Shooting families can be a little intimidating if you don’t have a lot of experience with them. With mini-sessions, you are already shooting on a time crunch! 

Believe it or not, I get a full gallery of 20 images during every 15-minute mini-session I shoot. This definitely isn’t by accident! I shared in “My Mini-Sessions Shooting Workflow” the exact groupings I get with every family, but I wanted to give some extra bonus tips for how to get that full gallery of images. 

(Remember, the full gallery is important if you’re wanting to up-sell! Read “How to Up-Sell Mini-Sessions WITHOUT IPS”.)

1. Move your feet.

A great way to get a nice variety of photos is to move closer and farther from your subject. Get some tight shots, medium shots, and extra wide shots. By simply changing up the framing, you’re giving yourself more to work with. Each of those shots will look so different, and they’ll help fill your gallery quickly.

2. Shoot for candids.

Candid shots are where the magic happens!! Of course always try to get the shots of everyone looking at the camera and smiling, but the candid shots are the ones that Mom can’t turn down! Think shots of kids giggling, tickle fights, funny glances, anything you can catch. In those in-between moments I usually just keep my camera on continuous shooting and hold down the shutter so I have a higher chance of catching those sweet moments.

3. Change up your angles.

I know it can be tempting to only shoot from straight-on, but every once in a while it’s a good idea to change it up and shoot from a different angle. Try shooting from the side or from behind to catch different glimpses of the family! You could have them in a single pose and get several photos that look very different simply by changing your angle.

4. Keep the end in mind.

It always helps me to imagine I’m creating a gallery wall for my clients. You know, the ones with beautiful canvases of different sizes. When I imagine what type of photos would look great on a gallery wall, it helps me to be intentional to capture those shots. I’ll get some super close-ups of Mom holding her little girl’s hand, or Dad gazing into Mom’s eyes as their kids goof off. Getting the different angles and framing will help with this!

You may also like…

“How to Get Kids to Cooperate For Mini-Sessions”

“Lessons From My First Set of Mini-Sessions”

“How to Price Your Mini-Sessions”