How To Photograph Children- 11 Tips to Better Your Kid Photography

[cagg1120]

Children let out the deepest of emotions and tend do the most amusing things. They're always on some sort of quest and are on the move with seemingly unlimited energy. For those reasons, photographers pursue children as subjects (quite literally) and can have difficulty doing so. This blog post addresses the variety of challenges that children pose to photographers and how to get the best end results.

You can see my eleven tips and few examples in detailed, by clicking on the article below, but here are my quick essential points:

Photography Tip World: How to Capture the Essence of Children- 11 Tips to Photographing Energetic Adolescents

1. Quick Shutter Speed.
2. Go Candid.
3. When Posing Shots With Kids Make It Quick and Interesting.
4. Get on their level.
5. Interaction is Key.
6. Eyes say it all.
7. Continuous shooting.
8. Fill the Frame.
9. Don't stay in one place.
10. Value Backgrounds.
11. Add Extra Omph with Composition.

Hope this was helpful...

[dakwegmo]

1. Quick Shutter Speed. Although experimenting with motion blur can sometimes enhance your shots, it can also ruin them. With subjects as energetic as kids, you need to slow down your shutter speed for the best results.

You might want to correct the last sentence above.

[cagg1120]

Thank you so much, I fixed it up. I encourage anyone to ask questions if they have any. Hope this all helps.

[candidrachel]

I agree Candid is the way to go! Give kids something to do ie wash the car, help prepare dinner, rake leaves in the garden, splash around in the bath. Anther great idea is to capture the whole range of emotions. You don't always have to capture kids smiling. Throwing a tantrum, fighting with siblings, pouting with arms folded can produce the most compelling photos and these are the photos that parents best remember their kids rather than a staged "studio" setting of babies and children dressed as bunnies sitting in wicker baskets.

[ellie mac]

Just thought I'd make a couple of comments. One is that photographing children & adolescents are quite different things. You've used both terms in your title but I think the tips are more suited to photographing younger children.

Also I'd love to see a better range of photographs to illustrate your tips - you have 11 tips but only 3 small photos to demonstrate them.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my 2c. Thanks for sharing your tips.

[cagg1120]

Ok, I'll put the title into consideration, but I think the tips can addresses the art of photographing children of all ages. Thanks for your comments, I'll try to dig into my archive and add more of my photographs.

[cagg1120]

Unless anyone has any photographs they're willing to share for a credit on my blog?

[Crabs]

You forgot: patients

And being prepared to improvise on the run. In my experience children can be very aware that you are taking photos of them and they tend to want to be on the move the whole time when this is the case.

I have done a few shoots for kids, get there with a whole plan laid out in my mind of the shots I want only to have to ditch them all instantly and just roll with the punches.

[cagg1120]

Thanks. A crucial thing, that I nearly missed. I must have been beating around the bush in the original text, but I now spelled it out explicitly in my post.

[BigFuzzy]

May I simply suggest that your posts have more photos that show the actual tips you're pushing?
I say this because the photos included on your post don't really exemplify what you're trying to teach. If I look at this post I think "well, it's probably cut and paste from some textbook because this guy's clearly not actually done it either".

I'm not trying to attack you, but it just felt weird getting tips from someone that doesn't appear (from your post or portfolio) to have actually done any of the stuff your preaching especially when your three images are simple travel candids.

For example you talk about the importance of eyes (very very true) yet all three of your images have either blurry eyes or eyes that aren't even visible. Just seems off...
Not that you were asking for this sort of critique, but it just felt like you needed to hear it from someone who went in objectively to look at your post and how I came away feeling as others may feel the same.