Historically, the photography has been used in a massive way for the families and their special moment’s register. Baptisms, birthdays, weddings…are some of the festivities that in an assiduous form have always had a photographer in the middle.
Although, until very recent times, the hired photographers for this events were all professionals of the graphic area, this is a topic that has been coming into disuse and each time there are more and more people who decide to register these moments or their families with a camera of they own.
The issue is about if the professional photographers should or should not register this spaces, this is something that rounds among the web forums every time, and this is why it won’t be the central theme in this article. Whether you are a professional or an assiduous of the photography, we will give you some tips on how you can catch the little protagonists of the family photos, the children.
So, they will always be in the central axis either because they are the hardest audience for getting a thought out a smile or because are the ones that move the most or lastly because they fulfill this family moments with their charisma.
After a three months period of working with the Photo Studio Ilusioname Reyes in Barcelona; were more than 25 children the ones who posed for our lens. Of this process we try to enumerate a series of elements to have in consideration so you can put in practice when making photos of these charismatic characters:
#1 – Patience is the first element to consider, many times because of their ages, the children do not understand in which place they are o why there is someone hidden behind some strange contraption telling them to smile. So prepare for the kid to cry, run, stay on the floor, look somewhere else or make some other mischief.
#2 – That being said, if there is a determined duration for each session, think as a minimum in an hour. For experience, less time could end up in the acquisition of one photo.
#3 – To get their attention use toys or any other elements, many times a crying child can be calmed out with a simple teddy, a cartoon he/she likes or any song of their favorite show.
#4 – Try to make space a friendly place for the children, giving the space enough where they can move freely and their parents or family can be near them, in that way they will feel comfortable and the photos would be a reflection of that.
#5 – Explain to the family how the session will go. Many times are the parents their selves who are anxious because of their work or their other everyday duties, so it is good to clear them up about how the studio session will be going, all the things that can happen during the session and that the patient should not be only for the photographer.
#6 – Then again a reiterated advice is working in a physical low position, so you can be at the height of the eyes and you can get closer and realistic images of the children. However, this is not all, if the photographer looks too big or intimidating for the child they can feel scared so the equivalents height positions will always generate a friendly first contact among the parts.
#7 – Although this next recommendation should remain, is never enough for remember that every time you have children in a session everything that can be broken o can fall down should be removed. This would generate tranquillity to the family, the child and as for the photographer, would allow the child to move freely around the space without problems.
#8 – In terms of illumination, is it is natural, try to be always in places where you notice the light source, like the sun, that will let you illuminate as much as you wish. And we are not talking about being with the sun on your back because it is proven that the children let you play with black lights and some other positional patterns of the sun. If you want to use studio lights, we recommend using the continuous ones since the flash can scare or bother the children. Besides, you must think that these lights have to have enough power to let you a good distance margin and at the same time let you use fast shutter speeds.
#9 – Talking about equipment, we tend to use angular objectives for the studio which gives us the freedom to make photos in relatively reduce spaces and follow the child movements, but also reframing can be necessary. If we count with spacious exteriors spaces, we use tel-objectives that let us give the child looseness to move so we can capture those spontaneous moments.
#10 – Finally, we want to recall the importance of the naturalness. That is what children are; children so they play, they get dirty, they fall, they cry, laugh… one of the biggest mistakes photographers make is forgetting this aspect and obligate children to pose in natural ways in front of the camera, in this cases, the photos look forced. The best way to capture the children’s nature is to leave them be themselves.
We hope these recommendations can be useful and that you share your comments about which of them have been the most interesting. As for us, we will continue #Fotoensayando
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