10 Children's Photography Skills

Lead: As a parent, I will feel that my children are growing up too fast, and they will grow up in a blink of an eye. Children have different looks, expressions and movements at different ages, so I like to record their growth process by photography. Let's take a look at some photo techniques!

First, use snapshots to capture the most natural moments.

Children of different ages have different reactions to the camera, but they usually have one thing in common-they don't look at the camera as you wish. Actually, we really need them to look at the camera, so is it worth pressing the shutter? Since we want to record their lives, we should capture their natural moments more. So, you can try to take a snapshot instead of letting them look at the camera and take it again. Instead, we can wait for them to get along with their families or play at home and shoot quietly beside them to capture their most natural moments, so as not to take some stiff or far-fetched photos.

Second, pay attention to the perspective and grasp the child's vision.

Whether a photo is beautiful or not usually has a great relationship with the background of the photo. So if the scene environment is beautiful, you can absorb as much background as possible when shooting. However, many parents are also used to standing and taking pictures of their children. Because children are shorter than us, standing to take pictures will make the shooting angle of the lens tilt downward, which will lead to most of the background of the photo becoming the ground and wasting the beautiful background. Therefore, when shooting, try to squat down and put the angle of the lens at the same height as the child's eyes, so as to absorb more background and enrich the background of the photo.

In addition, sometimes we can even squat down a little and shoot the camera up slightly. Photos will feel like children looking at adults and the world, and the effect will be unexpectedly good!

Third, attention is not only focused on children.

If we put the photos entirely on the children, we will ignore the background and surrounding scenery, resulting in things that should be taken not being taken, and things that should not be taken being taken. Therefore, when shooting, we should pay attention to the environment around the children, before and after, for example, to shoot children playing in Disneyland, but also to shoot its background; There is a trash can next to the child, so avoid taking it away, so that the photos can express the story you want to tell without being too messy.

Fourth, pay attention to the theme that the photos want to express.

When I practice composition, I often ask myself: What is the purpose of taking this photo? Should people know what children are doing? And so on, make clear your shooting purpose, so as to use the composition, depth of field and shutter of the photo to finally take the photo you want.

Fifth, pay attention to the horizontal angle of the picture.

Sometimes novice parents don't pay much attention to the horizontal angle of the camera when shooting, which causes the picture to tilt.

If we deliberately tilt the picture for composition, this is understandable, but if we get into the habit of this technique, it is not good to tilt the camera inadvertently left and right every time we shoot. Finally, we have to take photos with neat composition and balanced pictures, which makes people feel comfortable. You certainly don't like the picture tilting when watching TV, do you?

Sixth, pay attention to the framing range of the picture.

In order to record children's dribs and drabs, we can take full-body photos of people and scenes with wide-angle lenses to show their interactive relationship with the scene environment. However, when taking a full-length photo, try to reserve more space for the child's up, down, left and right, and don't let the child get too close to the edge of the picture, so as not to make the photo feel oppressive. If even a small part of the child's body is taken out of the lens, the photos will give people an unnatural feeling.

In order to enrich the diversity of the whole set of photos, we sometimes need to take some special portraits, so we must decide which parts of children's bodies should be outside the lens. Avoid cutting children's joints such as elbows, knees and ankles at the edge of the picture when shooting.

Seven, tic-tac-toe composition method

Where should the child be placed in the picture when shooting? If you are a novice parent and have no idea when shooting, the most basic tic-tac-toe composition method will be a good choice.

If we divide the picture into nine parts on average, there will be four intersections in the center, which are visually located in a conspicuous position in the picture, so when we look at the picture, we will pay more attention to the focus of these places.

Eight, pay attention to the camera settings

Children are active, so pay attention to the reasonable camera settings when shooting. In order to take a clear picture, we need to pay attention to the shutter speed. When we shoot with a camera, our actions will inevitably produce vibration. If the shutter is too slow, it is easy to take blurred photos. The longer the focal length of the lens, the more serious the problem that the image is shaken by us, so the focal length has an important relationship with the shutter speed. So how should we decide the shutter value so as not to blur the photo? We can determine the shutter speed according to the safety shutter.

Safety shutter refers to taking clear photos with relative shutter values under different focal lengths, and its calculation method is as follows:

Safety shutter (seconds) = 1/ focal length (mm)

For example, with a focal length of 50mm, then 1/50 seconds is the safety shutter; If the focal length is 200mm, then 1/200 seconds is the safety shutter;

Please note that the above shutter values are only to ensure that no blurred photos will be taken on the safety shutter under general jitter. If it really shakes badly, you have to increase the shutter speed. Personally, if I don't need a long focal length, under normal circumstances, my shutter will try not to be lower than 1/80s, because it is most important to take a clear image.

In addition to the safety shutter, some lenses are now equipped with shockproof function. For example, Nikon's VRII optical shock absorption function compensates for hand shock through the swing of the lens. Because the lens has more room to move, the damping effect is the best. The damping effect reaches three to four shutter speeds. Therefore, if we can't shoot at the safety shutter due to insufficient exposure, the shock absorption function of the lens can also help us shoot clear images.

We like to shoot children with large aperture, but too large aperture will make the depth of field too shallow. If the focus is not accurate or the child moves too fast, it is easy to take a blurred picture of the child's face. Therefore, it is best not to always open the aperture (such as f/ 1.4~2), and you can also choose a wide-angle lens to reduce the depth of field.

Nine, multi-purpose continuous shooting model

Children are lively and active, and some cute expressions or actions can't be captured by pressing the shutter. So sometimes we often need to adopt continuous shooting mode and press the shutter more to capture the perfect moment. For example, when they are playing, we can always look through the viewer of the camera? Tracking? Observe the child's every move (for example, it is best to use a telephoto lens), increase the shutter speed as much as possible, and continuous shooting several times in the same action. When you get home, you just need to select the most expressive photos from a series of snapshots and save them, and delete the ugly ones, so that you won't waste storage space and miss the opportunity to capture the perfect picture.

Ten, turn toys into props

The key to success in filming children lies in whether they can capture their most childlike moments. Therefore, in addition to exposure, composition, color and atmosphere, in the final analysis, the most important thing is how to capture every subtle expression and action of children. When is a good time to capture their beautiful expressions? Of course it's time to play! So we can bring their favorite toys or prepare some gadgets for them to shoot while playing.