8 Family Photography Tips with the Tamron 18-300mm

As a household photographer, I would like versatility in my gear. That’s why I really like utilizing the Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD. With this one lens, I can seize extensive group photographs, get nearer for household portraits with dreamy bokeh, and all the pieces in between.

In this text, I gives you skilled suggestions that can assist you get probably the most out of the Tamron 18-300mm whereas creating candid household images that feels pure, linked, and vigorous.

By Guest Contributor Marcie Reif, Family Portrait Photographer & Tamron Image Master

What You’ll Learn In This Article:

• How to create dreamy bokeh for standout household portraits
• Posing concepts each household photographer can use for pure, enjoyable outcomes
• Techniques for capturing genuine connections in household images
• How to make use of the zoom vary for storytelling throughout a household photoshoot
• Tips for working with gentle to enhance your loved ones portrait images

Pro Tips to Elevate Your Family Photography Sessions

When photographing households, the little particulars make a giant distinction—whether or not you’re capturing household portraits throughout golden hour, serving to children keep engaged, or utilizing your lens to doc real moments.

Here are eight of my high tricks to creating relaxed and storytelling photographs of households.

TIP 1: Creating Bokeh in Family Portraits with the Tamron 18-300mm

Bokeh is all about topic separation. And it’s straightforward to attain.

• Zoom in to the longer finish of the vary, round 85mm or extra.
• Open your aperture to about f/3.5~4.5.
• Position your topic a number of ft away from the background.
• Look for backgrounds with shade like timber or gentle resembling string lights to essentially make the blur pop.

These easy steps will elevate your loved ones portraits and separate them from unusual snapshots.

TIP 2: How to Capture Authentic Family Portraits with Engagement and Connection

Keep poses pure and interactive. Families love conventional household portraits the place everyone seems to be wanting on the digital camera and smiling, however they like enjoyable candid photographs, too.

The flexibility of the Tamron 18-300mm makes it straightforward to shortly modify because the household strikes and interacts. You can zoom in to seize spontaneous shut ups or pull again to point out the entire scene unfolding.

Creative Tip: Replace Stiff Poses with Playful Moments in Family Portraits

Skip the boring poses and encourage play. With the 18-300mm, you possibly can zoom extensive to seize the entire sport or shut in on laughter and expressions in household portraits, all with out lacking a beat.

TIP 3: Posing Ideas Every Family Photographer Should Try

The secret is connection! Get households speaking, transferring, and laughing collectively.

• Start with everybody wanting and smiling on the digital camera.
• Then give them prompts like “look at someone in your family and laugh,” “snuggle in close,” or “tell Mom your favorite joke.”

Creative Tip: Capture Real Emotions for Relaxed and Intimate Family Photography

Set the household up and ensure everyone seems to be linked one way or the other resembling holding palms, transferring nearer to one another to shut gaps, or simply touching heads and one another.

Create actual connection by asking households to maneuver, play, and work together. Here, I captured the pure pleasure of a household collectively, an genuine second each household portrait photographer likes to ship.

TIP 4: Telling a Family Photography Story Using the Full Zoom Range

Use the complete zoom vary to inform the story.

• Start extensive to point out the setting resembling a household strolling by means of a subject or youngsters enjoying.
• Then zoom in for these shut up hugs, tiny palms, and expressive faces.

With the Tamron 18-300mm, you possibly can simply pull again for environmental household portraits that present the house setting or zoom in tight to seize small particulars like palms intertwined or a baby’s expression. By various your focal size, you seize not simply household portraits however the full story of the household’s time collectively.

Tip 5: Capturing Indoor Family Portraits with Window Light

Window gentle is among the most flattering and accessible instruments for indoor household images.

As a household portrait photographer, I usually ask households to take a seat on the sofa or collect close to a window seat in order that the sunshine falls gently throughout their faces. This setup creates genuine household photographs that really feel heat and intimate.

• Position your topics near a window.
• Use sheer curtains if the sunshine is just too harsh and let the comfortable glow wrap round their options for a timeless look.

Creative Tip: Turn Off Overhead Lights and Let Window Light Do the Work

For indoor periods, flip off overhead lights and rely solely on pure window gentle to keep away from shade casts. This ensures your loved ones portraits preserve comfortable, true-to-life tones and flattering shadows.

