When photographing groups.....

From my experience, this varies a great deal depending on who is in the group. If it's all adults, or maybe adults plus older children, then simply asking them to look at the lens and smile generally works. On the odd occasion that Fred in the front can't remember what a smile is I say something like "okay, that was a good practice. Now if Fred would smile too then we can get this shot done and move on". The normal reaction to this is a bit of laughter from the rest of the group and maybe a bit of mickey taking but the end result is you can't stop Fred from smiling for the remainder of the shoot.

Young children are the most difficult to work with. My normal ruse is to get the parents to bring along a couple of favourite toys and use them to attract their attention at the right moment. In the picture below the little girl was being very fractious - it was way past her normal bed time - so to get the laughter I had my assistant perch her favorite teddy bear on my head when he heard me say "smile". The parents think it worked a treat :)

Family_1.jpg


Oh, and I never use burst mode when taking portraits unless the subject is moving ... but that's pretty rare.
 
kennysarmy said:
....what do you say or do to get their attention nd make them smile just before you press the shutter....

And do you shoot in burst mode?
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+1 depends on who is in the group.

With kids I either get the parents out of view of the kids or they will keep looking at them. Or I get the parent to stand behind me and get the kids attention so they are looking at me. If the parents are in the shot with the kids I often asked the kid questions while they pose and get them animated. If they are too young for that I make stupid noises and play peek-a-boo behind the camera. You really have to have no problem with embarrassing yourself to get good child photography most of the time. Parents make better child photographers a lot of the time I think, but I'm sure with practise anyone can get good at it. I don't do studio portraits so a lot of the time I just play with the kids or get them started on an activity and shoot away.

With adults I use lots of tricks, but I'm not always looking for a straight down the barrel type of shot. I don't like fake smiles so I actually try to get people to smile and laugh naturally. There's lots of tricks, a good one is to tell everyone to start fake laughing, demonstrate if you have to so they don't feel so embarrassed. Don't bother taking a shot of the fake laughter, after a few seconds they will usually start laughing for real as it's so ridiculous and even if they don't all do it you will get a mixture of real laughter and smiling.

A good one for groups such as wedding parties is put the bridesmaids and groomsmen into couples that are not real couples. Keep the bride and groom in the centre. Ask everyone to turn and kiss their partner, bride and groom will kiss but the others will turn to each other and start laughing. You can adapt this to other groups of course.

It's really about just having fun with people and getting them to relax and they will start to smile naturally, giving them something to do always helps. I don't shoot in burst mode.

This is a good thread BTW, it would be good to hear techniques from others.
 
lensflair said:
Ask everyone to turn and kiss their partner, bride and groom will kiss but the others will turn to each other and start laughing.
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Start laughing nope I would jump straight in and when I get an inevitable slap from the wife, I would just blame the photographer:love:

The aim when working with kids and families is to make it as fun experience as possible, if the clients have fun so will you. Don't be afraid to act daft the kids love it. I never shoot in bursts. For kids images get the parent to stand behind you and pull faces behind your back, the kids will start pointing and then laughing. For family group shots I use noisy glove puppets to get the attention of the children or place their teddy bear on the top of my lens.
 
Adam_K said:
Start laughing nope I would jump straight in and when I get an inevitable slap from the wife, I would just blame the photographer
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LOL
I did an engagement shoot a few days ago and went for a drink with the clients after as we finished up around 5 in the afternoon. She tries to get her fiance to kiss her and when he doesn't respond she asks me to tell him to kiss her as he will only do it when I tell him too. Hope I don't get a call in the night to instruct him to show any other affection LOL.
 
lensflair said:
LOL
I did an engagement shoot a few days ago and went for a drink with the clients after as we finished up around 5 in the afternoon. She tries to get her fiance to kiss her and when he doesn't respond she asks me to tell him to kiss her as he will only do it when I tell him too. Hope I don't get a call in the night to instruct him to show any other affection LOL.
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I wondered where that story was going Graham, phew.
 
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