You and Your Family Portraits Pt. 2
PART 2
Even if it is your desire to go with the traditional shoot, you still have things within your control to decide upon.
Colors and Mood! The mood is set by the backdrop, lighting and clothing worn ( and potentially make-up). There are two phrases that you should remember when making this decision High Key and Low Key. High Key uses bright lighting and a white background. The lighting eliminates most of the shadows and the brightness achieved with high key portraiture generally creates an ‘upbeat’ image. It also, due to it’s nature gives a separation making the subject ‘pop’.
Low key images are then the opposite, dark backgrounds and often a more directional lighting. The images have deeper shadows and are more moody. The low key portrait creates a greater sense of drama.
Your selection of clothing is the next thing you need to take into consideration. You want your clothing to be complementary to the portrait style you have chosen. Remember that your clothing is an accessory. You do not want your clothes to dominate the image, otherwise guests will notice what you are wearing more than you or your family. For that reason, clothing with patterns are considered a bad choice. Matching clothing is always a safe bet. If there is more than one family in the big image I’d suggest breaking the family groupings down by the colors of their tops, keep them complimentary. By doing this people looking at your new artwork will know what the family groupings are even if they don’t know before seeing the image.
With the non-traditional shoot the first 3 things you need to consider, just like with real estate is location, location, location. If it’s indoors is it at a place you need to reserve or get permission for the shoot? If it’s outdoors you may need to be somewhat flexible with the time of the day as the location of the sun can be very important with the quality of work you will be seeing. There is also the question of how the weather will be. It’s not necessarily bad if it’s been raining or snowing either. You can get some very memorable shots in adverse weather! Also if we’re going to be shooting you outside and it’s overcast or looks like rain don’t despair. That is the type of lighting that will get you your best looking images. Studio lighting is set to mimic a cloudy day!
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