5 Family Portrait Poses

Family portrait poses are the key ingredient to making or breaking your family photo. Without the right pose, it doesn't come together as it should. I've taken a number of my own family portraits, and coming up with poses is challenging at times, but it's also fun getting it all to work. Then once you see a great family portrait as a finished result, you feel like you've really accomplished something. Here are five family portrait ideas I've used to reach my goal for a great family portrait.

The Sweetheart Pose

My husband and I took a great family portrait of ourselves by both sitting on chairs facing each other with our legs somewhat straddling the chairs. Doing that made it easier for our faces to touch on the sides as we both looked toward the camera touching our faces cheek to cheek. This turned out really nice and is one of the favorites of my kids.

Stand Behind Your Man

For a great couple's pose, position the man sitting on a chair in front of the significant woman in his life, then do a few poses with her standing behind him somewhat bent over with her arms wrapping around him from behind. You can experiment with a few different arm positions from the woman to get just the right one.

The Family Couch

Chances are, the family couch is everyone's favorite place to be in the house, other than the kitchen, right? So it's fitting that all family members could gather round their favorite place in your home - the couch. The classic family portrait of the taller family member standing behind the couch while the other ones sit on the couch is always engaging to look at for the viewer. Or, one of our own family portrait ideas was to have all the girls on the couch sitting and the men in the back standing. Separating the two seems to have appealed to the viewers of that photo.

The Staircase

We have a number of family portraits in our own family that implement our stairs going to the upper level of our house. Placing each of our eight children in the order of their age on each step makes a great conversation piece for the photo viewers. Adding to the pose by having them all dress to a certain theme also creates a great uniformed look for your family portrait.

The Relaxed Portrait

One of my favorite ways to take a good family portrait is to stand around a family gathering with the camera ready and look for opportunities where my family members are engaged in telling a story or in a involved conversation. You'll find that you get some very genuine expressions and gestures using this mode of photo shooting for a family portrait. It will keep the memories fresh for years to come!