Beautiful sitting overall but I'm going to tear into it without mercy in the interest of general compositional education ... and rules for composing groups that are just as good for weddings as portraits
When composing a group ... watch carefully to make sure you have:
 | even spacing between the people |
| No one straight above or below anyone else |
| a bit of air space between everyone (so they look relaxed and connected, not piled on top of one another) |
Left is OK but right image is much more relaxed and comfortable (and sample material) ... left is a few inches too tight all around ...
Right Side:
| Move the chair 4 inches right |
| Move the small center girl with it |
| Make the guy in red sit far into the chair for a couple of inches |
| Center the guy with the weird smile... we want them connected not piled ... |
Left Side:
| Have the girl sitting move her buns to the far left corner of the chair |
| Again ... same issue ... right side is too bunched up on the top image ... spread everyone 3 - 6 inches to the right and it's much better, more even spacing, "gentler" composition: |
Left is great ... mom could lean her arm (on photogs left) on the chair to move her slightly left
Right:
| Space it all out |
| Move the chair |
| Move the guy on the right over farther |
Once again ... same thing ... spread them out to the right more to give them room to for breathing ... so they don't get each other's koodies ...
Also not terribly fond of dad sitting on the arm of the chair like that ... looks dorky to me and generally on these very traditional groupings, the father should always be tallest ... silly but generally true
More of the same ... nicely spread on the left on the top, bunchy on the right ... move the chair, spread the people and your much better off
Notice on the top how the small girl in white is directly below her mother ... when you back up and take your final look at the group, if you see one head directly above another, it's an immediate clue that you need to adjust things ...
Heads never directly above or below, or parallel left to right ... traditional rule followed religiously until you have a compelling reason not to ... like all the other rules of composition we talked about last night.
Finally ... top is bunched up on the left and right ... bottom is better ... better still would be even nicer to take the head directly on top of another clue and move the daughter in white to the photogs left ...
| move the mom's chair left 2 inches |
| Lean her arm on the chair instead of across to the dog visually connecting her to her son behind her |
| Move the daughter left and have her grab her brother's arm gently? |
| Chair on the right moved 1 1/2 inches to the right |
| Girl on the arm of the chair moved 1 1/2 inches to the left |
Final Result sought:
| Space all around everyone |
| Everyone visually connected somehow (an arm overlaps, shoulders touch, something small) but not piled on top of one another and tightly packed as they would never be in reality |
With the final composition, each is in a pose that they would and could naturally be in, not visually or emotionally closer to another member of the family than they would be in life ...
as Denis Reggie would say, "Reality Man! ... Leather not Naugahide, varnished wood trim not plastic simulated wood adhesive" ... standing and connected in a way close enough to show they are a group, but not closer than they would normally be ...