Family portraits - what type of background?

[andya700]

I have been asked to do a couple of family portrait shoots for neighbours. They know that I want practice, but I also want the images to be as good as I can manage. I want to use natural light only, so the weather will play a big part. I also wish to use a few manual focus lenses which I have recently purchased, to see how they perform - Takumar f2 and f1.8, Pentacon f1.8 and Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135 f3.5.
I would like to know what type of background to use, bearing in mind that I want the shots to look clean and uncluttered. I was thinking of a plain white sheet, or maybe buy some lengths of different coloured cloth.
Anyway, if anyone can give any helpful advice, I would be most grateful.
Cheers,

Andy

 

[Adam_K]

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about using backdrops if you are shooting using natural light. I would head out to a local park and look for some large trees that can be incorporated in the shot. If you are doing family group portraits you would ideally be using an aperture like f8-11 to keep everyone sharp, I do individual portraits at f2.2 which throws the background out nicely. I would recommend getting a flash unit for you camera.

The 135 focal range will give you the ability to get some lovely candid shots if shooting kids.

Hope that helps.

 

[A[L]C]

Unless you have a large window and well lit room, it will be challenging to get a natural light picture of a family imho. Adam is right, get out to a park and get some lovely candids of interactions between the parents and kids.

 

[andya700]

Thanks for the replies, I will take all that on board. We are lucky, in that we live close to a country park (ten minutes walking distance), so this would provide excellent surroundings. I can use the 135 for candid shots and the 55s for close up portraits and group shots.
I suppose a tripod would be essential for a few "staged" shots, to make use of the optimum shutter speed/ISO setting.

Andy