Shooting 4-year old twins

[Whiskers Hampden]

I am doing my second paid gig this Sunday afternoon, shooting a pair of twins. One is a boy and the other a girl. I think they're about 3 or 4 years old.

I would love to hear some posing suggestions for them. I will be bringing a white seamless paper backdrop, and I checked to see if they have little benches or something to sit on (they both do). I've tried Googling for ideas but have come up empty-handed.

Thanks!

[SusanH1970]

Some lovely portraits of twins I've seen are:

- sitting back to back, both looking at camera
- standing face to face and hugging, faces cheek to cheek
- both twins in frame, but not symmetrical (i.e. playing with props such as balloons)
- sitting together, holding and looking at book in between them
- feeding each other (little ones love this!)
- shot from the back...holding hands and running away (great for outdoors, wouldn't work so well indoors)
- both laying on their bellies, knees bent and feet up, chins resting in hands

You get the idea. Some of these might be harder to get with kids that age, but I've done some of these poses with my daughter and her friend, and they're both 3 1/2.

Hope this helps! I'd love to see the results after the shoot!

[t blanchard]

I'd also make sure that you get them outside! Obviously a high-key portrait with the seamless background is great, but if you can get them outside that might relax them a bit and get them in a playful mood.

Also - 3 or 4 year olds have very small attention spans - so you are probably not going to have a ton of posed shots - especially with 2 of them. Keep that in mind before you go! Make you best attempt but it's not going to be like adults where you can pose and repose them for a long time in the same position.

With that said -I'd try these posed shots and see where it leads you!

-one where they have their backs to each other and are looking at the camera
-one where they are holding hands
-one of them hugging and looking at the camera
-(this is one of my faves but probably better for outside) - get them laying on the ground with their heads next to each other and photograph straight down.

Just a few ideas! Please share your shots afterwards! good luck

[t blanchard]

I didn't see Susan's response until after I posted and she beat me to the punch

Some great ideas though!!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by t blanchard

I didn't see Susan's response until after I posted and she beat me to the punch

Some great ideas though!!

Haha! Great minds think alike! We'd be dangerous as a team, LOL!

[mstark70]

You can also lay the boy on the floor on his belly slightly angled to your left with his hands folded under his chin up on his elbows , then lay his sister on her belly across his back in the same position but angled to your right. I don't know if I explained this very well, if I confused you I'm sorry.

[kaypea]

That age is a little tricky but bubbles are fun. Also to get them to sit still together I've had luck with huge colorful lolipops. Ask the mom first but they make adorable pictures. They sell them here at the $1 store.

[kaypea]

it's funny because I got a call today to shoot 4 year old twins boy and girl for next week. Let us know how it goes

[Whiskers Hampden]

Well, the shoot was this afternoon.

I arrived at the client's home and learned that the twins were not 4; they are in fact only 2 1/2 years old!

Overall, they were well-behaved, and I got quite a few nice shots of them.

Thanks again everyone for the hints. I think if the kids were a bit older, posing them would've been a bit easier; as it was, I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants trying to keep up with them.

Here's a not-quite-final shot of them that I really like.

[SusanH1970]

Glad the shoot went well! Adorable picture!