Written on Oct 30th, 2008 by Dave Adams
Posted In: Mastering Photography
Mastering Photography of Children
Post Information and Notes
Tips on mastering the art of photographing children, from babies to teens.
- Level:Beginner
- Tools:Camera
- Time:N/A
I really didn’t know what to call this article, as its really falls into the portraiture category, but I didn’t want to tie it in with the more general topic of straight portrait photography as this will be a separate post later on.
So, for now, let just go with the fact that this is an article about photographing children, whether they are your own or a commissioned shoot of someones else little ones. I will talk about taking more candid shots, as it is these that really interest me. Formal posed photographs always leave me a little cold, I prefer to capture the moment, and these tend to reflect personality better than anything else.
The first point to note is that someone once said don’t work with children or animals and that person may well have been talking as a photographer. Children, from young babies through to the early teens, all have one thing in common - they don’t usually want to be photographed. And if they do want to be photographed, they’ll normally insist on overacting for the camera, which can be a hinderance if you are intending to get candid shots rather than the forced pose kind of photographs.
As a photographer, you need to be aware that your subject might not be the most willing participant, and that pointing a large DSLR at a child within minutes of meeting them for the first time will not win you friends.
Ideally you should take a little time to get to know your subjects before bringing the camera into play. If these are you own children you are photographing, I’m going to assume you at least know their names!
