Capturing Generational Family Portraits with Off-Camera Flash

Photographing family portraits, especially across multiple generations, brings both rewards and challenges. In this session, photographer Michele Celentano shares her approach to capturing a four-generation family portrait using off-camera flash. Her tips can help improve your family photography, especially when working with different age groups and lighting setups.

Why Generational Portraits Matter

Generational portraits capture the essence of family connections, spanning grandparents, parents, and children, and sometimes even great-grandparents. Michele emphasizes the importance of offering this type of photography, as it creates lasting memories for families and can set your portfolio apart. Capturing four generations is a rare and unique opportunity many families don’t often get to experience, making it even more important to seize the moment and preserve these irreplaceable memories for future generations.

Portable Lighting Setup for Group Portraits

Michele uses the Westcott FJ400 strobe with a 36” Beauty Dish Switch by Manny Ortiz to evenly light her subjects. The beauty dish’s silver interior adds bright highlights, softened with diffusion for a flattering effect. To create soft, even light across the group, she uses a mini boom arm to position the light in front of her subjects, a technique commonly referred to as the butterfly position for lighting. This positioning helps achieve flattering, even illumination across the entire group.

Michele worked outdoors in shaded areas to avoid harsh sunlight, balancing her flash to create the perfect exposure. She uses a light meter to quickly and easily balance the flash and ambient light, allowing her to set up efficiently and focus on capturing beautiful shots without wasting time adjusting settings.

Key Lighting Gear:

1. FJ400 Strobe: Delivers powerful, reliable off-camera flash performance with fast recycle times, perfect for on-location shoots. Its battery-powered design makes it ideal for outdoor shoots, providing flexibility and convenience without needing an external power source.
2. FJ-X3 Trigger: Enables wireless control of the FJ Wireless System, allowing you to adjust your flash power easily from your camera.
3. 36″ Beauty Dish Switch: Provides soft, even light for group portraits with a larger spread than traditional beauty dishes.
4. Mini-Boom Arm and Weight Bag: This lightweight boom arm allows you to position your light directly in front of your subjects for soft, even lighting, eliminating the need to work around a traditional light stand while maintaining stability with the weight bag.

Camera Settings:

1. Aperture: f/4.0 for balanced subject sharpness and background blur.
2. Shutter Speed: 1/200th sec to sync with flash.
3. ISO: 200 to maintain image quality in shade.

Family portrait lighting setup using an FJ400 strobe with 36″ Beauty Dish Switch

Generational Family Portrait – All 4 Generations

Generational Family Portrait – Grandmother, Mother and Daughter

Generational Family Portrait – 3 Generations

Generational Family Portrait – Mother and Daughter

Posing for Natural Interaction

Michele’s simple but effective posing tip is to separate the subjects’ feet slightly and have them lean in at the shoulders. This creates a natural and relaxed look, while playful engagement with young children helps capture authentic moments.

Quick Tip: Start with the most important group shot first, especially when working with young children, before they lose interest.

Keeping Young Children Engaged During Family Portraits

Toddlers have short attention spans. Michele suggests keeping the session interactive and fun, using playful activities or conversation instead of rigid posing. You can typically expect about 15-20 minutes of cooperation from young children, so make the most of that window.

5 Key Takeaways for Outdoor Family Portraits with Off-Camera Flash

At the end of the session, Michele successfully captured a variety of meaningful groupings, from mother-daughter to grandmother-grandchild portraits, resulting in a heartfelt collection of family memories. Here are five key takeaways from the session:

1. Use a larger beauty dish for better coverage in group portraits.
2. Balance natural and flash by metering the background.
3. Engage with young children by keeping the session interactive and fun to capture natural expressions.
4. Prioritize key shots at the beginning of the session to ensure you capture the most important images before anyone gets tired.
5. Enjoy the process—family photography is all about capturing love and connection.

Generational portraits are a unique way to preserve family legacy. With thoughtful lighting, natural posing, and a patient approach, you can create beautiful and meaningful portraits.

Learn more about lighting and posing large group family photos with Michele Celentano!

Lighting Gear in Action