Photographing Children
By Patrick Arseneau - Children are probably the most popular subject in photography. I think the reason is because they grow up so fast and we all want to freeze them in time. They make great models because they don’t worry about anything. They look completely natural. They don’t care about how their hair looks, if they blink or not, what they wear, etc. It’s a pure capture of how they feel in the present moment. Even if they don’t want to have their picture taken, take it anyway and see how their expression ‘talks’ to you through the picture.
Baby Pictures
Every parent wants to get good pictures of their babies. Who wouldn’t? And the nice thing about that is they have all the patience in the world for you to take that ‘perfect shot’. The only problem is that the baby may not have that precious patience. My advice to you is to ‘go with the flow’. When photographing babies, it’s hard to visualize a picture in your head and then try to do it. Babies can’t follow your directions and their mood will often change every 2 minutes.
That’s why I say go with the flow. Let the baby be the director and you be the camera man following orders. If the baby wants to reach for the camera while your taking pictures, don’t stop him. Take a picture! If the baby doesn’t smile when you wiggle your keys in front of his face, that’s ok. Take a picture anyway! You’ll be surprised at the results. Don’t try to position the baby exactly the way you want him. I mean yes, you can set him down under the lights, but if he doesn’t want to sit down and stay still, just work with it. You’ll get a lot of missed shots but, the good shots are gonna be natural. I guarantee you that the parents will be happy to see a pure natural expression in the pictures.
Stay Low To The Ground
You’ll get better results if you get down to the same level as the children. The pictures will be much more dynamic. Looking at a those pictures will almost feel like you’re right there playing with the children. It’s not always easy to crouch down and follow children around while they’re playing. What I like to do is turn the auto focus on, turn the lens to a wide angle (less than 20mm) and without looking through the viewfinder I follow the children with the camera almost on the ground and I take multiple pictures using the ‘burst’ mode.
Another reason I do this for a better facial expression. If your subject is looking up at the camera, his eye brows might be come up and he could be squinting from the sun light. Or, the child may not even look at the camera and if you’re higher you don’t have a good view of the eye expression.
Always get down to the same level as your subject. This goes for animals too. This little tip could make a huge difference in you photo collection.
Be Creative!
This is a great opportunity and to try new and different things. Children are always willing to try things. Tell the children you want to play a game with them. Give them a “challenge” and tell them you’re wondering if they can do it. Something like “I wonder if you can catch a ball with your baseball glove”. They’ll jump right into action show you what they can do so be ready with your camera.
Get them to do something entertaining for them and their facial expression will be priceless. That’s why I enjoy photographing kids so much. You rarely have to give them directions. You never have to give tell them to smile or tell them where to look or what to do. They are natural models.
As long as the kids are having as much fun as you are, you’ll get the result that you are looking for.
