5 Tips for Beautiful Family Photos

Being a mom of eight, I've done a lot of my own photos throughout the years. Mostly I took them myself by necessity because the funds for professional photo fees don't exist with that many kids under your roof.

Over the years, I've come up with a few of my own tricks to make the whole experience gel, from getting all the kids to cooperate, to working on authentic expressions, to themed type of portraits during the holiday season and more. I'm hoping these 5 tips for family photos might make this easier for you as well, if you are considering this undertaking.

Get Silly
My way of creating authentic happy faces is to put one poor soul in my extended family to work by standing behind the camera, with the sole purpose of keeping my group happy. Sometimes that was done by telling jokes, other times dances and silliness did the trick. I remember one particular time that singing was involved. All of these things were part of keeping the kids happy, with real happy expressions instead of false ones.

Themes
Holiday photos are great when you involve a theme in the picture. In our family it became known that we would put some sort of holiday-themed look in our family holiday photo shot that we'd send to family and friends. One year it was all of us in Santa hats, the next in reindeer headbands and yet another with each family member holding signs with the words "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" festively decorated on each sign.

For the Upcoming Graduate
Last year we passed a milestone in the family and had our first high school graduate in the house. We all wore graduation hats, then held diplomas in one hand and gestured a thumbs up on the other hand when we sat for the photo that was on the front of the invitation.. It turned out great, and we received many compliments on the idea.

Work the Stairs
We've often implemented the use of our stairs leading to the upper level of our house. It's a great way to display each member of your family, and it looks very organized and uniform, especially if you get the crew wearing the same clothes or are using a theme for the photo.

Balance Is Key
Be sure to balance the family photo well. That means you need to be sure about the subjects of the picture being centered in the picture and not have empty space on one side or the other. In most portraits, centering your subjects is key for good photo balance and makes your photos more engaging to those who look at them.