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Creative Family Portrait Ideas

Shashank Nakate
Looking for some really good ideas to click interesting and creative family portraits? Read ahead for details pertaining to Christmas family portraits and the necessary tips to capture crisp images.
It is possible to make the family portraits interesting and creative, provided you think a bit differently and out-of-the-box. It is important to just give some time and thought to the process of capturing photographs, rather for arranging the scene for photos.
Most of our photographs are either clicked in a hurry or it so happens that we don't give much importance to the intricacies of the art of photography itself. It is therefore, necessary to understand some principles and obtain useful tips to make to learn this art of photographing the family portraits.

Ideas for Creative Family Portrait
➤ One of the best ideas to make a family picture pleasing in appearance is to position the subjects against a nice background, preferably trees. Frames can also be created for the background to appear pleasant.
➤ One should try to shoot pictures from different levels and angles. Shooting from the same relative level of the subject can become repetitive at times; one should therefore, look for innovative ideas to click photos.
➤ Shooting black and white (B/W) pictures for a change is also considered a good idea. The same photograph that is clicked in color can generate a completely different effect in B/W.
➤ Use of different themes can be creatively implemented in family portraits. Popular themes being used for photographs include the 'barnyard' and 'superhero'. The dressing can be changed with different time periods. The sixties theme would allow everyone to dress in the attire suited to that period and thereby help in creating memorable family portraits.
Portrait photographs are best captured at the time of family reunions. Since all family members gather for such occasions, the portrait automatically turns into a special one. Vacations too are considered a suitable time for family portraits.

Christmas Family Portraits

The occasion of Christmas allows for more number of family photos being clicked than at any other time of the year. Christmas is a time when every member of the family is in a joyous mood; it is a perfect time to capture those smiles to get good pictures.
One can try out many ideas for capturing good snaps during Christmas. It is possible to experiment a lot with images, thanks to the availability of new technology in the form of digital cameras. Auto focus feature of these cameras help in capturing crisp and clear images.
One can try out ideas like family members getting dressed in opposite colors for the occasion of Christmas. Men can dress in red and women in white or vice versa. The point here is, to make the portrait a unique and memorable one.
Another interesting idea is to click pictures at locations away from home. Shopping malls are decorated during this festival, and their Christmas decorations provide a perfect setting for portrait photography. Using such creative ideas for a family portrait would make your Christmas fun-filled and memorable.

Family Portrait Clothing Ideas

The attire/clothing plays an important role in capturing good family portraits. For backgrounds with dark shades, medium to dark shades are recommended. Similarly, light shades look good on backgrounds that are comparatively lighter.
Attaining harmony with respect to colors is the essence of creating great family portraits. The tone of clothes has to be consistent for all those members occupying the frame. Clothes should either be lighter or darker (in tone) than the background color. Same is the case with shades of colors.
It would be disturbing to find a single person wearing red amongst others who are dressed in white clothes. Gray, blue, brown, green and earthy colors are recommended for portraits to make them appear pleasing. It is advisable to wear traditional clothes for family portraits.

Family Portrait Tips
It is necessary to follow some tips or take precautions to enhance the appearance of family portraits and offer them an interesting appearance. Read ahead for tips that you can follow that can prove to be helpful to click some really good family portraits.
➤ Heads of members in the frame shouldn't be positioned in the same plane. Their positioning in different planes enhances the appearance of the image.
➤ Subjects in the portrait should form a triangular shape. Positioning of heads in different planes tends to achieve this objective.
➤ One should avoid wearing glasses, because the possibility of eyes getting hidden by the sun's glare or flash of camera is quite high.
➤ The color tone of dresses of subjects should be the same; however, wearing clothes of the same color is not advisable.
➤ People tend to maintain a certain distance from each other while posing for photographs. A family portrait should however, have the subjects standing close to each other. It helps the portrait to exude the warmth and love between family members.
➤ For families with kids, it can be difficult to prepare them for photo sessions. The unpredictable behavior of children can test the patience of parents. Considering all these points, it would be advisable to make arrangements for the photography sessions around kids' routines. The point here is, to keep them happy and cheerful.
Capturing family portraits can be challenging at times. With the given, limited amount of time in which one has to click photos, it is necessary to be quick enough to capture that 'perfect' moment.
Clicking photographs for family portraits can be quite different from still life photography where one has all the time in the world to shoot photographs; of course, still life photography has its own set of challenges.
The creative family portrait ideas presented here would help in making both the photographs and your experience of photography, a memorable. It would therefore, be worth the time and energy spent in looking for and implementing newer and creative ideas for family portraits.