Taking great photos of Children
Taking great photos of Children is probably the most rewarding of all photography and perhaps sometimes the most challenging. These tips will help you get great results.
Attitude.
Remember what it was like to be a kid. Laugh. Make funny faces. Try to channel your inner child, if only for a few minutes. Children are young and carefree. They laugh, they play, and they run about. In many ways, children live in their own little world. And, as a photographer, you have the opportunity to capture something beautiful. You can show children as they really are. For instance, look at the photo below. By empathizing with my subject, I was able to capture something natural and beautiful. The expression on her face feels genuinely childlike…because it is.
Correct Lighting
If you have professional lights this help with indoor situations. However the best photos of children are frequently done out of doors. Look for lighting coming from windows doorways. Please keep out of strong sunlight.
Observe the light. Watch how it changes depending on the weather and the time. Watch how the temperature of the light goes from cold (when cloudy) to warm (when sunny). Learn to predict how the light is going to change.
?The more you understand light, the better your photos will be. For instance, I like to go out to shoot an hour before sunset. This is when the light is warm and golden. I shoot from the second I go out until it’s pretty much dark.??But do you know my favorite time to shoot? It’s the moment when the sun clings to the edge of the horizon. It’s the moment when the sun barely exists. That’s the moment I always wait for.
Use the rule of thirds
I have spoken of this many times and will repeat it again here. This creates interesting photos where people will look twice because the photos are interesting. Here it is (in simplified form): Put your subject a third of the way into the frame. And put your horizon a third of the way into the frame, as well. In other words, you should place the main elements of your photo along the gridlines. When you’re actually shooting, think about the rule of thirds. Think about how you can position the child along the rule of thirds grid. Try aligning the top grid line with the child’s head. Or you can make sure the top grid line goes across the child’s eyes. And have the horizon line running along the bottom grid line.??
Simplify the background
Busy backgrounds make for confusing an amatuer photos. It’s easy to skip this step. When you’re out shooting, you become so focused on capturing your subject. But the background matters, too. In fact, good photography isn’t about just having a good foreground or a good background. It’s about capturing a beautiful image as a whole. Make sure that it contains no distracting objects. Avoid all street signs and cars. Basically, you want to make sure that there’s only one thing that pops off the page: the child!Then make sure that there are no distracting colors. You want the background colors to complement the child. For instance, it’s generally a bad idea to pose a child in front of a bright red fire truck. The red will steal the scene, and the child will be lost.
Have more than one child in the photo
Interaction can create wonderful images of kids. Let them interact. Let them play. Let them do what children do. That way, you’ll be able to capture images that are powerful—and are truly one of a kind.
Position yourself low
Taking photos looking down at kids doesn’t show there magic. Sometimes this can work but in general getting to their level will give you much better shots. When I say to get low, I mean really low. For instance, you can crouch down so that you’re far below your subject’s line of sight. Or you can lie on the ground and shoot up toward your subject.?? If you get low, you’ll capture an image in which your subject is looking down at you—and this angle can make for some powerful shots.
There are so many little-known tricks and techniques you can use to improve your photos. And we could only share a handful of them in a blog post like this.But here’s the good news: Once you really understand photography, you’ll be taking the kind of photos that nobody else will ever do.
Want more on uncooperative kids in to take photos of Click here.
