Cluedo – A Family Photo Shoot - and Episode 214 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I was once asked by a business client if I could do a photo shoot of her with her husband and 2 kids. "Could you make us look like a normal family?" she said with a desperate plea in her voice. There were hints to a background of the wider clan all being more traditional and respectable, while her corner were seen as the black sheep. The shoot wasn't really for themselves, but to give the right impression to other people.

By comparison, when Jean came to see me at Spring Fling to talk about a family photo shoot, a traditional approach was the last thing she wanted.

Although her children are now adults, they had all grown up as avid board game players, with Cluedo being a particular favourite. Jean said she loved my approach to creating cinematic and theatrical narrative photography and before I knew it we were talking about how we might stage a Cluedo themed shoot, with each member of the family playing a different character, along with accompanying outfits, props and location.

This is what I live for!

Do a quick Google search on Family Photo Shoots and you quickly discover there are 3 styles that dominate the results – the traditional studio, the white-backdrop, and the outdoor "lifestyle".

The traditional family photo shoot was essentially like your school photo shoot – a plain or textured backcloth (often blue or brown) with standard studio lighting. Everything looked a bit formal, but participants might be encouraged to try smiling for the camera – the degree of success of creating a convincing smile rather than a grimace would depend on the people skills of the photographer.

Solid, dependable, high-street photographers with a section at the back of the shop all set up and ready to go. Not exactly imaginative, but you know what you’re going to get.

In the 1990s a radical new approach hit the high street, and shopping malls, everywhere: a completely white background where everyone was encouraged to take off their shoes and sit, or even roll on the floor. At least one parent might look embarrassed, but it was more than made up for by laughing children clambering over them.

With borderless canvas prints being favoured over traditional framed and mounted prints, these looked fresh and modern.

A decade or 2 later, when you couldn’t visit someone’s house without seeing yet another white-backdrop family photo all but identical to your own, the outdoor "lifestyle" shoot emerged.

Some might have the family sitting in a spring meadow or holding hands running along the beach. But for most it seems the dominant form has now become matching outfits – everyone wearing white shirts and blue jeans, or a tidy brown and beige combo, usually standing under a tree.

Unfortunately, because these 3 styles of photography are so dominant, most people don't appear to realise a family photo could be so much more fun and creative.

For Jean and her family, making the costumes, sourcing the props, and rearranging the dining room were all part of the fun and experience.

Jean decided to be Miss Scarlet, while her daughters were Reverend Green and Mrs White. Her son was Colonel Mustard and his partner was Professor Plum.

I guess that probably makes the viewer Mrs Peacock...

We did a series of images – from them playing the game at the table, through to them gathered around a body in a trunk, and then various individual and combination shots.

As well as ending up with a completely unique set of photos that they will never have to worry about seeing cookie-cutter versions of on their neighbour's walls, the memories of the experience will be with them forever.

And I daresay their descendents will have a different impression of them than we do when we look at old photos of our great grandparents.

Whether it's Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders, Steampunk or Star Trek – group photos of families or friends can be so much more exciting than standing in a row, looking faintly uncomfortable.

Let's get together for a no-obligation coffee to explore ideas.

If you're interested, I discuss this photo shoot in Episode 214 of my podcast, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"

And if you decide to click through and watch it directly on YouTube (rather than here on the blog), then you can watch the Live Chat Replay and see the comments people are writing in real time as the podcast progresses.

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2:02 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
5:37 - Smug Points Leaderboard update
7:08 - A brief history of family photography styles - from the formal, to the white sheet, to the outdoor "lifestyle"
14:13 - An introduction to the Cluedo themed family photo shoot
16:26 - Technical interlude as I try to recover a lost screen...
18:48 - The main photo
27:05 - Behind-the-scenes photos
43:43 - More images from the set
51:01 - What they looked like in Black and White
56:45 - Feedback on Viji's photo of buildings reflected in a mirror
1:09:47 - Coming up next week - The Autumn/Fall Photo Challenge
1:11:46 - End