Children can be captured on camera successfully in many different circumstances and locations. When photographing children you’ve got to keep it moving, make it fun and yield to their character. For most children, getting their photograph taken is fun and they will perform for the photographer. This in turn brings their personality to life on camera. This article will teach you tips and tricks that will make your children photos worthy of their place on the frig, shelf or wall
Let’s see the face.
Children have the most amazing eyes. So while I’m a huge proponent of capturing a child in his or her natural environment, I also love beautiful face shots. And so do your clients. Focus in on the eyes. Give your clients something they can never refuse.
Get Natural
Good natural images can be achieved while children are playing. Good locations are in a garden, park, playground or theme parks.
This image was taken in a park and has a very natural appearance to it. The important thing to remember when taking shots like this is to use fast shutter speeds, this helps to freeze movement. Focusing should be spot on with enough depth of field present for the subject but still throwing the background out of focus, this gives more emphasis on the child.
Get Closer
Children can be composed in an image in many ways. This is an alternative approach that would be unusual to most children’s photographs. Rather than including the child’s face as the most important part of the image, a close up shot of the baby’s hand and her Teddy bear has been composed very nicely. By isolating details you can present more interesting aspects of the subjects character, here for example, softness is the key.
Get Cute
Baby pictures are great if done with soft lightingBabies are very cute and their new parents are forever photographing them. In most cases the composition of the image is seldom taken into consideration. The only worry is to capture the baby’s expressions and actions. In this image the whole scene is carefully composed. Using high key colours always suits baby pictures best. The use of a soft focus filter can add a romantic feel to baby images and are available at a very reasonable cost. You could of course make one yourself with a UV or skylight filter with some vaseline spread over it.
Be patient with them.
Some kids will warm up to you immediately. Some won’t. Work on the child’s schedule, not yours. Instead of picking up the camera right away, sit down at their level and play with them or read them a book. Become their friend first, and they’ll trust you the rest of the day.
You’re the photographer, mom is the mom.
Have you ever had the mom put a child down and start saying, “Look at the camera Suzie”. Explain to the mom up front that you will be capturing the image. She’s welcome to sit in a chair in the corner, but please leave the posing up to you. (If she sees your work ahead of time and knows what to expect, this won’t even be an issue.)
