Top Prompts for Creating Connections in Family Portraits
Our goal for family portraits is to always create images you can feel. Portraits that take you back to a moment in time. Photos that highlight your clients connections, inside jokes, silliness and love. The images that fill the frame with the little details, like dimply hands, toothless grins, and snuggly hugs.
You will rarely here us asking a family to look and “say cheeeeeese.” We always like to grab a looking photo or two for family members that like to have those posed updated images, but what we know as moms, is how much BETTER your portraits turn out when we let kids be kids and just allow that to be the highlight of your session.
Here are our top prompts for creating connections and authentic family portraits!
Snuggle Up
We tell our clients to snuggle up how they would normally at home. This gets them comfy, and then we will prompt with things that help them look in the direction we need. For example, ‘Can you look at mommy’s eyes and tell us what color they are?’
Animal Sounds
We often have parents look at their little ones while we jump up and down and make animal sounds to get their child’s attention. This is a perfect one for babies under two!
Silly Secrets
We encourage clients to share silly secrets or whisper something that will make someone else laugh during sessions. This creates closeness and genuinely interactions. This is also perfect for those who are a bit more reserved, because they can be silly without us able to hear.
Squeezy Hugs
Little ones LOVE to show off their big muscles. Having them give a big squeezy hug brings them close and creates the sweetest connections.
Play your child like an instrument
A guitar is always a fan favorite, but this prompt creates some of the biggest laughs we see during family sessions!
Family Hug
While everyone squeezes in for a tight hug, we walk around and photograph the family from several different angles. We LOVE to fill a frame with details and touch points!
Our biggest piece of advice when using prompts with families is to get to know your clients. Find out what works and what doesn’t. What makes them laugh and connect? What helps kids get comfortable to open up and be themselves? One way to find all of this out if you have a new client, is by creating a questionnaire! Our questionnaires fill us in on things like what the family likes to do together, what makes them all laugh, what things the kids are currently interested in, and just general information so we are as prepared as possible to facilitate connections and create authentic family portraits.
We use Iris for all of our questionnaires and client management software. It’s a great tool to keep everything about each family in one place!
Are you local to Northeast Ohio and ready to start planning your family portraits with us? Let’s get planning! Click here to schedule your complimentary consultation today!
