“Help! I have a shoot tonight with a large family: two parents and five children ages 12 yrs, 7 yrs, 6 yrs, 5 yrs, 2 yrs, and 9 months. Mom is six months pregnant with twins. Does anyone have any posing recommendations?? I am struggling...”

There seems to be an overwhelming panic that hits when a large family books a session. All of our prompts and poses rarely encompass more than three children, maybe four if you are lucky. The idea of needing to direct multiple children, especially if they are all young can be stressful, so we often turn to social media asking for help. Sadly, our posts are often dead ends with very few responses that actually provide value.

The goal of this article is to equip fellow photographers with the tools needed to confidently book large families (especially those with young children) by applying the If-Then method of posing, using engaging prompts to provide a memorable experience and quality gallery, and opening the photographer’s heart to large families.

If-Then Posing

Approaching a large family session with an exact list of poses and preplanning where to put each family member is a process that is bound for failure. Having a general plan of action is never bad, but in order to fully embrace the beautiful chaos you need to be able to roll with the changes that the chaos brings.

Instead, approach the session with a series of If- Then Statements paired with identifying the different personalities of the children. Some personalities you might encounter are the free spirit, the “mother” of the group, the shy one, or the jokester.

The free spirited child most of the time will not be interested in standing still or listening for very long. Part of our role as the photographer is to channel each child’s individual personalities in the right direction for the duration of the shoot. The best way to do this is to pose them in such a way that they cannot run away or get as easily distracted while not hindering their personality from being photographed.

IF a child is a free-spirit, THEN:

Place the child on one of the parent’s shoulders.
Ask the older sibling to give the free spirited child a piggyback ride.
While you play games, have the free spirited one as the “chaser” or give them another special role.

The “mother” of the group is oftentimes the oldest sibling though that is not always the case. This child has the heart of a nurturer and is sometimes more reserved in a mature way. Prompts that encourage imagination may not speak to this child as much, but roles to help take care of the other children is right up their alley!

IF a child is the “mother” of the group, THEN:

Ask the child to hold the baby/ younger sibling if the parents are comfortable.
Ask them to hold the hand of a more spirited sibling to help anchor the child.
Encourage them to kiss one of their parents on the cheek.

Most likely the shy one will be less responsive to your prompts then the other children until they are able to warm up. Our sessions should be a safe space for the shy children just as much as the active ones.

IF a child is the shy one, THEN:

Encourage the child to hug one of the parent’s legs or hips.
Encourage them to tickle a more outgoing sibling.
Ask them to rub noses with one of their parents.

The jokester will be the life of the family. They are the ones that will not take your prompts too seriously but give some of the funniest results!

IF the child is a jokester, THEN:

Give the child opportunities to laugh, by being tickled or tickling one of the parents.
Ask the child to tell a joke out in the open or whisper it into a sibling’s ear.

The If-Then Statement approach allows for the family’s unique chaos to run the photoshoot which offers a more genuine gallery that the parents are guaranteed to cherish!

Engaging Prompts

Keeping everyone interested in taking pictures can be a challenge when shooting large families. One of the best ways to keep everyone engaged is through the use of fun prompts. The goal is to keep everyone moving and having fun.

Dance Party!

Have the family (or just children if parents would prefer not to participate) all stand in a line all on the same depth plane. Pretend to put glue on the bottom of the children’s feet so that their feet cannot move from their place but anything else can move. Put on their favorite song and have a dance party! Be sure to get wide angle shots and up close for all the giggles and smiles.

Sneak Attack

Have the parents stand about 30 feet away from you and ask them to embrace each other. Have all the children next to you and tell them all to run and have a tickle fight with their parents. The more you hype it up, the better their reactions will be!

Play Games:

Red Light, Green Light
Ring around the Rosie (littles love this one!)
Telephone Game

Quality Poses/ Prompts Over Quantity

Each child’s picture taking tolerance level is different from the next and when you have multiple young children, the posing clock may be limited. Be sure to make the best of each pose/ prompt by getting various angles. Once your family is set, start off getting a wide angle shot and slowly moving yourself in to get details. Changing your position and angle will add variety to your gallery and give it a more storytelling feel without burning out your posing clock.

Open your Heart to Your Large Family Clients

Everywhere large families go they are often met with comments reminding them that their family size is odd. Sometimes those comments are just people counting children as they walk through the store or the braver individuals who make extremely crude comments that are completely unnecessary. No matter what your client has encountered recently, it is a breath of fresh air to encounter people who accept your family size as beautiful and not an inconvenience. Photographers, open your heart to your large family clients. Enter into your session with a mindset that this session will not be overwhelming or stressful but instead embrace that it will be beautifully chaotic; filled with a chaos that is unique to that family and one that the parents have embraced in such a way that they are proud of it. They know moments are crazy but even the craziest moments have a way of warming their hearts. Will you let it warm yours? It may not seem important to have a heart for the large families as you enter your session, but be assured that parents and children can sense when their family isn’t treasured or when they might be seen as a hassle. Approaching your session with an open heart is guaranteed to give you a smoother session in a way that a posing guide and prompt list will never be able to give you.

Check out other images from the session below!