TIP 6: Using Backlighting for Pro-Level Family Portraits

Backlighting creates stunning glow and depth. The versatility of the 18-300mm permits you to shortly modify framing till you discover that magical angle the place gentle skims hair and shoulders, including heat and ambiance.

• Place the solar behind your topics, then set your publicity for his or her faces.
• Find the proper angle by making even the tiniest changes to the place you’re standing or the peak of your digital camera angle.
• Move round till you see precisely what you’re in search of.

TIP 7: Best Time of Day for Natural Light Family Photography

Golden hour, shortly after dawn or earlier than sundown, is the best time for outside portraits. The gentle is comfortable, heat, and flattering.

If your households have babies, sundown may be too late for them. In that case, dawn periods supply the identical stunning gentle with happier and extra energetic children. The 18-300mm handles each extensive landscapes and intimate household portraits fantastically on this gentle!

TIP 8: Midday Challenges in Family Portrait Photography (and How to Solve Them)

We don’t at all times get excellent situations for household photographs. At noon, search for open shade beneath timber or beside a constructing when you’re in an city setting.

Creative Tips: Solutions for Harsh Lighting Conditions

• If shade will not be obtainable, place your topics with the solar behind them and zoom in to reduce harsh backgrounds.
• Slightly overexpose to maintain faces comfortable and even.
• Check your topic’s eyes for catchlights — these small reflections of sunshine.
• If their eyes look vivid (usually from the sky in entrance of them), it means the sunshine is flattering and the background isn’t overpowering them.
• Sit your topics on the bottom with some timber behind them to assist keep away from a really vivid white sky behind them.

This household gathering picture above was shot in vivid noon gentle. I positioned the themes in partial shade and used the 18-300mm to border the shot. And we stored the concentrate on connection and pleasure!

Why the Tamron 18-300mm Is Perfect for Family Portraits

The Tamron 18-300mm isn’t simply versatile—it’s constructed with options that make it a dream lens for household photographers:

• Lightweight and Compact: Pairs completely with the small profile of APS-C mirrorless cameras, making it simpler to remain cell throughout busy household periods.
• All-in-One Design: Seamlessly swap from extensive household group portraits to close-up storytelling particulars with out altering lenses.
• 6x Zoom Range: Go from sweeping household group photographs to tight close-ups with out switching lenses.
• 1:2 Macro Capability: Capture storytelling particulars, like youngsters’s palms, birthday candles, or tiny flowers throughout outside household portraits.
• Moisture-Resistant Construction: Confidently shoot outside household periods in unpredictable climate, from misty mornings to humid afternoons.
• VC (Vibration Compensation): Keeps handheld photographs sharp, even when zoomed in for candid household moments or photographing children in movement.
• VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive): Provides quick, quiet, and exact autofocus, important for capturing motion, and fleeting expressions and laughter.

These options assist each situation coated within the suggestions above—whether or not you’re working with pure window gentle, chasing golden hour glow, or capturing motion mid-play.

Final Thoughts: Why the Tamron 18-300mm is Ideal for Family Photography

The Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD (Model B061) offers you the liberty to maneuver shortly, adapt to altering situations, and concentrate on a very powerful a part of the session—serving to households really feel snug and linked. When they do, the household portraits you create will naturally inform their story fantastically and authentically.

As an expert household portrait photographer, I really like that this lens permits me to seize all the pieces from extensive household images scenes to heartfelt close-ups in a single session.

I used the lens within the Canon RF mount for my APS-C Canon digital camera for the pictures on this article. The lens can be obtainable for Sony E, Fujifilm X, and Nikon Z APS-C mirrorless cameras.

Ready to {photograph} your loved ones like a professional? Learn extra in regards to the Tamron 18-300mm All-In-One zoom lens at an authorized Tamron dealer close to you or store straight on the official TAMRON Store.

About Marcie Reif

Marcie Reif is an in-demand children, household, industrial photographer, and images educator within the Atlanta, GA space. Marcie is a Tamron Image Master and travels across the nation annually talking at conferences and main different photographers. Marcie can be founding father of The Roadtrippers Retreat, an academic expertise for feminine photographers.

Instagram | Website