October 19, 2023

Child Led Family Sessions

The Process

As a St. George family portrait photographer, my job usually includes working with children more often than not and I absolutely love it! I think kids help bring the session to life and add a little magic to the moments that otherwise may not be there. But, working with children can be a little trying at times. This family portrait session, for example, needed some work behind the scenes. I actually did not get a single image with everyone looking and smiling at the camera. I have however developed my skills enough where I am able to combine multiple photos into one to make sure we get a family portrait that you absolutely love and cannot wait to hang up and show off to all your friends. That is what I did here. Let’s go through the process!
This is the image that I decided to work with. We have both the kids looking, just not smiling. It could work, but again, my goal as a family portrait photographer is get that perfect family portrait for you to proudly display in your home. So I found 2 other images, one with the little boy smiling and one with the little girl smiling and I traded out their expressions to get the second image! Pretty cool right? Then I tweaked a couple more things in photoshop and cleaned up the background, and voila! When I type it out it seems pretty simple, but it is a pretty in depth process, but I do love it.

Stress Free Family Photography

So now that you know there are tricks we can fall back on in case your child isn’t totally behaving for family portraits, I hope you’re able to breathe a little easier. Try to remember they are just kids and honestly 90% of the time I would say I have a child running off or more interested in playing with the sticks on the ground than smiling at the camera. It is completely normal and even expected, so do not stress about it. I want your family portrait session to be as stress free as possible. I don’t put time limits on my family portrait sessions because I know working with kids can be a little unpredictable. They may need to take a 5 minute break after every couple of photos and that is okay! We will roll with whatever they are willing to give us. The most important thing is to not get worked up and to just try to interact with them rather than trying to get them to participate. It will go a lot smoother and that is where we will get the real genuine smiles out of them. Now please enjoy the rest of the pictures from this sweet little family.