5 Tips to Take Better Photos of Your Children

Have you purchased or received a point and shoot camera of digital SLR as a gift and been so excited to use it but have ended up always keeping it in auto mode as you wouldn’t have a clue how to use it otherwise? The manual looks overwhelming or needs downloading and who seriously has the time for that when they have kids? Especially if you’ve got a camera from a Camera Rentals Pittsburgh store, you don’t want to damage it in any way. Check out the following tips to take better photos of your kids.

I love taking pictures of my children. Sometimes I dress them in pretty dresses, choose the right location, and snap away a zillion photos hoping to get a few nice ones. A little over a year ago, my family put in money to buy me a best point and shoot camera for my birthday.

I absolutely love it and it takes great photos but I am very, very ashamed to admit that I keep it in auto for most of my photography. Here are five tips to take better photos:

♥  TIP 1. Make sure that the light that is on your subjects face is always even. Try and avoid dabbled light and harsh shadows. This way you will get good even skin tones across their face and avoid any detail being lost. It also can really change the look of an image.

♥  TIP 2: Try and get down to your subjects level when taking their photo. It can really change an image from a snapshot to a portrait very easily. You will get their engagement easier and it will also give the viewer more of a perspective from their world. Kids see things differently to us and if you want to capture their world, you need to be seeing what they are seeing.

♥  TIP 3: When shooting indoors, the first thing you should do is check where the light is strongest. It is normally between 11-2. Look for slightly diffused light. If it is harsh, aim to shoot when it just hits diffused.  For example, if you are shooting in a child’s room and the sun is coming through quite strongly, whatever you are doing with them, move them slightly away from the strong light. White walls/furniture or anything else can also really help to bounce some light around the room, so keep an eye out for them as well.

♥  TIP 4: If you are shooting in manual mode, try experimenting with your aperture. Get it as wide open as you can (lower the F-stop) and practice close up portraits with it. You can create some beautiful portraits at around f2.8 – f3.2. Here are a couple of samples where the depth of field is fairly shallow, blurring the background and foreground keeping the focus on the eyes and face.

♥  TIP 5: When selecting best time of day to shoot outdoors, either pick an overcast day (the clouds are a diffuser from the sun) or around 1.5 to 2 hours before sunset. You can get some beautiful results in the evening with the right backlighting.

If you like to photograph kids or have a few of your own, go and apply these tips and let me know how you did. Do you have any extra tips you’d like to put in, don’t hesitate to share in the comments below.

Now get out there and take some photography of kids. Happy shooting!