How to best take a group photo with very large differences on height?

Question

My family will be together for the first tome together. We want to take pictures. My family has very tall (6'6") and short (5'2") adults, and 5 kids, ages 1-12. What can I do to make pleasing photos?

Answer

A lot depends on the number of people and how formal/informal you want the photos to be.

If everyone is the same size, you end up with a straight row of heads, and nothing is les pleasing than that, so differing heights can work well. Unless the tallest or shortest adults are sensitive about their height, I don't think putting the shorter ones on stools to make them about the same height as the larger adults is the way to go. In a very large group you might use benches and so forth to make many rows of people visible, but with a family shot I wouldn't.

There are endless possibilities. You could have most of the adults in the back, and have a few (perhaps the talles/shortest adults) sitting on the ends of the front row, with the kids in the middle.

You could have the adults sitting and the children standing.

For a fun shot, you could try getting up on a ladder and shooting down on them all. The angle of view would put less emphasis on their differences in height.

I like Anisha's last idea, that could be fun. Depends on the family and how traditional a photo they want.

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