A couple of changes ... one is the blog layout. A bit fresher, crisper and lefter ... is that an adjective?? Anyway the column of extra info...gallery, cat brown photography facebook crew and the rest are down the left side now, things are a bit clearer and easier to navigate...AND for a change, I thought instead of a sweet shot, I'd write some sweet tips today.
I will write some general tips in the future (and perhaps I'm doing this the wrong way around), but today I thought 'what do most people I know have in common?' - and at my age, it's babies and children!
So for everyone who has their own kids, or for those aunties and uncles, friends, cousins or grandparents amongst you this is for you. I hope you find some of it useful.
Oh, and another quick thing, I'm writing this for people who use stock standard compact digital cameras - because that's what most people have. But if you want some digital SLR (that's single lens reflex - or the larger cameras which let you change lenses and do more more stuff!) tips, just write a comment to let me know and I'll write some details about that specifically another time.
So, here we go:
Number 1) Try taking your photos of little ones from a lower angle than usual. Get down low, crouch, sit or lie on the floor and shoot across at the baby or child's eye level. This will look much better than shooting down at them.
Number 2) Spontaneous shots are fab ... but sometimes even better is working out when the 'spontaneous' shots are going to happen and then being in position ready to shoot the opportunity when it comes...eg if grandma is coming over and you know there'll be a cuddle on arrival, be ready for the shot. Photography can be spontaneous ... but a lot of the time it's capturing spontaneity within calculated realms ... and if you start thinking ahead and positioning where you need to be to get a certain kind of shot, you'll start to get better 'candid' piccies.
Number 3) Try and capture contact between people. Humans love contact - and they love images of two people (especially a little one and a big one) sharing a connection especially shared eye contact or touch. Get nice and close, but not soooooo close it's fuzzy (unless you want that look) and don't be afraid to move into a position where you are capturing faces - not backs of heads. Actually faces is a good mantra with photography....faces, faces, faces .....and nine times out of 10 the photo's that people love are the one's where they can clearly see faces and there's some kind of emotion going on that engages them - a smile, a laugh, a yell, a scream, serenity ... something.
And talking of faces...
Number 4) Babies love smiling faces. However, if you are smiling and then boof! disappear behind a camera, babies may stop smiling because your lovely smiling face is gone! A couple of ways around this are: a) get two of you to take the photo - preferably mum is your smiling and cooing decoy to keep baby smiling, and other mum, or dad or aunty or grandad or friend is the one taking the picture. b) The second option is for the more adventurous and it helps if you have some sort of focus-hold button, but crouch down, frame up the shot , then very carefully keep the camera where it is but move you head away from the view-finder to above the camera and smile at baby, then when the baby smiles at you press the shutter with your finger 'click'. It can take a few to get the shot if you've moved your hands at all. c) And last but not least some people make round faces with cardboard or disposable plates and the lie and draw a big smiley face on it. Then cut out a hole for the lens to poke through and some blue tack and stick it to the front of the camera and voila a smiling face-o-flage that you can take the photo through.
And remember ... babies pooing tend to smile. I can't believe I'm writing this... but smiles are still smiles (no-one needs to know what was happening at the time!)
Number 5) Baby's face is looking a bit blotchy or even rashy? Take the piccies then on whatever photosoftware you're using change from colour to black and white. It's really good for evening out skin tones.
Number 6) Try to not use flash unless you really really have to. I don't mean take pics in the dark because that's no good either .... but if you have the chance use natural sunlight do it. So if this means setting up a play area in a sunny room where you can photograph the kids when they're at play, or asking a mother holding a sleeping baby to rotate around until the natural light from the window is coming flowing the baby then that's a good thing. I personally think that flashes just aren't flash around really young kids ... it can just give them a fright, make them unhappy... and there's even some talk of it doing some nasty damage to very young eyes .... so all in all I tend to steer clear of it if I can (or at least diffuse it so it's not so harsh).
Number 7) Some kids can get pretty grumpy about having their pics taken, or shy or something .... but one thing that seems to be the saving grace of digital is that you can show the kids their pics on the view screen straight away after taking them and in my experience they LOVE this. It can make the shyest little person into a little performer! (The complete opposite can be true for adults who tend to judge their own looks ... whereas children just love themselves for the sake of loving themselves - it's great!)
Number 8) Don't be afraid to use all your camera modes ... that's what they're there for. If someone's doing kiddy sports for the first time and it's nice and sunny then flick it onto sports. Light's a bit darker or it's getting cloudy or dim, put it on the lowlight or night time setting. If you're not sure what your settings do then make friends with your camera manual! Or ask me!
Number 9) This is another one about where you're shooting from to take the photo .... My advice is, where possible don't rely on your camera's digital zoom. Zoom can be optical (good) or digital (not so good) and digital zoom makes the image quality reduce and reduce and the photos are more susceptible to camera shake and blurriness. Instead do what I call a body zoom .... walk as close as you can to the what you want to take and go from there. If it's a school performance get in the front row! Don't sit in the back with a long zoom, trying to use your flash (compact camera flashes aren't that strong and only shoot out light to a relatively short distance away. You'll get much better pics from the front!
Number 10) And to finish here's another lighting tip..useful for kids or anyone. It's an oldie but a good but don't shoot into light (ie don't shoot at something that has the light behind it) because you'll just end up with a silhouettes. The exception is a) if you want a silhouette or b) if you can FORCE your flash. This means if you can set your camera so that it makes the flash go even though the camera's brain thinks there's enough light to take the picture without it.
The camera's right. There is plenty of light, it's just behind - not directing at what you want to take.
So, what should you do if bobby is standing in front of a massive sunset and you want to see bobby's face not just a black blob....?? Force the flash that that you can see the sunset behind AND bobby's face. it's what all the pros do!
Hope you find this useful. Cheers Cat.
Posts
