What are some tips for posing big families?

Note: QOTDs (Questions Of The Day) are from our Facebook page. If you would like to submit a question, please click here to submit your question. We will then post them on our Facebook page and let our fans respond to the question. We will then transfer the question over to our blog so we can keep them in an organized way for others to see.

QOTD from Sasha: ""Any ideas on how to pose a party of 17?! I have never had a family THIS big! There are going to be 9 kids. Any tips would rock!!""

JFs Photoguy: wide angle lens...shallow DOF

Carla: ha ha 9 kids...hold shutter and dont stop for 5 min of posing, maybe you'll get them all to look..lo;

Kellie: I think it is Hanson Fong "A"s in the front, "B"s in the back, and be sure to get yourself posing steps

Angelajoy: ask them all to say their ABCs... because there are so many letters that require a person mouth to look like a smile...b c d e g p t z ...for example :)have them all sit to the side(shoulder towards cam) and have the cam at a higher level ... so that everyone has to look slightly up, that will open their eyes and give that so happy feeling :)

Crystal: Instruct them all to smile...face you...and close their eyes....when you count 1, 2, 3 and say "open" they are to open their eyes. This reduces the chance of shut eye and works perfectly much of the time. Definitely use an f stop of at least 17...I'd probably even suggest f/22 for this. I just shot a family of 18 this week...the adults were in the back staggered up a little bridge...the larger children were below them on the ground..and the littlest ones were in front of them (3 tiers). Make sure they are relatively close to each other in depth so that you don't create too much bokeh between the 3 rows. Definitely find a way to tier them though, even if it's back row standing...middle row kneeling and front row sitting. Good luck!

To help give you a visual, here is the image I am speaking of (with 18 members)http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=379245078809610&set=a.361846677216117.79332.106234506110670&type=3&theat

Crystal: To help give you a visual, here is the image I am speaking of (with 18 members)http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=379245078809610&set=a.361846677216117.79332.106234506110670&type=3&theater

Lynn: Have them say please not cheese.

Feel free to keep responding to this question using our comment section below.