How to Take a Great Thanksgiving Family Portrait

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for family gatherings, feasts and appreciation. Thanksgiving also is a great day for a new family portrait at home while the whole family is visiting.

 

To get a great shot at home you need to to think ahead:

The Lighting:  Choose a room with the best light and plan to take the photo at a wall where the most light falls. Try to take the photo early in the afternoon, usually around 2PM, when the November light is brightest. Pull back your curtains and turn on all your lights in the house. make sure your camera's flash is on. If it's a point-and-shoot, make sure the setting is on red-eye control. If the camera is a professional SLR style, think about bouncing your light off the ceiling.

 

The Clothes:  Choose wardrobes of neutral or medium grade solids if you can -- nothing too white or black. Long sleeves work best for portraits so the attention is focused on faces. Neutral solids also help to not date a picture to a particular time period.

 

The Mood:  Kids may move around a lot, but moms are usual the most difficult because they stress over themselves and everyone else. Try to calm the mood down by playing music and having wonderful fragrances in the background.

 

If you or your family tends to act up, smile a forced smile, are shy, or have photo anxiety, there is a particular game I recommend. I shot for many years as a family portrait photographer in a studio and created the following game to help families relax and put their best selves, and smiles, forward. Because one thing is for sure, if a parent tells a child to smile -- the child inevitably gives off a stressed, fake-looking smile. It's better to get laughs than to tell someone to smile.

The Photo Joke Game:  The game starts with the photographer. The photographer explains the rules and is the first to tell a joke. Then after the joke, when everyone laughs, photos are shot. Then the photographer names the next person to tell a joke.  The jokes are passed around and photographs are taken after each punch line. Here are the rules:

 

1) Everyone must look at the camera at all times.

2) After each joke, everyone must laugh -- no matter how horrible the joke was.

3) After you tell your joke, you choose who is to tell the next joke.

 

For young kids, you may want to prep them the morning of by telling them an easy to remember joke. Then have the child repeat the joke back to you - in which you will laugh like you never laughed before. Then if there are other family members, tell the child to repeat the joke around, each time you laugh like it's the funniest thing you've ever heard. Then later in the day, when everyone gathers for the photos and the game is explained, the young child has a joke they know by heart and know will be a sure- fire hit. Your young child will be excited to laugh for the camera -- inhibitions out the window.

Remember to stretch your photo time and take lots of pictures.  When your kids are bouncing around, take ten shots instead of three -- the more you shoot, the more likely you will get one great shot. Remember, it's cheaper to take lots of pictures than it is to set up a faux Thanksgiving with all of the family and try again.

 

Good luck, and remember to laugh!

 

- Cassandra