Tips for Taking Candid Photos of Children

Candid photos of children can be lots of fun, not only to take, but also to look at in years to come. To get good candid shots, you will need to have your camera handy at all times and take lots of shots. Some may be no good, but if you have a digital camera this won’t matter; you can simply delete them. Don’t make a lot of fuss when you are taking candid shots, or the children will become self-conscious and may end up running away every time they see you trying to point and click.

Never show your really candid shots of children to others in front of the children, while laughing about them. They’ll hate it and refuse to pose in the future. Children have dignity too. If you make sure it’s fun for the children, they will enjoy it and be more co-operative. With older children, you can also point out the things you did to make the shot more special. This will get them interested and help train them to take good shots of their own.

Some posed shots will be necessary, but try to make them a little more creative than just standing in a straight line. How about posing two children on a tricycle? They will be having fun and concentrating on more than just posing for the shot. You would normally have the older child with his feet on the pedals and the younger one standing in the tray, but try reversing this. For starters, the younger child will be shortest and so should be in front. But reversing their positions in this way creates unusual expressions on their faces that are fun to catch on film

Remember to get up close and personal for great candid shots of kids. Also get down to their level to prevent distortion. When the pictures are of babies, making eye contact will aid in interaction and expression. You want to avoid that vague look that lots of babies have when there is no one to focus on. But if your want their expression to be one of absorption in a toy or some other thing that intrigues them, try and stay out of their focus. Wait until baby is entirely focused on the other object, then click.

If the baby is moving, follow the movement with your camera and gently squeeze the button rather than clicking sharply. This will help to prevent blurring the shot with camera shake. If you miss that great smile, it could be because of shutter lag. This is the time between when your finger began to squeeze the button and when the shutter finished moving.

What Are You Taking a Picture Of?

No matter what you are taking a picture of, there are tips and hints to guide you into improving it. Most people take photographs of their families, friends, pets, gardens and family celebrations. We like to record our lives for ourselves and for future generations. The days in which we had just one photo of grandpa sitting on a chair and grandma standing next to him – both wearing the most solemn expression - have gone, thank goodness! Let’s get into color, light, and happy smiles. Let’s catch granny cuddling the kids and grandad with a blob of birthday cake on his chin! Let’s leave a legacy for our great-grandchildren to enjoy. But let it be the best kind of photo that we can manage.

When taking photographs of animals or children, remember that they are a lot lower than where you are holding the camera, so get down to their level, otherwise their photo will look bigheaded. Kneeling to take a photo of a pet will bring its face into focus more sharply. Of course kneeling in front of your pet may also make him take a flying leap into your arms, but that’s a risk a photographer has to take.

You’ve seen those photographs of people sitting on something (the sofa, a rock, the ground) and their legs look huge? They are the ones everybody screams at. So what is the cause of this? It’s because when you take the photograph, the legs are in front, closer to the camera. You have unwittingly focused the camera on the legs instead of the faces. You may not have had the camera high enough.

Watch that sun! When taking photographs outdoors, the sun will cast a nasty, dark shady over a face. Use the flash, or stand the subject in the shade. If your subject is in the sun, it often makes them squint their eyes because the light is too bright. But if they wear a cap or hat, the shadow thrown by it will screen the face. That’s why it’s necessary to use a flash.

When taking photographs of that gorgeous rose in the garden, come up close to it. Digital cameras are wonderful for taking close-ups. You can be just a few centimetres away. Use the macro feature to achieve a sharp, clear photograph of flowers. For animals that you can’t get close enough to, use your zoom feature. Also lock the focus by half depressing the button and re-focusing on the animal. This will save you getting a sharp background and a blurry animal.

Take time to pose your subject. A group standing straight up and looking at the camera is a bit boring. Get some fun into it. Maybe they can all wear pink sunnies and sling their arms around each other. Perhaps they could group around an interesting tree – one or two could be up in the tree. Whatever picture you decide to take, work on it just that bit more to upgrade from ordinary to spectacular.

Tips for Taking Motion Shots

Motion shots come under three headings; stop, pan and blur. Each will give a different effect. Most people want the ‘stop’ kind where the motion of the subject is frozen in a millisecond of time. This is what you see in most sports photos. It is achieved by a very fast shutter speed that allows the picture to be etched on the film or sensor so quickly that they are, in effect, frozen in a moment of time. The faster shutter speed means that your ISO setting needs to be higher to allow in more light.

To ‘pan’ is to follow the motion with your camera, which will give a sharply focused subject, but a blurred surround. The effect here is similar to the above, as it stops the motion of the subject. Tracking the subject with your camera whilst keeping it steady is skill that takes much practice. To help, you could try using a tripod with a swivelling head. Background that is fairly plain works best for panning. Start with a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second to start and make sure nothing will obstruct your view as the subject moves.

Blurring is when you use a slow shutter speed so the subject is deliberately blurred, but the impression given is one of speed, which is the whole aim of the shot. If your camera is a point and click, it may also have a sports or action mode.

A good tip for shooting motion is to use the burst or servo mode on your camera. This will give you a series of shots taken in a burst, making it more likely to get that extra special shot. This is because there is but a fleeting chance to see when a great shot could be coming up and photograph it. It all happens faster than a speeding bullet. But if you shoot in burst mode your camera will be clicking away regardless. You’ll want a memory card with a large-capacity for this. If shutter lag is a problem with your camera, burst mode will improve your chances of a great shot.

