Learn how to photograph your family

Posted on: Mon May 27, 2013

© Andrew Newson

If you’ve ever had a professional family portrait taken you’ll know that it can be expensive and rightly so in my opinion, because professional photographers have expensive equipment, lots of overheads and years of experience.

However digital technology does make photography more accessible for everyone. The price of a digital SLR has come down hugely over the last few years – you can buy an entry level SLR and lens for just £300!

Some are of the opinion that just having a digital SLR means you can take professional quality images – not so I’m afraid. You do need to know your way around the camera and know what settings you need to achieve the shot you want. Well the good news is that it’s not rocket science, a short course or two and you can be well on your way to taking great quality images that will amaze your friends. Before you know it people will be encouraging you to take up photography professionally!

So what I’m suggesting here is to buy a camera, lens and maybe some lights and learn how to use them and be able to take wonderful photos of your family growing up over the years. Not just a one-off portrait and much more than just phone snap shots, real quality photographs you can treasure forever. Let’s take a look at the costs involved…

Basic Set up:
Entry level digital SLR and kit zoom lens – £300
A good quality fixed focal length lens for portraits – £100
Memory cards – £20
Adobe Lightroom 4 software – £90

The above kit is plenty to take great portraits, but if you want to add some studio lights in too for that professional looking family portrait…

Studio Set up:
Beginners studio lighting kit – £300

£510 for the basic set up or £810 for the Basic and Studio set up.
£500 is a lot of money to anyone, I know, but add up your costs for that professional studio shoot and some prints and I’d be very surprised if this option is more expensive.

You could always just buy the camera and hire my studio for those professional looking family portraits.

You do need to know how to use this equipment though and like I said, it’s not as hard as you might think. As long as you think you could possibly have the flair to take the photos then this is a very real option for you.

I’m now offering courses for people like you here at my studio in Crowbrough, East Sussex and you can book that here. Just choose 3 hours of time for 2 persons. You can choose longer if you like but I find 3 hours is about right for this course. The price for 3 hours is £223.

If you don’t already have the equipment then I am more than happy to give you the advice on what camera to buy and where to buy it, beforehand. Once you have the equipment you can then book up a 3 hour course with me at the studio which will walk you through different aspects of photographing your family, from candid snap shots to basic studio scenarios.

The session will be for you and your family, there will be an intro talk from myself first and then we will then do some practical hands-on shooting in the studio with me on hand at all times to help you. You’ll soon discover it’s not that hard and you will start to get some great shots. I’ll even take a few photos of you and your family and you can take home a large print all included in the price.