Taking professional pictures of your family at home is possible, but you need to know a thing or two before you grab your smartphone and just start snapping away. That’s right – you can use your iPhone or smartphone and still get beautiful, high-quality images that look like they have been taken professionally!
So, with this in mind, below you’ll find 8 easy ways to take professional pictures of your family at home.
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Choose Cohesive Outfits (Not Matching)
First of all, you need to pay attention to what your subjects are wearing. You can’t always just let them decide what to wear themselves and hope for stunning pictures. Too much pattern, for example, could make the pictures look too bust and messy and will be distracting to look at. Matching outfits will look strange and old fashioned. Instead, choosing cohesive outfits, where maybe you have a bit of a colour palette and a ‘theme’ (not like a Wild West theme, obviously), your pictures will often look far more professional.
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Never Face The Sun
Facing the sun will make everybody squint. Faces will be screwed up unnaturally, and eyes will be half shut. Not only that, the sun tends to cast unnatural shadows if it is in the wrong place. Pay attention to where it is before you start shooting and you should avoid some heartache.
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Pick The Right Kind Of Lighting
Now, although you don’t want to face the sun, you do need to pick the right kind of lighting. Making sure you use as much natural light as you can is a good idea, as artificial light rarely looks good in pictures. Go for overcast days if you’re shooting indoors, and sunny but not directly in the sun if you’re shooting outdoors. When you pay attention to the sun and what it can do in pictures depending on the weather and the time of day, it’ll pay off in your photography.
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Get Familiar With Your Smartphone Camera Features
Make sure you get familiar with your own smartphone camera features. You should be able to take great pictures whatever smartphone you have, but making sure you know how to do things, such as alter the exposure, can make for a better photograph. Exposure is often chosen automatically by your phone, but that doesn’t mean it’s always right. If it looks too light or dark, then you may need to play with it yourself to see what happens. Paying attention to whether you have HDR on your smartphone can also make a huge difference to your results – you can learn more about that here.
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Practice Editing
Obviously you don’t want to over edit your photos, but knowing a few basic editing skills can make a huge difference. For example, you may want to warm up the lighting if it’s too cool. You might also want to edit out something distracting in the background of the picture, but that may take a little more skill to do well. Start with the basics and see what you can do. Just bear in mind that you’ll have an easier job of editing if you make sure you prepare and that the conditions are right beforehand.
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Don’t Make Everybody Get Into A Stiff Pose
It’s not always better to have everybody in a stiff, awkward pose so that you can make sure you snap them properly or get their ‘best angles.’ Snap some candids instead. You can even use burst mode to make sure you get a wonderful shot where you’re all just being yourselves and in the right position without even trying. Make sure you get your pets involved, too – you’ll probably wish you had if you forget, and burst mode will usually mean grabbing at least one picture where you all look good simultaneously.
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Get Inspiration From Pinterest
Still unsure about what poses to try, where to shoot, and what to wear? Pinterest is your best bet. You can learn a lot here and you’ll have a ton of ideas to try out.
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Make It Fun
By making the shoot fun, everybody will be relaxed. Not only will this mean almost forgetting the camera is there (and avoiding kids throwing tantrums), it’ll mean ending up with pictures that truly show off your personalities. Be in the moment rather than focusing on getting the perfect shot. When you’re in the moment, it’ll shine through and you’ll get some amazing pictures that you can treasure forever.
Are you ready to take professional pictures of your family at home? Leave a comment!
