5 Tips to take Better Photos of your Children

5 Tips to take Better Photos of your Children

Capturing those special moments and expressions of your children as they grow up leaves us with a timeless treasure that will bring back memories that will last forever. This tutorial is a quick guide to get you started on building your priceless memories.

1. Be ready

Keep your camera handy at all times. you never know when these little bundles of fun and laughter will do something worth capturing and sharing with your family and friends.

We lose so many great shots by not having the camera ready to go, so try these steps to help;

• Keep your batteries charged, make a point of taking a photo a day if your kids are babies or really young. That way you can check your batteries regularly and know when to charge them.
• If your camera uses AA batteries keep a spare set of single use Lithium or Oxyride batteries handy in case your rechargeable AA’s go flat. AA lithium can last several years unused without any loss of power.
• Most people don’t carry their camera with them everywhere, particularly if it is a larger big zoom camera or a Digital SLR. Keep your camera somewhere accessible and in a room in the house where you spend a lot of your time, definitely not the wardrobe down with your shoes. The more accessible your camera is the more you will use it.
• If there is an event coming up grab the camera out, turn it on and check for battery condition and sufficient room left on your card to shoot the event.

2. Give them space

Give them space and don’t crowd them. The best candid photos are taken when the child doesn’t even know your taking it. Priceless!!!

• Grab the camera zoom up and just sit and wait with the camera turned on and ready to go.
• Practice pre focusing your camera and be patient, sometimes if you have the camera pre focused, a quick “look at me” to get their attention often results in a beautiful spontaneous expression.
• If your camera has continuous shooting mode turn it on, the second shot may be the winner.
• Be patient! Don’t try and direct the action, let it happen and be prepared to shoot and shoot plenty when the moment happens.
• If your indoors try and position yourself so that your back is to the window light, this may result in the camera not requiring the flash and it will add a better ambiance and a more natural look to your photos.
• Don’t worry if you haven’t zoomed up quite enough or your zoom is not big enough, you can always crop your photos when you print them.

3. Get down

Get down to their level. They’ll be more natural in their expressions, and won’t feel intimidated by the camera.

• The professional portrait photographers all shoot at eye level, if it’s good enough for them then it should be good enough for us.
• If your shooting your baby crawling then lay on they floor with them and encourage them to crawl to you while you shoot away.
• Baby’s first steps, sit behind the person encouraging the child to walk to them and grab the expressions as your child makes those first steps and don’t miss the expression when they make it.
• As your children get older, they either shy away from the camera or run to it, this is when a bigger zoom has it’s benefits as you can be back further and the need to be constantly kneeling or getting lower is reduced because you are back further. Another benefit of the big zoom is that it tends to isolate your subject from the background.

4. Shoot away

Digital photography means you can take heaps of photos without it costing you a cent. Take as many as you can and stay in the moment. You will find your photos tell a story of the event.

• What can you say, just put the camera on continuous shooting mode and press the button.

5. Enjoy life

Have fun and do things that create opportunities to take special images. The more fun the children will have and the better photos you will take.

• Let it happen around you and just have the camera ready to capture any moment or opportunity that comes your way.

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1. 5 Tips to take Better Family Photos
2. Improve your flash photos of children
3. Easy tips to shoot great group photos
4. 5 Tips for Better Holiday Photos
5. 10 Tips to take Better Digital Photos