Fall is when everybody’s in town. Grandparents visit, siblings drive in, and somebody says the thing that always gets said: “We’re all together — we should get a picture.”
You should. Those sessions produce photos that families keep for fifty years. But photographing eighteen people is a genuinely different job than photographing four, and a little planning is the difference between a great hour and a chaotic one.
Shoot the big group first
This is the single most important thing on this page. Everyone is fresh, nobody has wandered to the parking lot, the toddler hasn’t melted down, and Uncle Rick hasn’t decided he’s done. Twenty minutes into a session, that’s all different.
We get the whole-group shot secured, and then everything after it is bonus.
Then work from largest to smallest
Once the big one is done, the natural order is: everybody, then grandparents with all the grandkids, then each individual family unit, then grandparents alone, then the cousins, then whatever anybody asks for.
Releasing people as we go matters. The little kids and the oldest family members should be finished first and free to go sit down. Nobody photographs well in the last ten minutes of standing around.
Send me the list beforehand
Write down every grouping you want. Not a general idea — the actual list. It takes you ten minutes at the kitchen table and it saves fifteen minutes of standing in a field trying to remember whether we got mom with just the girls.
This matters most when someone in the group is ill or elderly. If there’s a specific photo that would mean everything to you, tell me before we start. I will make sure we get it, and I’ll get it early.
Pick one person to call names
Not me — I’m behind the camera and I don’t know who’s who. You want one person in the family who is comfortable saying “Katie, Josh, you’re up” in a voice everyone will actually respond to.
Every large family has this person. Usually they know it. Ask them ahead of time.
Outfits across four households
This is where large groups usually go sideways, because you can’t stand in everyone’s closet. The fix is to pick a palette and send it out, rather than assigning specific garments.
Give everyone three or four colors and let each household work it out from there. My fall color palette chart is built exactly for this — screenshot one palette, text it to the group, done.
- Don’t assign one color per family unit. You end up with the blue family, the green family, and the red family standing in blocks. Mix them.
- Do let the palette be loose. With eighteen people, “somewhere in these four colors” is the realistic goal, and it looks great.
- Send it early. People buy things. Give them three weeks, not three days.
Practical things people forget
- Book more time. A four-person session is 45 minutes. An extended family is 90, minimum. Rushing is what ruins these.
- Check parking. Six cars need somewhere to go, and some of the prettiest spots have a quarter-mile walk from the lot. That’s a real problem if grandma uses a cane.
- Pick a location with a level, open area. Big groups need space and even footing more than they need a dramatic backdrop.
- Bring chairs if anyone needs one. A seated grandparent anchoring the group is a classic composition, not a compromise.
- Feed people first. Especially the kids. Especially the men.
One expectation worth setting
In a group of eighteen, there is no single frame where all thirty-six eyes are open and everyone looks their best. That photo doesn’t exist in nature.
What I do instead is shoot a lot of frames of the same setup, and then combine the best one with a couple of swapped faces where somebody blinked. It’s standard practice, it’s invisible, and it’s how every good large-group photo you’ve ever seen was made.
How big does your family get at the holidays? Tell me in the comments — I’d love to know what I’m up against this year.