In this guide to photography post, I would like to talk about photographing children. As we all are aware photographing children can be very chalenging, you simply cannot tell them to “pose and smile” to the camera, it just won’t work, instead you need to “warm them up” first, make it fun so they’ll enjoy it.

Generally there are 2 factors you’ll want to prepare before photographing children:

1. External factor, things that are not involved the subject which are: camera, location, props, timing whether it’ll be in the morning or afternoon, and camera’s equipments such as batteries, sufficient space on memory card, etc.
You will need to prepare them long before the photo session begin since children are extremely easy to get bored. There’s nothing more devastating than having a bored children during the photo session, you’ll most likely end up reschedule it which is bad for your reputation.

2. Internal factor, things that are directly involved the children as a subject such as: toys, blanket, cushions, “tickle feather”, even food.
According to Stacy Bratton, the “tickle feather” and food are great props, generally children love to play with the feather, whether to tickle the cheek, flip-flop it, even from 18 months to three years, she finds, kids can be very obstinate. Boys like to punch the feather out of the way and think it’s pretty funny. Regarding the food, a child may give a pleasant or surprised look in reaction to a unique taste. Food can also provide a good distraction.

Other photographing children tips I suggest:

1. Eye level shoot
Always try to photograph children at eye level to get their perspective, it’ll make them feel comfortable hence you will easily capture natural expressions from the child’s perspective.

2. Be quick
Being dynamic is a nature of children, that is why you need to keep your finger on your shutter button hence you can shoot at any given time.

3. Be flexible
As I mentioned earlier you cannot tell children to pose in front of a camera, that means you need to be flexible with the shot you have in mind.

4. Try to get close up
It’s not uncommon that the best, sweetest shots come from close up shots capturing unique and natural child’s expressions.

5. Know when to stop
Try to end the photo session just before the children reach their limit, so they’ll leave your session excited and looking forward to come back for more.

6. Take as many photos as possible.
If your camera has a continuous shooting mode, it will be great since most of the time the second or third shot in a sequence is the best. You might miss a lot of golden opportunities if you just Shooting one photo at a time.

Conclusion
The key to good children photographs is to rediscover your own inner child. It really is all about fun, they love to play, love to try things out, do the unexpected and in short they love to have fun. View the time you are taking to photograph children as time to share in their adventures and imaginary play, believe me this approach will help you create a wonderful children photographs.

Have you read my other article about Money Making Idea From Children Photography ?