How to Photograph Your Kids
Tips for Professional Quality Photos at Home
Do you want your photographs to be a legacy for future generations? These tips
are adapted from a presentation by Colorado photographer Reeta Treat.
Photos That Tell a Story
- Capture moments. Reeta cautions against waiting until everything is perfect to take the shot. While you might want an occasional posed portrait to mark the changes in your family, candid shots - and even those posed photos with one child making a face or crawling out of the frame - tell your family's true story.
- Capture personalities. Write a description of your children as they are today. Are they shy, rambunctious, stubborn, moody? Think of how you can share that description through a photograph.
- Make the "right moment" come to you. Capturing moments and personalities doesn't mean carrying a camera at all times and waiting until the perfect moment to snap a photo. Instead, think about the story you'd like to tell. Is your son into trains these days? Is your daughter going through a princess stage? Set up a scene at the train table or in your daughter's room and photograph your child doing what comes naturally.
General Photography Tips
- Use the rule of thirds: Imagine lines dividing your picture area into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. Choose a strong center of interest and place it at one of the spots where the lines would intersect.
- Use perspective and angles: Try getting above or below your subject. Create interesting angles using paths, fences, walls, or similar items. Reeta notes that placing children in settings such as winding walkways or at the bottom of the porch stairs can create a sense of time passing and childhood venturing into adulthood.
- Get close to your subject. Eliminating the background simplifies your photo and tells more about the person you're photographing.
- Pay attention to the background. As alternatives to close-up shots, Reeta likes photographing children from a distance - dwarfed among a background of trees or playground equipment, for example. In constrast to such background elements that work with your subject, be aware of objects that can detract from your center of interest.
- Lighting: For the best light, photograph during the morning or late afternoon and evening. Outdoor shots are preferable to indoor, but windows and skylights can offer abundant natural light at the right time of day.
Reeta Treat and her husband, Daniel, are professional photographers and co-owners of Colorado-based Verge Photography.
The copyright of the article How to Photograph Your Kids in Stay-at-Home Parents is owned by Kim Kankiewicz. Permission to republish How to Photograph Your Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
