More tips for photographing your baby
A helpful and fun site for anyone with babies, Rookie Moms, gives some great tips on photographing your little ones.
In this post, Heather at Rookie Moms gives new parents creative ideas about what to photograph when you’re running out of ideas. Sometimes it’s easy to get in a rut of shooting the same poses of your child over and over. She recommends photographing your baby’s big milestones (a first smile or wave), dressing and photographing your baby in all her various gift outfits (she suggests “the more ridiculous, the better the pictures”) and shooting your baby where she hangs out (looking back at your home in 20 years will be so entertaining).
And in this post, after an unsuccessful trip to a photo studio, she gives all parent photographers tips to taking great and professional-looking pictures at home. Some of the tips I found helpful (and also used in the photo above) are: take lots of photos, seize good (natural) lighting, get close and, also, to crop (which I did with the camera this time, not photoshop).
What tips and tricks do you use to get interesting shots of your kids?
Responses and Conversations
My main tip for capturing good pics of kids is to catch them acting natural rather than pointing the camera at them and hoping for the best. I think getting around the “posing” problem is the greatest hurdle, a baby or a toddler can not pose, kids 5-8 can often pose too much and look forced (you know, that ultra-cheesy smile reflex)
Comment by Chris Garrett on May 22nd, 2006 at 6:15 am
That’s very true about getting close. Just a week or two ago I was trying to stand back two feet or something for most of my portraits. Now I’ve started to get in closer, and fill the frame with their face. That’s the most important part.. The face.
Comment by Mike on May 25th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
[...] As Amy Frazier talked about recently, there are many ways to take a portrait. You can have the person stand far away, take it from an abstract angle, use awesome lighting.. But one of the best ways to capture their facial expression, and whole attitude, is to get up in their face. [...]
Comment by Digital Photography Blogs - Capturing Your World - Blog Archive » Up Close ‘n’ Personal on May 28th, 2006 at 3:33 am
It was actually pretty funny watching Amy take these photos because our daughter kept crawling toward her and Amy would have to back up another foot or so to get the auto focus to engage. It looks like a Benny Hill episode in slow motion.
Comment by Chris Frazier on May 29th, 2006 at 9:29 am
[...] Besides the tip I have mentioned before of getting down on the same level as kids when photographing them, I learned many new helpful hints that I think will make my future party photos better. One of the tips suggested on the blog is to look for and photograph party details, like the photo here.** Details of the party are great at telling the story and are a fun addition to all the pictures full of people in your albums. And another great thing about these kinds of shots is that you can take many of them before guests even arrive (i.e. of the cake, balloons, decorations and gifts). [...]
Comment by Shooting the Kids - » Photographing Children’s Birthday Parties on August 17th, 2006 at 2:04 pm