Different ways on shooting groups

[simon_cook]

I feel my group shots could do with being a little more interesting. At the

moment the bigger formals just look to me a little messy, its just a case of

lining them up for me and I feel I should be doing more.. Every other part of

my work gives me great satisfaction but I feel the group formals lack a little

punch!

Where can I look for ideas? Anybody got any examples? Many thanks for your

time.

[al_kaplan1]

Make use of stairs if available, have some people seated in chairs, try shooting at an angle, kids can be seated cross legged on the floor, some men can be kneeling on one knee, perhaps with a kid seated on their leg. There's no requirement that everyone has to be lined up like a row of wooden statues. Every location and situation is different. Good luck!

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste]

Get people on the floor, kneeling, it helps break the ice when they don't want to get down and everyone is having a laugh about it...

[picturesque]

Are you asking about formal poses for groups or do you take a more casual approach to them? One should also remember that while you might be bored with the same old groupings wedding after wedding, your clients aren't. The important thing to them is to see sharp, well exposed faces and possibly clothes (for the women). There might be some interesting poses you can come up with but if they don't meet the above criteria, they won't be as successful with the client.

 

If you're interested in very formal poses, get a copy of "Wedding Photographer's Handbook" by Robert and Sheila Hurth. It is not a current book, and can probably be found used, but it covers formal poses for the altar shots, with a few alternative ones that are interesting.

 

If you normally do more casual poses, then the usual "arms around each other's waists" group hug type shots are perfectly fine and will always be interesting to the couple's families, as well as the use of chairs and people squatting, etc.

 

If you're talking about wedding party shots, there's always the perspective shots, where you have the couple or bride/groom in the foreground and the rest of the party in the background or "fading to the background", or "going up the stairs", etc. Again, though, some faces are bound to be really small or slightly OOF, and probably won't be the one picked by the couple/family to be enlarged.

[peter_silvia1]

After shooting the usual group shot, I tried something a little different.<div></div>

[kari douma]

I'm with peter. After the usual, I try a few fun ones.<div></div>

[kari douma]

One more. They are still lined up, but just a little different perspective.<div></div>

[picturesque]

Kari--try to get the girls to jump out of their shoes next time...

[simon_cook]

Thanks for taking the time folks