Lou Jacobs Jr - Photographing Families: Use Natural Light, Flash, Posing, and More to Create Professional Images

Tammy Warnock started her photography career over 25 years ago, working for her high school yearbook. In 1988, she began working for other studios. After honing her skills, she opened her own studio, True Blue Photography/True Blue Intimates. She moved to her Los Almitos, California boutique studio in 2010 where she photographs mostly families, weddings, and pets and specializes in intimate portraiture. For more information, go to www.TrueBluePhotography.com.

Lou has written and illustrated 38 books on photography and also writes for Rangefinder magazine. He has taken many portraits, from John F. Kennedy to Charleton Heston to Man Ray and Edward Weston. About Lous books and expertise, commercial photographer Dave Austen says Lou Jacobs Jr.s books in my library make learning new photographic techniques a pleasure. For more about Lou, visit his web site at www.LouJacobsPhotography.com.

Copyright 2014 Tammy Warnock and Lou Jacobs Jr.

All rights reserved.

All photographs by Tammy Warnock.

Published by:

Amherst Media, Inc.

P.O. Box 586

Buffalo, N.Y. 14226

Fax: 716-874-4508

www.AmherstMedia.com

Publisher: Craig Alesse

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Assistant Editor: Barbara A. Lynch-Johnt

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ISBN-13: 978-1-60895-645-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935513

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Index

Taking family pictures can be gratifying for you and your subjects. It requires using tact, understanding what your clients will like, an ability to capture subjects personalities, and skillful posing and lighting. Photographing families can be a financially rewarding creative craft. Your images can bring joy to the subjects, their friends, and relatives, and they are often handed down to later generations.

Tammy Warnocks pictures will show you a variety of family portrait approaches, and I will explain how she made them. Variations of posing, lighting, and techniques are explained clearly. Important things you should know to be successful as a family portrait photographer are explained in words and pictures.

Your images can bring joy to the subjects, their friends, and relatives, and they are often handed down

Suggestion: Study the pictures that intrigue you and concentrate on posing and lighting, though its mainly daylight and flash fill. If you use studio flash, you will be trying to create the kind of smooth effects Tammy creates.

This family portrait glows with an out-of-focus background. Tammy photographed the subjects in the courtyard of her studio, when the sun was high behind the subjects to camera right. She didnt need flash to equalize the exposure between the faces and the background.

Tammy asked the subjects to tilt their chin down slightly to remove the highlights on their faces. Dad held his son a little bit higher than Moms head and lower than his own for pleasant placement. The parents wore dark tones to contrast with their youngsters red sweater. Their smiles are natural, inspired by Tammys chatting with them as they posed. Children dont smile on demand, so she called the boys name and laughed, and he responded.

Tammy asked the subjects to tilt their chin down slightly to remove the highlights on their faces.

You can achieve similar lighting with flash on the camera or add accessory flash if the subjects faces are too dark. The sunlight exposure reading was f/11, but Tammy used f/5.6, which was just right for the subjects faces.

Tammys studio courtyard.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with EF 70200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure: 1/200 at f/5.6 and ISO 320. Available light only.

Canon EOS 30D with 2470mm f/2.8 lens. Exposure: 1/100 second and f/5 at ISO 1600. Canon 580EX II flash bounced off ceiling using the built-in bounce card.

Exposure: 1/200 second and f/4.0 at ISO 320. Natural light only.

Tammy captured a beautiful monotone shot that documents the boys exuberant independence.

Tammy often photographs families when their children are very young and continues in stages as the kids grow up. When this child was four-months old, he posed for seconds on his fathers fire fighter helmet, which served as a great prop. There was an air mattress beneath the baby, so a small fall would not have harmed him. His mother perched him on the helmet and stood close enough to catch him while Tammy made numerous quick shots. It was all over in twelve seconds.

At a later session, Tammy captured a beautiful monotone shot that documents the boys exuberant independence. The black & white treatment and the blurred background elements keep the viewers eye on the focal point of the shotthe happy toddler.