I have been a professional photographer for the past 6 years and the number one question I get asked from other professional and hobbyist photographers is...HOW do you pose groups? GREAT question. I struggled with the same thing for a long time, but I have since come up with my four favourite tips that really make for interesting group photos. These tips will work with any group size from 3 to 30!

1. Pay Attention to Hands!

Hands play an important part in the language of the portrait. Especially when photographing families, we want to portray a feeling of closeness and togetherness. That means we want to see the subjects interacting with each other and looking as natural as possible. Try not to have arms or hands hanging straight down. It looks about as fun and exciting as it sounds. BLAH! Instead, encourage those you are photographing to put their hands into their pockets, around shoulders of those next to them, or have them hold hands.

2. Stagger the head levels. This is so important in creating an “interesting” group pose. We want to avoid lining everyone up like they are being arrested. This is supposed to be fun! Pose short people next to tall people, have tall people sit, crouch, or kneel, or have moms hold little ones in their arms. Try to be considerate of the elderly who may not be able to crouch or kneel, though.

A great way to get a bunch of different levels in your group poses is to use uneven footing. For example, if you can find some stairs – it’s a guaranteed way to get lots of levels. Or you can use benches, stools, chairs, the floor – whatever is at your disposal! Be confident in asking your subjects to sit here or try kneeling there. It’s not written in stone, people can move! You’ll find you’ll love the results of using lots of levels in your group shots.

Come back tomorrow for three more tips. I hope these tips give you a little more confidence when photographing groups – whether they are groups of 2or 3, or groups of 20 or 30!

Visit me on my blog, It Works For Bobbi , for more fun Photography tips, as well as Photoshop tutorials and lots of free printables!