Beginner Help with posing a group photo

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Paul
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I’ve been asked by a friend to take a family semi formal photo, of him, his wife and 4 little boys. Could someone point me in the direction of a good book, or some general pointers about posing this sort of group.
I have a Fuji xt10, 35mm 1.4 or 18-55mm lenses and a Godox TT350f flash and controller. So can either bounce the flash or use an umbrella for lighting.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Do you need any props ? like a chair etc. Inside our outside photo?
 
What do they want? Indoor white background style image seen at many high street photographers, something outside, in a park, the garden?

What ideas have you had/researched so far?
 
I think it will be indoors, due to weather. They want it by the end of February. Personally I don’t want to do a white background. They haven’t given me lot to go on yet. I’ve asked them to look for pictures where they like the style. I have no backgrounds to use, so had suggested the park. I also suggested casual all sat together on sofa, but they said all other photos they’ve got are casual, so didn’t want that. Most of their pictures I’ve seen are snapshots or selfies, but still can’t get them to see, a better casual photo will look a lot, lot better than a selfie!
 
Posing... think triangle, heads with their own space and not all at the same level, watch for body parts and directions...
 
I’m thinking of ambient lighting.
My big worry is there are a lot of arms and legs going on, with 4 kids and 2 adults.
 
I picked up some good tips on a workshop - make sure the wife is beautifully posed, as she will be the one who will like or dislike the photo. Have men turned towards the light to make them broader and more masculine, and women turned away to make them thinner, have a connection (touching) for all the family, but watch out for fingers showing on shoulders. Hope that helps!
 
For anyone selling images, this is the oft missed no1 factor.
I picked up some good tips on a workshop - make sure the wife is beautifully posed, as she will be the one who will like or dislike the photo. ...

...Have men turned towards the light to make them broader and more masculine, and women turned away to make them thinner, have a connection (touching) for all the family, but watch out for fingers showing on shoulders. Hope that helps!
The broadlight / shortlight direction here is the wrong way round. Facing the light shows the camera the shadowside, that’s shortlighting and as a go-to is generally the most attractive. ;)
 
The broadlight / shortlight direction here is the wrong way round. Facing the light shows the camera the shadowside, that’s shortlighting and as a go-to is generally the most attractive. ;)

Just repeating what Gary Hill said, and it seems to work well for him.
 
Just repeating what Gary Hill said, and it seems to work well for him.
Try it, Gary Hill definitely knows what he’s talking about, so I doubt you’re repeating what he said, you’ve definitely written it the wrong way round :)
 
Try it, Gary Hill definitely knows what he’s talking about, so I doubt you’re repeating what he said, you’ve definitely written it the wrong way round :)

Just looked at my notes from the workshop and my photos of his setup, and he definitely said and showed women turned away from the light at 45 degrees unless pregnant, and men facing towards it. I am only just starting to learn lighting, so at this stage am doing what I am told, but this was definitely what he said.
 
Just looked at my notes from the workshop and my photos of his setup, and he definitely said and showed women turned away from the light at 45 degrees unless pregnant, and men facing towards it. I am only just starting to learn lighting, so at this stage am doing what I am told, but this was definitely what he said.

One of the most important lessons when I learnt to light was to learn to read light.

Go to Gary’s site now and look for broad and short lighting, look at the shadows to reverse engineer where the light is. It’s quite a simple and straightforward process.
 
I have to go out so am backing out now. I have no opinion on this, I was just passing on advice from a well-known photographer in an attempt to help. The OP had better ignore most of this or make up his own mind!
 
Literally on my way out of the door... are we talking cross-purposes? In what I was describing, The angle of the head to the light doesn’t change, just the angle of the body...
 
Literally on my way out of the door... are we talking cross-purposes? In what I was describing, The angle of the head to the light doesn’t change, just the angle of the body...
Your notes might have been referring to subtle body movements (I’ve no idea, I wasn’t there, and haven’t seen your notes) but the broadlighting / shortlighting lesson is all about the flash to subject relationship as illustrated perfectly in the article linked above.

I’d recommend you go back through your notes whilst looking at the images Gary was describing.
 
Your notes might have been referring to subtle body movements (I’ve no idea, I wasn’t there, and haven’t seen your notes) but the broadlighting / shortlighting lesson is all about the flash to subject relationship as illustrated perfectly in the article linked above.

I’d recommend you go back through your notes whilst looking at the images Gary was describing.

I have double-checked and am correct in what he said, but perhaps I didn’t explain it well. Set up whatever lighting you want for the face, broad or short (I wasn’t referring to lighting but to posing), then turn the body, keeping the head still so the lighting on the face doesn’t change. Turn the body 45 degrees away from the light for ladies, and 45 towards it for men.

Hope that sorts out the confusion. Gary took a number of shots like this.
 
Thanks very much for all the advice. Done the pictures, and the family are happy with the results.
Going to look into lighting, as described above for next time.
 
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