Photos of children are so vastly different from other types of photography. A photo of a child will always evoke emotion, no matter the quality, subject matter, composition – children are dear to every heart in some way or another so when you photograph them and approach a shot to edit, handle each shot with sensitivity.
Here are 8 tips for aspiring momarazzo to bump up your game:
1. Point of View
Try a different point of view rather than the normal face-on photo. Wait until they’re doing something sweet and try a shot of what they are doing.
2. Something to do
Hand them a toy or get them involved in an activity and wait until they’re engrossed before you start shooting.
3. Back Off
Back up and zoom in. Children have a very good sense for when they’re being manipulated and as any parent knows, they hate to be controlled. Back up, get out of their space, zoom in and just wait.
4. Cropping
When you crop a photo, give your subject a space to look into. If they’re facing or staring into a certain direction, give some space on that part of the photo to give the viewer a sense that they are present in the moment. It makes you wonder ‘what are they looking at?’ Don’t place your subject in the dead-center of a photo.
Whether you use a point-and-shoot camera (the kind without changing lenses) or an SLR (the kind with changing lenses), the sports mode is the best for children. Kids move FAST and so to catch them in action requires a very fast shutter. Also on some cameras, the sports mode allows continuous shooting where you hold down the shutter button and it just snaps shot after shot in succession. Then you can pick the one that caught that perfect moment.
6. Make them scream
Kids hate being forced to smile and quickly learn to just ’say cheese’. Tell them to scream or shout something like “NO!” or “PEE!” Anything is better than the ‘cheese face’ and shouting makes for interesting expressions.
7. Get Down
Everyone knows that kids are little. Get down and shoot on their level. Don’t make them come up to yours. Get down on your knees or lay on your belly and see what the world looks like from there.
8. Edit
Play with your photos. Every photo can be made a better with a bit of editing. Editing can consist of changing a photo to b&w, playing with colour levels or adding a glow (great for kids). More intensive editing can be things like texture layers, colour replacement, adding blur, selective colouring, etc. Professionals and pro-sumers use programs like Lightroom or Photoshop (you can get free trials from the Adobe website). Start with Google’s Picasa (FREE!) program. You can download it and use to organise end edit your photos and even make slide shows to upload on YouTube or photo collages. There are quick and easy buttons to add a glow, transform the colour or bump up the saturation to make your colours more vibrant. Picasa is an excellent place to start if you want to experiment with editing your photos.
Most of all, have fun and make your own rules. Photography can be the most intensely enjoyable hobby for yourself and your fans. Get out there and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
