They say you should never work with animals or children, but we think that would be a real shame when it comes to photography and capturing those special moments with your own children!
10 Top Tips for
Photographing
Children.
The little rascals can sometimes be a tricky subject to photograph and more often than not your photos may not come out the way you had hoped. We hope that we can lend a little assistance when it comes to photographing children just using a regular camera phone as even if you do own a more professional camera, it’s not easy to just whip it out at every opportune moment as it is with a phone which you probably carry on you a lot of the time. So if capturing some cherished moments with your darling cherubs is what you are after hopefully i’ll top tips can give you a bit of help and inspiration!
Top Tip Number 1
The most important tip when you start out to take photos of your children is to make sure you have fun! When you start pointing a phone at your child they may clamp up and become self conscious leading to very unnatural looking photos. If you make the experience fun they may not even realise you are taking the photos! In what ever activity you have them doing even if you just want a shot of them sitting still it’s a good idea to play a game and get them conversing with each other, a simple game of eye spy could work wonders in keeping them still but looking engaged!
Top Tip Number 2
Children are constantly moving so it’s a good idea to use the function of holding down on the button to create the burst mode which takes several photos in quick succession. Hopefully when you look back through you’ll find one that you like and you can always delete the rest to free up some valuable space on your photo. This works particularly well with action shots.
Top Tip Number 3
Get down to their level, see the world through their eyes to create spectacular memories! If you are standing looking down at them then you will probably just get a view of the floor which isn’t very exciting!
Top Tip Number 4
Let the light fall on their face, the main subject matter is your child so make sure they are illuminated, you can work with the angles to capture the light on their face and make sure the background isn’t brighter otherwise their features will be shadowed and darker. Natural light is the best light so turn any lights off and try and work with the natural light that you have.
Top Tip Number 5
Focus on their eyes, try to make sure the focus is on the child’s eyes, they are the window to the soul after all!!
Top Tip Number 6
Mix it up by photographing them in different locations, sometimes our houses are not the best spots for photographing our children. Go for a walk in the bluebells in springtime or are a lovely leafy autumnal walk.
Top Tip Number 7
They don’t always have to be looking at the camera, sometimes a photo of your child discovering something wonderful is all you need for the perfect photo, perhaps they are looking up at the stars or a large tree, or looking up into a snow flurry, work with the composition to create something magical.
Top Tip Number 8
Play with the different filters that your phone provides, some photos can have a totally different affect with just a change of colour or filter. Black and white photos are perfect for creating drama.
Top Tip Number 9
Catch them when they are just going about their day, a bit of reportage can definitely create some amazing photos and give a whole different perspective to a photograph! This also ensure’s you get natural looking photos.
Top Tip Number 10
Ditch the word ‘Cheese’, this only leads to false looking smiles, give up a conversation with your child and keep it happy with a few jokes to get genuine smiles and reactions, you can even enlist some help and get them to stand behind you to do a silly dance or tell a funny joke. Team work is a great thing!!
And don’t forget once you’ve successfully go that one shot you can head back to Zippi to make amazing photo gifts for friends, family, and of course yourself!