Family Picture with Dogs

[michi]

I have been asked by some friends to take a family portrait with their dogs as one of them is older and sick. I have been looking for fun ideas online but haven't run across anything that I really liked. I do like the dog(s) in the foreground with the family in the back, I will definitely do some of those. Any other ideas that you would like to share?

 

[mrzero]

No ideas to share, but don't wait. We just lost our older dog unexpectedly, and we treasure the quick family portrait with our dogs that I took at Christmas. We had been planning to visit a studio with the dogs and kept putting it off.

 

[Ray MacDonald]

Two ideas: shoot in open space and shoot at light before sunset or sunrise. (sunset is probably easier to coordinate)
a Beach
a large Field

Shoot from a distance. Try wide open aperture. ... with distance behind dog and family

Get nice bokeh and atmosphere.
scope out sites beforehand for composition and to see where light falls.

fwiw

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Get the dog and the family to interact. It will make a much nicer picture.

 

[michi]

Thanks for the input so far. I should have added, the dog is apparently in pretty rough shape, so they want to do it at their house. They have a backyard, and I will try to use it. I have a feeling though that the best for distance will be a 50mm lens, maybe if I'm lucky a 85mm. I always like sunset and sunrise, but they have trees around their yard, so I have a feeling it will get dark quickly around that time. As you can see, lots of challenges. I do have a bunch of flashes and tripods and umbrellas/reflectors and so on, but I hate artificial light, so that will be a last resort thing.

 

[Krob78]

Definitely not my favorite of the day but the family loved this one... I brought them all down to the dog's level, as the dog, although quite large, still couldn't get up to their level and balance the composition real well. Actually, remembering back a couple years when I did this one, the dog did rather well, all the standing portraits with the dog, the people failed...

Additionally, we took lots of candid images of the different family members interacting with the dog and those became very special for the family. But as a whole "family" portrait, they chose this one, without the guys on the end being cropped in quite so tightly. They also reneged on the Golden hour session, as one of the family members had to leave early and spoil it!

Anyway, just submitting as an idea...

OH, and I had a 580 EXII on camera right for rim light and another 580 II on camera left, back towards me a bit, to eliminate some shadowing...

This was their back yard...

 

[shumi31]

I guess you should take the picture during sunset. The dog should be set in the middle of the members.