Portrait Photography
How To Photograph Children
Children are both wonderful and exhausting! They can leave a perfectly fit adult in a state of exhaustion if we’re not careful! But how beautiful they are to photograph. I should say, to be more precise, they are beautiful and the experience of photographing them is a heart warming one.
Kids
are forever running, playing, imagining, inventing, discovering and trying
out new things. There are a few mistakes we make with photographing children
and I’m going to tell you what they are so you can avoid them and get
sensational digital photos of your kids (or someone else’s kids).
There are four major important tips I want to share with you when taking digital photographs of your children.
1)
The first major important tip to taking great photos of children is taking
them progressively, like you would a baby. Don’t just take photos of them
when it’s Christmas time, or when they have a birthday party, or at a
wedding. Photograph them while they are building a cubby house in the back
yard, at the beach building a sand castle, playing with the dog, or even
sleeping. If you are ready to go and whip out that digital camera of yours
when children are active like this, you’ll be amazed at what sensational
shots you can get.
2) The second important tip to taking great photos of children is to be super, super fast. One second they are climbing over the play equipment and the next they are running around the yard, and the next they want to play in the sandpit. And all that might be in the very fast space of about 5 minutes. In that five minutes with all that play activity you could have potentially 20 or 30 shots. And in all that shooting, you may find you have taken a winner. You might just get that all important digital shot of a great facial expression, a smile, a laugh or a joyous feeling from your child. And you will be so very, very glad you were speedy on that shutter button.
3) The third major tip is not to get them to pose. You can, but this will wear on the child’s patience quite quickly and they will get very bored in a short period of time. So work with them, don’t expect them to do what you want, otherwise a nice photo shoot could change a happy child into an irritable one.
4) The fourth major tip of taking great photos of children is to take the photo at their eye level. So many times I’ve seen a photo where the angle is the child, small in the centre of the photograph. Why not get on your knees or get in close and fill the frame and you’ll see what excellent composition this creates, and how much better your photos of your child will improve instantly.
Good luck with your digital photography!
Article by...
Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author
