My forte has always been in landscape and I normally stay away from people photography simply because I, for lack of better words, just don’t have the patience for it. Landscapes do not move (for the most part) and absolutely do not talk back. The worst you have to do is wait for the right time of the day. However, as of late, I feel the need to expand my “range”; I need to broaden my skills to cover people and events. As such, over this past Easter Sunday, I spent about an hour taking pictures of my nieces. While the results were fantastic, at least far exceeded my expectations, I walked away with a few lessons learned:
- Children and reflectors don’t go together. I love the quality of fill light with reflectors but most kids will try to squint through the shots. Consider off camera fill flash.
- General portrait problem…NEED to use that prime lens (50mm) or something long to blur out the background. In this case, the pictures were taken outdoor so background foliage wasn’t a huge distraction. It was a very bright sunny day so had to close down the aperture to get the right exposure. A long lens would have helped in this case.
- Consider using an assistance/handler especially if the “model” is less than 8 yrs. old. With kids moving around doing the things that they do, good shots often meant quick shots. Having to deal with lighting, composition and technical aspect of photography is enough to keep one person busy. Trying to keep hair out of the child’s face alone can kill any spontaneity. On top of that, be careful how much skin is showing (midriff, skirt line, etc). A handler can help spot those things.
Tags: children