If you want to get a scene where something is moving yet you also want the background to be clear - like a landscape with moving water, use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to prevent camera shake. This will give an unusual affect in that the water will be blurred to the extent that it looks like it’s been painted in.

Tips for Taking Group Pictures

There are probably more group photographs taken than any other kind. Think of all the weddings and birthday parties, not to mention other gatherings and celebrations. So what can you do to make your group shot one that the subjects will be delighted with, rather than moaning that they blinked or had their head cut off? Here are some tips.

Give some thought to where you will pose the group ahead of time. There may be an old tree in the backyard or park that would make a fabulous background without intruding. See that the background is appropriate, eg, your daughter’s soccer team would look great posed at the sporting field, but may be a little weird on the beach. Make sure there are no odd things like telegraph poles, swing sets or rubbish bins in the background. Or anything else that may look as if it were growing out of someone’s head.

Take multiple shots quickly. Often people sub-consciously pose in a rather artificial manner for the first shot, but tend to relax after that and look more natural. If anyone is wearing glasses, tactfully suggest they remove them; otherwise the flash could reflect off the glass and ruin the shot. For the same reason, never pose people in front of a window.

Vary your shots by taking some of just head and shoulders, some up really close and some a bit further off. If there is a large group, it’s an idea to take a shot from the top of a ladder. This will allow you to get more people in and also to focus on heads rather than bodies. You may be lucky enough to have an elevated deck you can use for height. Pose the group on the grass below and shoot from the deck.

Of course, you will remember to have the short people in the front and tall ones behind. Some can kneel in front or sit on the grass, particularly children, who get bored with standing. Just be careful you don’t miss them when focusing. It’s easy enough to get so absorbed in getting the adults lined up correctly, you find that you’ve only managed to get the top of Junior’s head.

One more thing to remember in group photography is that the important people like the birthday girl or the bride and groom should be in the central position. And for sharp focus throughout, keep the group no more than about three rows deep. If it is more, use a narrow aperture.

Tips for Taking Portrait Shots

Sooner or later you’ll want to take a portrait shot. Unless you are practicing to become a professional photographer, this will probably be fairly informal, but there are some tips that will make your portrait taking easier and give you better results than you might otherwise get. Many amateur portrait shots end up in the bin due to over-exposure or being out of focus. Don’t let this happen to yours.

When you take a portrait shot, you need to focus on your subject’s eyes. Character is in the eyes and you want to express the character of the person. Use an aperture of f8 and be about three feet away. Make sure your subject is relaxed and in a happy frame of mind. Any anger or tension will show up in the photo. Chat to them, crack jokes if they are that type of person or play music. Make sure the music is something they like; otherwise you could get a scowl rather than a smile.

Make sure your subject is comfortable. Provide a chair or other seating with good back support so they don’t slump. Make sure they are not too hot, too cold or thirsty. If the subject is a child, offer an appropriate toy to hold. If they are very small, they may not want to give the toy up easily so it could well be in the photo. In this case, make sure it is not dirty or tattered. You could also have interesting pictures on the wall for them to look at while you get ready.

You will need to get all your props and things ready ahead of time. Children and old people get fussy if they have to wait. If you have spotlights coming from anywhere but your camera, you may need light deflectors such as a white board or umbrella. This will diffuse the light, make the tones warmer and prevent red-eye.

The background is important. If you are taking a portrait in your house you won’t have access to much gear with which to create a plain background, so try for a blank wall. One with wallpaper could be good to prevent light reflection. In front of drawn curtains would also be suitable. At least, try not to get the refrigerator in the background.

An ordinary 35mm camera is ideal for portraits, but they can be taken with other cameras. If you don’t have a 35mm, just use whatever you have and see what happens.

Tips for Taking Stunning Landscape Shots

The kind of camera you have and how much it cost is not the most important criteria in taking great landscape shots. No camera can be creative by itself. Once you learn about the components of composition, your landscape shots taken with a point and press camera can be better than someone whose camera cost them $8,000 if they don’t know about composition. The single most important factor in taking decent landscape photographs is composition, or the way objects are put together. Once you begin to pay attention to this factor, your landscape photos will improve dramatically.

Some people seem to understand intuitively how to take creative landscape photos. Whether you are one of those people or not, practice can only make you better, so take plenty of shots. But first you must decide what the main subject of the shot is going to be. Is it the gnarled old oak tree, the mountain in the background or the waterfall that is creating rainbows in the middle distance? You are the one to decide; after all it’s your photograph.

The subject of the photograph is the part that should be the focus. Say it’s a bay full of sailing boats. It may be framed by a beautiful branch of glorious fall colors, there may be mountains in the background or wonderful cloud shapes in the sky – or all three - but everything should lead the eyes to focus on the bay and sailing boats. Therefore, the settings on your camera should be for that. The bay should be the central focus of the photograph, with the other components given less room and importance. If all have equal room in the photo, they will detract from each other, creating less visual appeal.

Light is another important factor is taking landscape photographs. The best time of day is early in the morning and late in the afternoon and evening. The brighter light in the middle of the day can cause too much contrast in light and shadow, which your camera will find hard to handle. Both digital and film cameras like all things to be equal when it comes to lighting. If you try and focus on the shady areas, then the lighter areas may bleach out, while if you set the camera for the light, areas of shade will be much too dark. A graduated, neutral density filter can help out here.

Angle and elevation are also important in a landscape. When you see a scene that grabs your fancy, try it from various positions before you shoot. Or better still, shoot from a variety of angles, then delete those that are sub-standard. Remember to try vertical shots as well.