10 Tips for Shooting Children

Lead: Is there any way to shoot children better? I want to share my 10 experience of taking pictures of children with some novice parents, hoping to let them take more touching pictures of their children.

1) Capture natural moments with snapshots.

Children of different ages will have different reactions to the camera, but they usually have one thing in common, that is, they don't like to watch the camera as often as you think. Is it really worth pressing the shutter when they look at the camera? Since we want to record their lives, we should capture their natural moments more. So you can try to take a snapshot, that is, you don't have to ask them to look at the camera and take pictures, but wait for them to take pictures when they get along with their families, interact with some places, or play at home, so that they can capture their natural moments, so that they won't take some stiff or far-fetched photos.

2) Pay attention to the angle of lens shooting and see the world from a child's perspective.

Whether a photo is beautiful usually has a lot to do with its background. 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 make the angle of the lens flush with the child's eyes, so as to absorb more background and enrich the background of the photo.

In addition, when shooting, we can even squat down a little and shoot the camera up slightly. The photos will have a feeling that children look at adults and the world, and the effect will be unexpectedly good!

3) Don't let the children attract you too much, and pay attention to the background scenery when shooting.

If you only focus on children when shooting for them, you will ignore the background and surrounding scenery, resulting in not shooting what you should shoot; If you shouldn't shoot, shoot. So pay attention to the front and back of the child when shooting. For example, if we want to photograph children playing in Disneyland, we should also photograph its background. There is a trash can next to the child, so don't take pictures. Let the photos express the story you want to tell, and don't be too messy.

4) Pay attention to the expression of the photo and give yourself the reason for taking that photo.

When I practice my composition, I often ask myself: What is the purpose of taking this photo? Whether to let people know what children are doing, etc., so that they can clearly know the purpose of shooting, so as to make decisions on composition, depth of field and the moment of pressing the shutter, so as to shoot the photos they want to express.

There was once an advertisement of a camera brand that said: [Photography does not need creativity, and it is also creativity without creativity. This experienced photographer may have a lot of feelings, but for novice parents, it may be necessary to have an idea and be familiar with the shooting method and purpose before practicing this shooting technique.

5) Pay attention to the horizontal angle of the camera and reduce the left and right tilt of the photo.

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

It is understandable if we tilt the picture occasionally for composition, 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. Always have a neat composition, and the balance of the picture makes people feel very comfortable. You don't like the picture tilting when watching TV, do you?

6) Determine the edge of the photo

In order to record the children's dribs and drabs, we can take more full-body photos with people and scenery with wide-angle focal length to express their interaction with the scene environment. But when taking a full-length photo, try to leave 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 photo, 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.

Like this photo, a small part of the ankle is placed outside the lens, and the photo is ugly. As long as we step back and take a full-body photo, the photo will become more natural and beautiful.

In order to deepen the visibility of the whole series of photos, we need to take some close-up portraits, and then we have to decide which positions of the children's bodies are outside the lens. Children's joints such as elbows, knees and ankles should be avoided when shooting.

The edge is above the knee, and the picture is more natural.

It is also a good posture to put the edge on your waist.

7) TIC-tac-toe combination method

Where should the child be placed in the picture when shooting? If novice parents don't have a clue 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.

Just like the photos below, I also used tic-tac-toe composition!

8) Avoid taking blurred photos.

If the composition of the photos we take is beautiful and the children smile sweetly, but the photos are blurred, it will be a waste of effort (I have experienced a lot? )。 So you can pay attention to the following points when shooting:

If you use SLR or no reverse shooting:

Use shutter mode and pay attention to safety shutter.

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.

Turn on the shock absorption function of the camera or lens.

In addition to the safety shutter, some lenses are also 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 with the safety shutter because of insufficient exposure, the shock absorption function of the lens can also help us shoot clear images.

Aperture control

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.

The aperture is too large and the depth of field is too shallow, which leads to the unclear face of the child.

If you shoot with your mobile phone (sorry, you can't do much if you want to shoot children all day ~ xd):

Pay attention to the sufficient light at the scene.

Don't shoot when the children are moving fast.

Hold your breath when you press the button and hold the phone hard.

9) Use continuous shooting method more, and don't be stingy with pressing the shutter.

Children are lively and active, and some cute expressions or actions are not easily captured by pressing the shutter. So sometimes we often need to adopt continuous shooting's way and press the shutter a few times more to capture the perfect moment. It seems that when they are playing, we can always "track" the children's every move through the viewfinder of the camera (for example, it is better to use a telephoto lens), and increase the shutter speed as much as possible, so as to take several photos in succession 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.

10) Turn toys into props for shooting and shoot while playing with children.

The key to the success of filming children lies in solidifying their childlike moments, so in addition to exposure, composition, color and atmosphere, in the final analysis, how to capture every subtle expression and action of children is the most important. When is a good time to capture their beautiful expressions? Of course it's time to play! So when there are no special facilities for them to play at the shooting scene, they will feel bored and become unwilling to shoot for us. We can bring their favorite toys or prepare some gadgets to shoot while playing.

Soap bubbles are my favorite gadgets. In addition to representing innocent soap bubbles, the effect is also very good!

Windmills are also a very good choice. We can take special photos with different shutter speeds.

In fact, I also saw many beautiful photos taken by my parents on the Internet. Although they use different shooting techniques or techniques, they also have one thing in common, that is, shooting with heart. So as long as we spend more time with our children and spend more time with them, we will definitely have the opportunity to meet their happy and lovely moments, so as to take good-looking photos ~

I hope my little experience and sharing can help some parents of novice photographers ~