Tips on how to take a better family picture

Hey everyone!  This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of newsletterish posts.  Primarily my aim will be to teach you stuff that can come in handy.

Today's topic is how to take better family portraits.  Enjoy!

Tips on how to take a better family picture 
Part one

Shoot into the sun

Most people don't shoot towards the sun because the point and shoot cameras don't meter very well.  In laymen's terms that means that when you point your camera in the direction of the sun the camera will typically try to expose for the bright sunlight in turn darkening the subject in front of you.

This is a shot my wife took of me at the beach and is a great example of how her camera tried to expose for the bright sun instead of me.

Here's another example where she took the picture and it exposed for the most part on me but you can see now that the sky, which looked very cool with orange clouds, is completely washed out.

If we could have captured the awesome sunset behind me it would have looked really nice.

At the same time when you position your subject facing the sun you tend to get them squinting and looking funny - probably not the best option - as well as shadowed eyes which makes them look like some eyeless monster.

This one wasn't particularly facing the sun but you can see how any situation in bright sunlight would have the same effect.

Maybe some of you know this and maybe some don't, but a little trick to avoiding those things is to use your flash.  You might think I'm crazy for suggesting to use a flash in the middle of the day but trust me on this one. 

Most cameras today will give you a nice array of functionality in your in-camera settings and I encourage you to learn what all those options in the menu are for - you might find some beneficial.  Typically there's a way to change your flash setting, which is most likely set to "auto".  Change the setting to "on".  This will come in very handy if you want to avoid the examples above and capture a nice looking portrait of your family or a friend.

So position your subject with their back to the sun, make sure the camera's flash is set to "on" and snap away.  It's that easy.  But remember to keep in mind that the further your subject is from you the less effective the flash will be.  You'll probably have to experiment but try to stay as close to them as possible.

And also remember that it's not just for shooting "into" the sun but it can generally be used in any situation where your standing in bright sunlight.  It works great for trying to capture a sunset too.

You should get something like this.

Do you notice how you can clearly see there faces and yet the background looks good as well?

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed it and more importantly learned something.  Follow me on Facebook for updates and for part two.  Bookmark this page and check back for more!