Tag Archives: family

how to take a family portrait on a bright sunny day…

It’s a bright sunny morning, 10:00am with the lovely bright summer sun. So, how do you take a photograph of a family outdoors without having everything blown out super bright and leaving way too many dark circles under everyone’s eyes? Well, here’s one shot that’s in the sun, not shade and here are my settings. I put my camera on manual and set….

ISO to 125
Aperture at 4.0
Shutter speed at 1/250 second
Using my favorite lens, the 50mm 1.2L

And I also pay attention to where the sun is at. I avoid having the sun hit directly on any of my lovely subjects’ faces, but rather have it a bit behind them, lighting up their hair in a way that almost makes it glow a bit. Pretty, huh? :)

how to take a family portrait on a bright sunny day...

how to take a family portrait on a bright sunny day...

a family shot

A lovely family shot just enjoying each other. Here are my settings..

Manual settings:
ISO – 640 (in full shade, but was a little dark because there was a cover over the top of us)
aperture – 4.0 (an easy starting point for getting a family in focus is that you start with one f stop per person, f4 for 4 people, not always necessary, but good starting point if you’re learning)
shutter speed – 1/160 second (again often the lowest/slowest I go when I’m shooting with active moving kids)
lens – 50mm 1.2L

a family shot

a family shot