I want to share a post for moms and dads who want a few tips on photography. First of all the pictures I am going to share are mine of my son and my niece and nephews. I don’t claim to be a professional but I do have a side photography business that I enjoy. http://www.twoheartsphotobyceleste.com/ My goal for my photography business is to offered affordable pictures so people can take pictures any time! I love the little moments most people wouldn’t want to photograph. I have definitely grown and will continue learning more each year. People are so different in what they capture and that’s what makes it art. I love how two people in the same place and capture the same subject differently. What I want to share is not the technical side but just some basics to help.
First, let’s talk about the biggest question I get- When is the best time for photos? I love sunset or dusk. In photography, this is called the golden hour because it produces a nice rich gold color in photos. You can get sparkles on water, sun flares in photos, or sunlight trickling between leaves. It’s beautiful and enhances the photos naturally. Can you do all sessions at this magical time- no! The thing I try most to avoid is direct sunlight. Now I have been taking a lot of soccer photographs at you guessed it- mid-afternoon harsh light and I enjoy the photos but still not my choice for portraits. Cloudy days are great it lessens the harsh shadows and acts as a filter to spread the light. The morning also has a golden hour (the first hour of sunrise) but I will be honest I’m not that much of a morning person.
I don’t have very good consistency between sessions but I try to make faces as close to the correct white balance and then I match the photos in the session. Editing is something I have definitely worked on to improve. I would say as the years have gone by I’ve improved. I could take the same picture from the start and edit it differently each time.
Ok, so most photos you want to take are when you are out playing at the park or in your driveway with bubbles or drawing with chalk in the moment when it happens. What should you do to get the best picture you can? Look at the sun on your child’s face. Is it directly in the face causing them to squint? Do you see shadows around their eyes and nose? What you want to do is either put them in a solid patch of shade or turn so that the sun is behind them and the back of their head is providing the shade. Most times if your kids are playing position yourself so that you are facing the sun and then when they look at you, you can get the picture with the sun behind them.
One hint I love sharing with parents is to get down on their level. If you can put the camera even with their eyes you will get a much better photo. Kids don’t always have to be looking at the camera to get a good photo. Some of my favorites have been when they are looking off. You get to see eyelashes and their cute portrait.
Another thing I try to tell parents is to never force your child to smile or look. This should be done by playing. Often kids will pose good for a few pictures and then they don’t care. Let them play! You can get genuine smiles from them doing what they love. Ask them to be a superhero or hop like a bunny. My child has been in front of a camera his whole life! He has been my assistant on many occasions helping children smile. Honestly I may take 40 pictures of playing to get 1 or 2 I love.
Do you have to have a professional camera to take great pictures? No, so many phones take great quality pictures now. Even taking pictures with a phone I still edit them. Many times what you see is great but you can go to edit and hit the wand and boom it’s great! I don’t use filters often but I do love the vivid one from time to time.
How do you get blurry backgrounds? Phones do a great job of getting blurry background by going to the portrait setting. With a big camera, you get this by going to the “A” setting which is aperture. Without getting too technical you want to figure out how to get to the lowest number your lens can go. For my go-to lens, it’s a zoom 3.5 which is not the best but it does well. If you place your child near you and have objects in the back far away you will have a nice blurry background. When you are taking a picture with a big camera whatever you focus on and generally whatever is in line or even with it will be in focus. If something is in front of or behind it will be out of focus. Unless you have a higher number aperture say 11-22. Then the camera keeps more things in focus.
Another thing I want to tell is to not forget the details. It’s their little hands and little feet that will grow and change don’t forget to capture those and remember those moments.
Good ways to learn photography are from watching videos- YouTube is loaded with any kind of photography you want to try. You can also learn to edit here. If you have a Nikon for instance there are tutorials on the website to give you the best settings and help you learn your camera for any instance. Local camera shops offer classes. The best way to improve is to get out and do it.
Have you heard of rule of thirds? Well sometimes when you take a photo you see a grid. This helps to level the photo but also a marker for where your subject should be. Generally either in the middle or if you can get the eyes of your subject in one of the intersections this is supposed to be most pleasing to the eye.
What kind of camera do I have? I have a Nikon D7100. Although for most of my photo sessions last winter I used my Dad’s Sony A7, which is a mirror-less camera. It made shooting and editing so much easier. Photos were definitely better overall, crisper, more color and depth captured. The cost of the Sony camera is much more but it is also more versatile than the Nikon. My go-to lens for most every day is Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. It is expensive but I can use it for just about anything. I like having a zoom to be able to get to the action or really get in without being right in front of them. Many people love Canon Rebels for the DSLR. You can always go and try them out at your local camera shop. You can even rent them if you really wanted to compare them. My travel camera is a Sony – Cyber-shot DSC-HX80. It takes great pictures and I can send them to my phone and edit them there. I take this to Disney and anywhere I just need a camera in a backpack. It also has a flip screen and a 20x zoom!
Do you have to edit photos? Well… If you do you will enjoy them so much more but it is definitely a time-consuming project. I’m sure everyone has different ways but I will explain mine as best I can. This is why it takes me so long plus I have a problem where I take too many! Ok, so after a weekend of taking photos with my big camera I will have about 2000 pictures. This could be a couple of games and a couple of photo sessions. I like to use Adobe Lightroom for editing. I upload the photos which can take about 2 hours for the number of photos. Then I start by adjusting the colors for each session (1 game or 1 photo session) because the light is the same for the most part during each session. Then I go through and select the pictures I like and then from there I edit further cropping and adjusting shadows. This whole process can take some time usually a whole day. When I’m done I export them (2 hours) to my photos and from there they are backed up on Amazon (happens overnight). For my clients, I upload them to a gallery they can share and download on Pixieset. Needless to say, there are times I get burnt out from photographing and editing but then I look at what fun memories I captured and it usually makes me happy again. I don’t carry around my big camera in everyday life unless we are doing something fun. I am no usually in pictures which I want to work on but I’m a mom. I don’t take as many pics as I used to. When I was in my 20s I could make a photo book from a night out now I’m lucky if I get 5. I enjoy being in the moment. But, I do get home and wish I had taken some. Starting today I’m going to focus on getting 2 pictures of everything we do, I could push myself further to be in a picture.
I wrote an article on photo storage but I love Amazon Photos. You can save unlimited full-size photos. There is a limit on videos but not too expensive to add more. You can share albums and have it recognize faces. I can search by a year or place and it uploads photos from my phone anytime the app is open. I also have it backing up my home hard drive. https://creativeworkingmom.com/amazon-photo/
Let me know some questions you may have and I can help in any way I can. I hope each of you enjoys making memories and documenting your journey. If you want help capturing some moments let me know.
Great Grandpa and Caden 
Kisses and Dimples at Disney
This was a great article, full of information and very helpful. Thanks for all the baby smiles and little moments.
Glad I could capture these moments for you! Hope the tips help in your photography of the kids as well.