Three-Generation Family Photos — Why Everyone Stiffens and How to Arrange Them

A photo with all three generations together, taken on a visit home. It becomes a treasure later — and it usually comes out with everyone frozen, or spread awkwardly across the frame by height differences. A little thought about how you arrange people and the order you shoot in changes it completely.

Seat someone, and bring faces close

Three generations means big height differences, and a standing row leaves the faces at wildly different heights, stretching the frame sideways.

Have one person take a chair or sofa and gather everyone else around them and the faces settle to a similar height. A chair for anyone more comfortable sitting; anyone happier standing can stay standing. The seated faces anchor the center, with children crouched in front and parents standing behind. Once the faces form a triangle, the frame steadies itself (→ Triangle composition).

A quick “come in a bit closer” to close the gaps between faces tidies everything up. Background visible between people is what makes a group shot look scattered (→ How to shoot group photos).

Composition guideTriangle compositionSee the full guide for this composition →

Keep shooting after the posed frame

The moment someone says “taking it now” is the tensest one. Once you have the posed frame, don’t stop there. Say “got it” and everyone relaxes — that’s the frame you actually want.

Ask a child to say something to their grandparents, hand over the baby, open an album together. Hands doing something, or profiles mid-laugh, hold the mood far better than a row of faces looking at the lens. There’s movement in it, so burst mode helps (→ Using burst shooting / Photographing kids and pets in motion).

Window light, or open shade outdoors

Indoors is darker than it feels, so faces sink and shake creeps in. Have everyone turn toward the window and soft light wraps the faces. With the window behind them you’re in backlight, so tap a face and swipe up to raise the brightness (→ Adjusting brightness / Shooting into the light).

Outdoors, even shade beside a building beats direct sun: nobody squints and there are no hard shadows. The garden or the front door is also a place worth having in the picture — the house is part of the memory.

Get the photographer in

The most common regret in family photos is that whoever took it isn’t in it. Rest the phone on a shelf, a table or a stack of books and use the 10-second self-timer (→ Using the self-timer).

Decide where everyone stands before pressing the shutter and there’s no last-second scramble. Three seconds rarely works; ten does. Take several and choose the best expressions.

Looking at them together is part of it

Showing the screen around and choosing together is part of the occasion. A print you can keep to hand is often welcome too, so thinking as far as printing the best frame — or using it on a New Year card — gives the photo a longer life (→ Photos for New Year cards).

In a year when you can’t be there in person, a shot of the video call is a record in its own right. Sending a few photos of what’s going on at your end alongside it gives you both something to look back on.

Just this to start

Have one person sit and gather around them. Close the gaps between faces. Keep shooting after the posed frame. Those three turn a three-generation photo from a stiff row into something that holds the day. And get yourself in with the timer.