Spring Shooting Tips Part I

As the weather is turning more beautiful & spring-like (please can it stay that way!?) I know that you and your kids are getting outside to enjoy it. Along with the nice weather comes fun activities and of course, your camera! So, what’s the best way to document these activities? How can you get better pictures of your kids doing what they love? While I don’t have all the answers, here are some pictures I took yesterday of the kiddos and how I did them…

Get in the shade & shoot from above: I think he looks kind of mad in this photo. haha Not sure why, as he sure was enjoying his popsicle. Shooting down on your subject makes them look up at YOU, giving them nice catchlights in their eyes. We all love when our eyes sparkle, right? We were also in the shade from our garage. Make sure you’re enough in the shade that the bright sidewalk around you isn’t going to bounce back on your subject and give them shadows under their eyes.

These were really fun to take. Being pregnant, I can’t really get on the ground anymore, so I set my camera, put it on the ground and shot away. It actually got me lower than if I was looking through the viewfinder for a fun angle. Yes, I missed focus. A lot. That’s why we shoot in digital, right? Just don’t forget to delete the bad ones. And yes. Andrew is coloring on his foot with sidewalk chalk. Just thought I’d mention.

My backyard is really ugly. I mean, really. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in the swing without including my yucky yard. So, I pulled over their Step2 slide, climbed up and starting shooting down again. I also put this in SERVO mode (look for AF modes on your camera settings) so that my camera would track them as they were swinging. Try it. Seriously.

There are still some shadows on their faces, but for the most part, they were backlit and I exposed for them and blew out the sky. No biggie. I’d rather see my kids’ faces than the sky anyway. You might have to overexpose your photo, as your camera will probably try and even out all the lighting, and your subject will be dark. Try setting your camera to +1/3 or even +2/3 stops overexposed (check your manual if you’re not sure how to do this). You also might want to try opening up your aperture a bit. Try 4 or 5.6 instead of shooting wide open. That way your camera has more to work with when its trying to find your & focus on your subject.

Andrew was getting a little bored at this point, so I told him to try and kick my camera. What 2yo doesn’t love to do that? Plus, it gave me some nice framing.

Shoot wide. I shot this at 24mm, and it would’ve been even cooler had I a 16mm lens (its on the wish list). Shooting wide can give you some cool distortion. I love how her legs/feet look bigger and help give some interesting perspective. The background wasn’t blurred enough for me in camera, so I used a Gaussian Blur to try and tone it down a bit. I told you. Ugly backyard.

She really started getting into it. “Mommy. What if I stick my head out really far, like this?”

I’ve put a few more over on my SmugMug galleries. They’ve also got all my camera settings if you’re interested in what aperture, shutter speed, etc. I was using. Pretty sweet, huh? Yeah. I like SmugMug. Just hover the photo and then click on the “photo info” button and you should see it.

Happy shooting!!