Name: How to Photograph Kids, Babies, Children: A Portrait Tutorial
Uploaded: 2017-01-03T13:15:09.000Z
Duration: 21 min 25 s
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Hi, I'm Tony Northrup -and I'm Chelsea -and for our book, Stunning Digital Photography

Present continuous

chapter 6, we're going to talk about photographing kids and babies. Really

all ages, all the way from babies to teenagers.

So let's start by talking about how to take pictures of babies.

One of the challenges of taking pictures of babies is that you need their parents

involved, because they'll be holding them and keeping them safe and making sure

One great way to get a shot of a infant is to have the mother and father put a

blanket over them as a backdrop and then hold the baby through the blanket. And

then you can take a close up shot of the baby while it's comfortable and sleeping

Yeah you can't really count on babies to do much of anything but lay there.

So basically what happens is, they will alternate between sleeping and crying

and if you're lucky there'll be a few moments in between where you can

So be ready for that moment but also be prepared to take pictures of just a

completely sleeping baby cuz i would say seventy-five percent of the time the

baby just sleeps through the entire session.

It's also nice to get close-up photos of the baby so you can get pictures of

their little hands or their little feet together,

any little feature that makes them unique, maybe they have particularly cute

Technically you might even need a macro lens or at least some extension tubes so

check chapter 12 of Stunning Digital Photography for information on how to do

that. They are awfully tiny. And a word about lighting; you know I really prefer

to work with natural light with babies because I don't ever like to use any

kind of direct flash, it'll just upset them.

If you do need to use a flash just use a bounce flash and bounce it off the

ceiling. That will give you the kind of like soft, natural lighting that you

really want, because you don't like any hard shadows on a baby.

They have this beautiful soft skin and the way you're going to really

show that form is by nice, soft, even lighting.

Next we'll talk about taking pictures of two to six year olds. They're a bit more

of a challenge than babies, because you have to interact with them directly.

You might want to get to know their hobbies, things that they like, maybe they

like cars or princesses or just running around. So get to know them, because

interacting with them will be crucial to getting a really nice expression out of

them. -And sometimes you'll just get a shy kid in and with a shy kid or an introverted kid, it

might be better to even give them a little bit of space, just let them be by

themselves in the area. So it might feel weird to be ignoring them for a little

bit, but that will actually let them get more comfortable and then after a few

minutes, they'll be more comfortable talking directly to you.

Another challenge with the 2-6 year old range is that they're moving around a

lot. So sometimes it can be a challenge to keep their clothes or them tidy, so

make sure that their parents pack wet wipes, a comb,

anything that they might need to keep them from getting a little scruffy

Yeah and don't let the kids pick out their own clothes, because they're going

to end up in these brightly colored things with like cartoon characters all

Tell the parents to dress them in these simplest clothes that they have.

A white dress or white shirt and jeans is perfect.

When you start taking pictures of the kids,

you might want to get down at their level and start engaging them. So you can

Some people put a PEZ dispenser on their hot shoe to give them something to look

at, and one thing that's popular with little boys are a little lights and

Now, this is a last resort toy because you can't give it to them in the photo

but you can at the end of the shoot, if they start to get tired say "hey, if you

smile then i'll give you this." So -yeah, these glow sticks are awesome. I use

these for light painting, night photography. You'll see in chapter 10 of

Stunning Digital Photography. But I found that little boys in particular love them,

they're like tiny light sabers and they're only like three or four bucks.

So if you let them, if you show it to them they're gonna want to play with it,

they're not going to leave without screaming. So buy a few extra and plan

to just give it away as a freebie at the end of the session.

So when I'm photographing kids, I usually like to take the pictures outside. In a

studio they can feel a little confined, it's kind of a stuffy environment. But

when they're outside they can roam free, they have a little area to run around

and I just try to take pictures of them candidly having fun and enjoying their

I think that's a great way to show their personality. But a lot of people also

want traditional studio portraits, so you know frankly, the bigger the backdrop, the

better. You can get by with an adult in a pretty narrow backdrop, but the kids

they're always going to move around. So you really need as much space as you can.

And I've always just try to light the whole room, because you don't know

precisely where you're going to be so there's no precision lighting. But

that's good, because it can be as simple as just bouncing a flash off the white

ceiling. That will fill the room with nice, soft light and it's cheap to do too.

When taking pictures of teenagers and pre-teens, my suggestion would be to talk

to them beforehand and see what kind of photos they want. You want them to look

natural and comfortable in front of the camera and I think that they're more

natural if they have a vision about the picture and they're excited about

Yeah, just be careful the pictures that you show them, because people that age

can be a little self-conscious so show them pictures, but only show them like

the really great pictures and maybe don't zoom in on any details, at least

Up next we have a behind-the-scenes shoot without one of our favorite

Samantha, from that Samantha Annette photography. We asked her to photograph

our daughter and her best friend. And I'd like you to really pay attention to the

way that she talks to the girls, because she provides excellent direction without

I'm here with Sam and she's going to show us how to take pictures of kids

ages about 9 to 10 and I'm going to be acting as her assistant.

So what's the first thing that you would do in a shoot like this, Sam?

I'll look at them and see if there's anything that needs to be fixed, the

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How to Photograph Kids, Babies, Children: A Portrait Tutorial

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