Photoshop Tip: Perfecting Group Photos Part I

Written by: Leslie Fishlock // January 9th, 2009 // Uncategorized

by Geek Girl Janel Kesten

Taking a great group photo can be a bit tricky, but with Photoshop and a little planning you can create a near-perfect, if not perfect picture. Keep the following in mind when taking those holiday photos:

1. Remind people to smile.
But don’t make people wait forever while holding the smile. You don’t want to get a frozen smile à la Chandler from Friends. Count to three, say something funny or tell kids to say cute things like “cheese pizza!” (it works for my cousins). If you have very young kids try some potty humor and they’ll burst into giggles. Hey, it might even work for the older crowd too.

2. Take multiple photos from the same angle.
Yes, people may complain, so try to do it quickly with little talking in between shots. You’ll want as many photos you can get when editing later because little Joey might not smile until take five and everyone else might have grown tired by then.

3. Make it easy to remove people.
If your sister insists on having her boyfriend in every photo make him stand at the end of the group. Wait for everyone to leave the area and take another photo of the backdrop from the same position. It’ll be helpful a month later when he turns out to be a dud, now you can just edit him out without having to cut the photo.

In part II we’ll review how to combine multiple images in Photoshop to create the best group photo.