a special kind of memory insurance that will be treasured for generations to come.
