I havent posted pictures of Sophie in a while, someone kindly reminded me. So here is a small Sophie fix together with a couple of more tips for taking pictures of kids.
Now, for the ones of you who are more interested in photography than of Sophie…. As I have mentioned several times before, the best way to take pictures of kids are in their “natural habitat” when they are happy and playing. Here are a few more tips:
1. Get to their level and shoot. Don’t stand and angle the camera down to take the pictures. Just get down!
2. Think about the background wherever you are. If at home, like the pictures above, see if you can place your kid’s chair in front of a white or at least single colored wall, or a nice wall paper for that matter. A white background will give you a “studio look”, which I kind of like.
3. To get the white background: Make sure the white in the background is really white, so pay attention to your white balance. In my opinion it should be bright white, and especially not yellowy or too grey. The way to get that? Add a layer to your picture in Photoshop (or photoshop elements I think) and convert it to screen mode. This will brighten your whole picture, not only the wall of course. To get the child in the right exposure, you can either use the eraser tool to erase the screen from the top layer, or you can add a layer mask (click option+layer mask) and then use a brush to get out the white from behind the mask. I prefer the eraser actually, but probably the layer mask is more correct…If it still isnt white enough? Do it again. One more screen layer will make the white really white I would think!
4. If you don’t have a white or single-colored wall, shoot with a high aperture to get a shallow depth of field which will blur the background. Or you can even blur the background in Photoshop, but to me that is somehow a hassle, I dont like doing that and I always think it looks kind of fake.
5. Pay attention to the light. Do you have a white wall AND a side window, which will give the pictures a side light, will make them even better. Side light is (almost) always flattering for portraits. And if you can, take the pictures early in the morning or in the afternoon before the sun rises. Then you get the great ligth. Obviously right now back in Norway that is harder said than done… The point is that you should think about the light when taking the pictures.
6. Take lots of pictures, from different angles and different focal lengths/distance if your are using prime lenses.
7. Combine the pictures in a series or a collage, and voila, you have something you can even hang on your wall. As easy as that! I can tell you about making collages later if you are interested…
8. Shoot in aperture mode or even the slightly more automatic sports mode to get a quick shutter speed and shallow field of depth. Manual might be too slow to get the precious moments you are trying to get. And don’t leave the camera settings on automatic. Just do it!!!! At the very least put it to P, and for the love of god or whomever, avoid the camera flash. If there is ONE thing you should invest in for your camera, it is an off-camera flash. But that is a whole other post again. More on that later.
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