I read a discussion thread in a photography forum recently. The thread was discussing large families, and how other photographers serve clients with large families. The questions mostly centered on the up-charge photographers charge for large families, and the number of people that constitute a “large” family. The consensus seemed to be that five was the number. Any families with more than five people were difficult to wrangle, and so therefore, required more money to photograph them.

I suppose larger families are kind of used to this type of surcharge. You need a larger vehicle; it costs more to do anything or go anywhere; some restaurants charge an extra fee for parties over six, and it doesn’t matter if you’re all related or not.

And I get why some photographers charge more. If you’re posing everyone together into a big group, it’s much harder to make sure everyone is looking at the camera and not blinking, and then it takes time (and therefore, money) to do extra work in editing when inevitably someone is sneezing or blinking in every single frame. I’ve done many the Photoshop head swap for these types of images, and they can be pretty frustrating and time consuming.

And yet, I still refuse to charge more for large families. In fact, I have encouraged clients to invite extended family members to their session, on more than one occasion. I relish the chaos of a large family session. Wandering through a park, family members will pair up for the walk and interact together. Cousins will go bounding off ahead of the adults, or introverted little ones will cling to a special buddy and the dynamics of the family really start to play out. I love to document the in-between moments of sessions, and with so many family members, there’s no shortage of sweet, fun, and true family moments.

It can be harder to do an in-home session with a large family, just because of the logistics of small spaces and many people. And in order to get everyone in a photo together, you do need to be willing to pose to some extent, just for the practicality of the exercise. So I tend to meet big families in big open spaces where there’s lots of room for everyone to move. Although, I have done at home sessions with more than four or five people, and it’s a fun challenge to figure out the angles.

But all of that doesn’t mean you should pay more for photography. You shouldn’t pay a surcharge just because your family includes more people than fit in a sedan. That’s my opinion and practice, anyway.

If you have a big family and would like to talk about location ideas or how to get everyone in your family together for photos, let’s chat. I’d love to work with you!