Taking Photographs of groups

“Ducks in a row” You have probably seen a million of this type of photo. Everyone is lined up. While this may be cute if you can find ducks doing this, for people this gets pretty boring. Here are some suggestions.

• Look for a prop: sofa, chairs, swing, tree, car. Basically you want something to arrange your group around or to break up the monotony.
• Have the people strike different poses: some standing, some sitting, have bodies turning in different directions, some leaning or holding on to something
• Try to create two or three different mini groups within the big group, triangles work well, and some can be by themselves.
• Use a plain background that doesn’t distract from the group. Even a forest in the background will appear plain, a brick wall.
• I always like to end a group session by asking people to cheer or act goofy in some way.
• Make sure you can see everyones face. Have people move around so you can see all faces.
• If you are using flash make sure the range of your flash is correct to light everyone.
• If it is a really big group it can be too time consuming to do get too creative but consider having the people in the front row doing the above and people behind can be lined up