Sibling picture ideas

The sibling pictures people keep are the ones that show the relationship — who leans on whom, who is protective, who is trying not to laugh. The best sibling picture ideas give brothers and sisters something to do together rather than a place to stand. Below are poses for two to five siblings, ideas for every age from newborn to grown-up, and how to make a portrait from a photo you already have.

Siblings are the hardest family members to photograph together and the most rewarding. They will not stand still, they will not stop poking each other, and the picture of them that ends up meaning the most is usually one taken in the thirty seconds when they forgot the camera was there. Most of what follows is about creating those thirty seconds.

The older or taller sibling directly behind the younger one, the younger one's head just below the older one's chin. It is the pose in the portrait above, and it says something specific: one of them has the other's back. It suits almost any age gap.

Standing back to back, arms folded, both looking at the camera. Teenagers who refuse anything sentimental will usually agree to this one, because it looks like a film poster rather than a family photo.

One sibling whispers something to the other. The listener's reaction is real, not posed. Shoot continuously from the moment the whisper starts.

The older one carrying the younger. It works for small children for obvious reasons and for adult siblings for funnier ones.

Find a photograph of the two of them as small children and recreate it exactly, years later — same positions, same expressions, ideally the same sofa. Print the two side by side. It makes a good present for parents, and it improves every year you wait.

A stack or a diagonal in age order, oldest at the back. For three or four siblings it works especially well, because the line of faces is a visual record of who arrived when.

Standing in a row, each leaning into the next, heads tilted together. It turns a line — the weakest arrangement — into something with warmth, and it works outdoors where there is nothing to sit on.

All of them on one sofa, closer than is comfortable, the youngest on someone's lap. Ask them to fit on half the sofa. The complaining produces better expressions than any instruction.

Holding hands and walking away from the camera down a path or a beach. No faces, so this is a mood picture rather than a portrait — keep it as a companion to one where the faces show.

The smallest sibling in the center, the others on either side with an arm around them. It gives the youngest the attention they want, which is often the difference between a cooperative toddler and a fleeing one.

Sit the older child down — on a bed, a sofa or the floor — and place the baby in their arms, with an adult kneeling just out of frame within reach. Seated is safer and it puts both faces at the same height. Photograph from the older child's eye level, close in, and expect two minutes of cooperation at most.

Give them a task, not a pose: a race toward the camera, a jump off a step on three, a hunt for something in the grass. Small children cannot hold an expression, but they cannot help having one while they are doing something.

Old enough to follow directions, young enough to find posing funny. Ask for the silliest face first and get it out of the way; the natural smile comes immediately afterwards, and that is the frame to keep.

Pose less. Let them choose where to stand and what to wear, keep it short, and do not ask for a big smile. Back-to-back, a simple stack, or a then-and-now recreation all work, because none of them requires anybody to act sweet.

The rarest picture, because grown-up siblings are almost never in the same place with a camera. When they are — a wedding, a parent's birthday, a holiday — take it before anything else. A recreation of a childhood photo is a natural fit, and a portrait of their grown-up children together is a present most parents do not have.

You may already have the picture.

• —The first meeting. The photo from the day the older sibling first held the new baby, printed properly and framed. Most families have it on a phone and nowhere else.
• —One photo per year. Go back through your camera roll and find one photo of them together from each year. In a row, they become a record of the two of them growing up.
• —A matching set. Convert the best few to black and white so photos from different phones and years hang together as a series. How to make a picture black and white covers how to do it well, and the free converter does it in your browser.
• —A portrait from a snapshot. An ordinary photo of them standing together can be restaged as a studio portrait, like the one at the top of this page — see a family portrait from a photo.

• —Shoot in bursts. With two or more children, the frame where everyone's eyes are open and nobody is mid-sneeze is a matter of odds. Take twenty.
• —Get down to the youngest's eye level. A camera at adult height looks down on small children and makes them smaller still.
• —Use a window. Daylight from the side flatters every face. Turn off the overhead lights.
• —Let them be silly, then wait. The best expression usually arrives in the quiet moment after the laughing stops.
• —Coordinate tones, not outfits. Two or three colors that sit together look considered; identical outfits look like a uniform. Or take it in black and white and the clothes stop mattering.

The portrait at the top of this page started as the photograph beside it: two siblings standing on a street, a car behind them, ordinary afternoon light. What changed was the backdrop, the light and the arrangement. What did not change was the two of them.

For that to work, the source photo needs each sibling's face clearly visible and turned roughly toward the camera, in reasonable light, with two to six people in it. Which photo works best covers what succeeds and what cannot be recovered.

Graydrop does this: one photo in, one 9:16 monochrome portrait back in about three minutes, $12.99, and you see it watermarked before you decide whether to buy it. Pets are not included yet — the portrait is people only. In December the same portrait comes in a Christmas version with Santa hats as the only color, and Christmas family photo ideas covers the rest of a Christmas picture.