Comments on: 5 Tips for Young Family Portraits

By: satyam

satyam — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:42:19 +0000

for a good shots.for eg. be with your regular kids, understand their body language jsut like their mother…u have to know what they do with their physical or facial or emotional expressions after some movement they do…for eg. if any kid sniffs or hiccups I am ready with half press on shutter button to catch that very moment when the kid gives a sudden smile of ..cry….when he does..i go snapp ssnapp snapp..!!!! hahhaha

By: Ian Manning

Ian Manning — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:11:02 +0000

In regard to the spray and pray theory. Most people who object to this and then come up with calculations to prove how bad it is, are missing a really important point.
You dont just point you camera in any direction hold the button down and hope that something runs in front of the lens in the 9/125 second.
Burst mode is a great feature of modern digital cameras that helps to reduce that sinking feeling when you know you waited just a fraction of a second too long for the moment to develop.
Any good photographer will interact and study their subjects to learn how they react so that you can predict when those magical moments will occur and it would be stupid to ignore the fact that your camera has the ability to grab a sequence of pictures after you decide to push the shutter in order to increase your chances of capturing the moment at its best.
For each time that I see that moment approaching I have 9 chances of catching it not just 1.
Don’t get trigger happy and snap everything in the hope of getting something good but don’t turn off helpful features because some people are too focused to appreciate the whole picture.
I rarely use burst mode with adult portraits because the action is slower and they can repeat it if I missed it but it is rarely off whit child portraits.
I would love to compare shots from a Karate tournament againts someone not using burst mode and see who gets the best shots.

By: satyam

satyam — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:24:32 +0000

this is exactly what i do when shooting portraits…I was so convinced to read these.Thank you !I will be reading more from DPS !

By: Cam

Cam — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:35:36 +0000

If the kids are shy, focus on being nice to the parents (and maybe wink at the kids here and there). Then when the kids see their parents like you, they will open up too.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:34:09 +0000

Given the point about children never staying still is there a preferred focal length/aperture to use to get the mix of shutter speed and adequate depth of field combined with background blur? I like to get shots of the kids that really pop from the background due to it being out of focus but this often requires an aperture value that makes front-back movement cause shots to look poorly focused i.e. tip of nose in focus rather than eyes etc. So far I find my 70-200 wide open (f4) doesn’t perform too badly, what do others use?

By: Gnslngr45

Gnslngr45 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:38:06 +0000

My whole reason to learn a dSLR was to take good shots of my ever moving toddlers (3 & 2). SInce learning and improving, I have shot sessions and events for several friends – all of which included toddlers. These are by far the most difficult pics to get right – unless it is candid. Even then, it’s hard. These are second only to weddings in my opinion. Weddings are probably actually easier, but significantly more pressure to do well. I would never do a wedding unless I had years and years of learnings under my belt.

Flickr:
http://bit.ly/oufr4c

By: ccting

ccting — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:49:33 +0000

hi, i love the pic very much

By: Dewan Demmer

Dewan Demmer — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:10:34 +0000

Simple and Logical and that’s why the good rules. A number of people have mentioned it as well and that is eye level, the photos work so much better when you at eye level with you subject.
Here I have a family and when it came to the little people I went where they went and when it mattered I made sure I was at eye level, in this case it did matter
http://dsdphotography.co.za/category/family/mnm-deklerk/

By: Jason St. Petersburg Photographer

Jason St. Petersburg Photographer — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:08:11 +0000

Any semi-posed shots I usually try to get done in the very beginning of a portrait session. A few weeks ago I photographed a family on the beach with three young children. The parents really helped out by being able to corral their kids for a few quick whole family group shots:

http://jasoncollinphotography.com/blog/2011/10/18/florida-family-beach-portraits-with-dramatic-skies-south-dak.html

Having a parent pick up one of the kids is another way to keep them around too!

By: Wedding Photographer Perth

Wedding Photographer Perth — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:51:38 +0000

I lay the parents with the young children down on a blanket or grass on there tummies with chin resting in hands then i get down also and shoot at grass level this gets them all at the same eye level also very flattering for the parents as it does not show any …err maturity growth (spare tyer’s)