Best practice photographing kids
I did some photos Sunday of kids of which you can see some here:
http://www.leica-camera-user.com/peo...hing-kids.html
I donøt know if this thread is only supposed to be hardware flow. Anyway, I'll get back with some of those as well later.
1) Find spots with good light (that goes for all photography as rule no 1)
2) Tie up the hands of the parents (*)
3) Let the kids do whatever they want; don’t ask them to pose, don’t ask them to smile, don’t ask them to do this and that (or they will very soon find someone else than you to play with). Kids are not stupid so they know you are photographing them, so you don’t even have to tell them that fact (which their parents probably told them anyways).
4) The kids will soon start paying attention to the camera and get into character as rather cool models.
5) Sometimes they will forget what they are doing and just look out the window or sit and be very much them self.
6) Never ever tell somebody to wait for the camera, “sit still right there [till my camera is ready]” or stuff like that.
7) Sometimes it’s good to show them a single picture (if digital) to get them back into the project.
8) When they think it is all over; take photos for real (**)
9) Get the parents to be in the pictures as well but make sure they know they are being photographed as well (else they think they are just in the picture to manage the kids and will look very worried or at least not be photogenic).
10) If you are smart you have a pack of wet cloths to clean their face and nose from time to time whenever … well, you will see when to use them.
11) If you shoot digital, shoot series of photos and generally behave like your camera is a machinegun and you get a medal for shooting 1000+ frames a day (I’ll get back to that point another day as it also goes for other types of photography. But on the shooting I have linked to, I did 1 roll of slide film and 707 digital photos. Of those I selected 66 as good pictures to keep for the family – which is usually how it is; that 10% is worth using)
(*) TIE UP THE PARENTS
Parents mostly have a very strong intention to get their kids photographed and have visions about their kids sitting on a chair (how often did you succeed in getting a kid to sit still on a chair even if there was no camera present?) or being a certain way.
Very often when focusing on doing a portrait of a kids face you will see a mothers hands in the picture, adjusting the hat, the hair and generally ‘taking care’ – it is simply amazing how often parents interfere with kids freedom of choice by picking up things for them, cleaning their mouth, fixing their hair, picking them up from a chair, etc (while usually at the same time asking the kid to do so but never leaving time for the kid to do it itself). However, on pictures you suddenly notice how often those HANDS are in the picture and how disturbing they are for the picture where they do clearly not belong.
In real life you don’t tie up the parents’ hands, but you tell them relaxed “It’s fine, just let him do what he wants – it looks very good” and look as if you are very satisfied and have never seen so well educated and relaxed kids.
(**) SHOOT WHEN IT’S OVER
Some of my best shots of kids I have taken during breaks or before or after the shooting. It does not get more real life than that and usually everybody is very relaxed. Also, shooting while walking or driving from one location to another is great.
And if the kid walks off the 'set' let them walk. They will come back, perhaps asking their parents for an ice og something – those are natural situations so you just start shooting again. They often come back into character and pay attention to the camera then.