Wait, there are different types?
Yes! There are definitely different types of family photography out there. When you are trying to find a family photographer, it's a good idea to understand what the options are. There are three major types of family photography - traditional, lifestyle, and documentary. I’ll talk about each one and compare them.
Traditional Family Portraits
In traditional family portraits, your family stands together, usually dressed in nice clothes, and everyone looks into the camera and smiles. This the portrait style many of us grew up with. Say cheese everybody!
The great thing about this style is that you get a picture of everyone smiling together and happy, which is something we all love to have.
One challenge with this type of portrait is getting the little ones to cooperate. We can all think of a few family portraits with not so happy children. You are essentially asking a child to stand still for awhile, look at this new “stranger” and connect happily with a smile. For some kids, this is a big ask.
A photographer who does traditional portraits might also do other portraits for you as well including playful moments. It just might not be their specialty or the main kind of image to expect.
Enter lifestyle photography….
Lifestyle Family Photography
Lifestyle family portraits try to capture family portraits that show your natural family interactions. Compared to traditional portraits, you will be moving around and doing things together. This keeps things fun for your little ones and adds some movement and life into your pictures. Because you are playing together, portraits are more fun. In these portraits, you are more likely to be looking at each other smiling, not looking at the photographer. No "cheese" necessary! The photographer will guide you into interactions together. One example might be, on the count of three, everyone look at your favorite family member! 1-2-3…what?...just kidding, and laughter ensues. You have a beautiful, natural moment of everyone laughing together.
The great thing about these photographs is that everyone is interacting happily. It is super easy on the younger age group of 1-5 and babies too of course because they aren’t asked to interact with the “stranger” as much. And when they are asked to, it tends to be a warm, playful interaction that they warm up to pretty quickly because it’s a lot like play.
Most lifestyle portrait sessions will also do their best to give you a traditional portrait too with everyone looking at the camera and smiling. This is nice because you get the one traditional portrait that everyone loves and lots of natural looking, playful moments too.
There is one last type of family photography that I love and want to introduce. It may be completely new to many. It’s called Documentary Family photography or Journalistic photography. It's also referred to as day in the life photography. It’s very similar to the type of photography that people usually have on their wedding day. But in this case, instead of your wedding day now it's your family day together.
Documentary / Journalistic Family Photography
Documentary Family Photography is about capturing your real life family day together. This style has roots in journalism. It’s about telling the true story of your family's life. It’s similar to how you might keep a journal or scrapbook or take home movies. You want to remember all this stuff. And pass this on to future generations. It's your own personal history. A part of your family's legacy.
You can have short or long photography sessions. You can capture as little or as much as you’d like in your day. An amazing thing to capture is one day in your life. Think about capturing your whole day together as a family. What would you want to remember?
At each phase of your family’s life, there are beautiful rituals and traditions. Our family can be pretty playful. Right now, my youngest child made up a game that he calls “ice”. One night, he tossed a reusable ice cube at my husband and said, “Daddy, I ice you!”. Now we all have fun as a crazy family running around and tossing ice at each other. It’s our special game. I've been trying to capture it. One day we may even forget we played it.
Back to comparing the sessions, I think these sessions will be very easy on little ones. They aren't asked to do anything but be present as themselves. If they cry no worries because it's all a part of your story. In documentary family photography, there will be pictures with smiles, crying, joy, frustration, any emotion really. You are capturing real life. If you are a playful family then there will be play. If you are quiet then that will show up too. It's about being present as yourselves.
Every documentary family photographer aims to capture your family honestly. As humans, we all have our slant. Some may "see" the humor and some "see" the quiet. You can expect artful moments that you'd love to hang up and ordinary moments. There will be portraits, but they won't be perfect. They will be true to life. Perfectly imperfect.
One challenging thing in documentary family photography is that your photographer is going to be strict about not interfering in what’s going on with your family. She may desperately hope that your kids will hug again because she missed that moment. But she won’t ask them to hug again. And this is for a few reasons. One reason is that you can’t recreate a moment. Really. It just never happens the same way again. You can get close, but that moment is gone. The main reason though is ethical. Once the photographer gets involved and directs you then the photographer is creating your story for you. It’s not your TRUE story. The strict ethics of this come from journalism. If a photojournalist used a photo where he asked people to recreate events then he would be fired on the spot. What we present as documentary photography must have actually happened this way and the photographer happened to be there to capture it.
I think all of these photography styles are amazing. It really depends on what you love, what phase of life you are in, and what you want to capture.
In summary,
Traditional sessions aim to give you plenty of images with everyone looking beautiful and smiling
Lifestyle sessions aim to give you a few of these traditional images, but mostly they will give you playful, interactive images where the focus is less on perfection and more on enjoying each other. You will have many images of you looking at each other and a few at the camera.
Documentary sessions aim to give you real life storytelling images. The story’s subject is your family’s real life together. You will have a wide range of expressions, moments, and emotions. You will be looking at each other and things in your environment. Rarely would you be looking at the camera. Children forget it's even there.
So…what type of photography is right for your family?
