Most family photographs are nothing more than badly taken snapshots, but with a little know-how, there’s no reason why yours can’t be works of art. Read on as we reveal a
collection of essential family photo tips.
There’s nothing more likely to induce a state of acute narcolepsy than having to sit through a guided tour of someone else’s photo album. Most of the time, the photos are out of focus and badly exposed but it doesn’t have to be this way. With a little bit of care and effort, you can take photos that will become treasured mementos for years to come.
Shoot like a pro
Adapting popular photo techniques will enable you to capture well-composed, beautifully lit and, above all, interesting pictures – don’t be surprised if people start asking you for copies to brighten up their own albums.
Capturing candid kids
One of the best ways to capture an amazing portrait is taking photographs of childen. They make great subjects, especially when caught unawares.
More photos are taken of children than of any other family member because parents usually want photograph every little thing their children do.
After all, children only grow up once, and taking thousands of photos is cheap and easy with a digital camera.
The secret to photographing children is to become childlike yourself. Join in their games, put on a party hat and be silly and you’ll soon have the kids relaxed and ready to be photographed.
Children love to play, so make sure that having a picture taken is a game. Don’t order them about, pose them or lose your patience, because miserable and uncooperative kids rarely look good in photos.
One thing every proud parent wants is an album full of baby photos. After all, how else can you embarrass offspring in front of their future boyfriend or girlfriend?
Baby pictures are fairly easy to take – try to capture happy, memorable moments. Use a softened fill-in flash to compensate for back-lighting. Don’t worry about the flash damaging the baby’s eyes – it’s perfectly safe at any normal distance.
When photographing children, there are two ways to approach the subject. You can either shoot photos as an adult looking down into a child’s world or get down to their level and shoot from their perspective.
If you decide on the former, find a good vantage point like stairs of a first floor window and you can snap away at a child immersed in play. Children’s toys are brightly coloured and are usually spread out on the floor in a wild jumble, so a well-lit shot will usually be a riot of colour and interest. Try to zoom in so that the child’s world fills the frame. You can crop it later of course, but the closer you get to the right composition now, the less work there will be later.
Getting into a child’s world is more difficult. You’ll need to get down on your hands and knees and spend a while joining in with games and playing with toys. Make photography part of the game and children will enjoy posing for relaxed snaps.
When taking photographs of children, consider perspective carefully and you will achieve a winning shot.
