Indoor photography kids

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Ellekes

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Vicky
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Hi all,

Since child photography is my passion, I try to create as many opportunities to learn as possible.
I have asked if I could spend a few hours shooting pictures in my youngest daughters daycare and obviously that was fine (they hopefully get a lot of good pics as well).

But now, please, can I have some tips on lighting, creative composition tips (children are between 3 months and 2.5 years), anything you can think of....

For info, I shoot with a Canon EOS 1000 D, lenses are 18-55 kitlens, a 55-250 telezoom and a 50 mm F:1.8 fixed lens. I have a Speedlite 430II flash as well.

Thanks!!!
 
Hard to give you tips without knowing what you produce already... So the only thing I will put in is hide (in a controlled enviroment where all the adults are aware) dont use flash, stick with ambient.. get pics without them knowing you are there... for my money they are the best kids pics you can get..

even reading back it sounds dodgy but you should get my drift :)
 
Thanks! Pics in the blog look great, but indeed a bit much on the eyes.
Looks like Portrait Professional. I use that too, but I usually set the eyes slider to zero and manually adjust for saturation, otherwise I find all kids get some sort of Prodigy eyes... :D

Still, it does include some good ideas!

It's just, lighting continues to be my weak spot. I find it very hard to estimate the correct lighting when taking pictures. Should I maybe stick to Raw and adjust as much as possible on screen?
 
Ellekes said:
It's just, lighting continues to be my weak spot. I find it very hard to estimate the correct lighting when taking pictures. Should I maybe stick to Raw and adjust as much as possible on screen?
Click to expand...

RAW should be used as a safety net rather than work flow IMHO. However sometimes needs must and if the lighting isn't there then yes..

But nice day.. curtains open/removed and get the little ones in that light i cant see why it wouldn't work..
 
Have a look at
http://www.helenbartlett.co.uk/index.php

Absolutely my fave childrens photographer.

The "problem" is that both of these ladies use fast lenses with minimal depth of field so they can keep the shutter speeds fast enough to catch kids in motion and that's one limitation of your existing kit. Put that 50mm on at f2 and you stand a chance but you will have to be good with the focus.

As for lighting, get the room as light as you can. Pull curtains open to let in as much daylight as possible and if you still can't get enough speed then bang on all the lights you can and although you will get bad colour casts you can at least get some good B&W's.

You do need to try to get the exposures as close as you can though because in low light, if you underexpose and have to pull the file up you introduce a load of noise.
 
Looks like the light from a large diffuse window light (nurseries usually have big windows) - us of windows though depends on the direction of the light- a scrim to diffuse the light os some soft light voil in front of the window will help if the light is direct.

Using a fast lens like the 50mm f1.4 or possibly a longer 135 f2 and you should be able to create what'sshown here - but skill ir required to get the focus bang on at very wide apertures.
 
I would strongly suggest you go the natural light route, nurseries tend to have lots of windows and sell themselves on being light and bright = healthy environment for kids.
Think about where the light is in the room, look where it bounces/reflects on and use it to your advantage. I would suggest a wide open prime, 50mm 1.4 is great or 85mm 1.8 is good too. You dont want to be in the kids faces, back up and capture them being natural. I did something similar in church hall with kids, i managed to create some nice images for the mums and the kids didnt notice me.! good luck it will be fun.


Edit - meant to say check out annabell williams book 99 portrait ideas (she sells it or amazon).....she focus' on kids and natural light.
 
I think the main thing here is the oversharpening of the iris. I saw a tutorial on this (think it was a Kelby one) and I've used it (although not quite in the same way - not as strong)!

It can add to the sparkle of the eyes and I can see why people do like it - maybe a bit much though and means a lot of work!
 
EOS_JD said:
I think the main thing here is the oversharpening of the iris. I saw a tutorial on this (think it was a Kelby one) and I've used it (although not quite in the same way - not as strong)!

It can add to the sparkle of the eyes and I can see why people do like it - maybe a bit much though and means a lot of work!
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Slightly OT, but it is not really that much work. With Portrait Professional, it takes less then 10 minutes to update a portrait. Great tool (at least, I love it :) ).
 
audrey woulard is one of my favourite child photographers, and you will find most of her images are SOOC with perhaps a boost in P/S. No sharpening or skin smoothing etc. she is all natural light and mostly primes, and not always shooting wide open. she is the master of natural light.
 
Ellekes said:
Slightly OT, but it is not really that much work. With Portrait Professional, it takes less then 10 minutes to update a portrait. Great tool (at least, I love it :) ).
Click to expand...

I have PP and very rarely use it, but wouldn't ever use it on kids, they don't need it.

The processing here looks like she missed focus on them all and then rescued by sharpening the eyes

Weird
 
keirik said:
I have PP and very rarely use it, but wouldn't ever use it on kids, they don't need it.

The processing here looks like she missed focus on them all and then rescued by sharpening the eyes

Weird
Click to expand...

I use it very limited with kids (my mother in law loves it though :lol:), but I do find that red spots, runny noses and dry patches, as mine all often have can be minimised. But then, as I said before, I turn a lot of the sliders to zero and manually adjust.
 
jeniveeev said:
audrey woulard is one of my favourite child photographers, and you will find most of her images are SOOC with perhaps a boost in P/S. No sharpening or skin smoothing etc. she is all natural light and mostly primes, and not always shooting wide open. she is the master of natural light.
Click to expand...

if those pics of kids are straight out of camera then they need to be taken to an optician before their eyeballs explode
 
Aha, SOOC stands for Straight Out Of the Camera. OK, now I get it.

I prefer the pictures by Helen Bartlett though! Anyway, I prefer BW most of the time.
 
Not much to add re the ligting situation (maybe they have an outdoor play area?), another idea is to get down to the childs level so don't be affraid to be on your knees a lot. When there are toys about the kids are going to be more interested in them so take the opportunity to get those nice natural shots.
 
When I started out I did the complete opposite (which no doubt means I was wrong!). I used bounce flash to keep my shutter speed up, ISO down and aperture above 5.6 so I wouldn't miss focus on group shots (F2.8 is better for portraits, but at the beginning I missed the focus too often so kept it at F5.6).

Now I've read a bit more I realise the value of natural light photography, particularly with children & try as much without flash as possible. However, I think the way I started meant I got a few more shots in the 'keep' folder (for me anyway).

The posters I know that have replied have a lot more experience than me, so that says a lot! Just wanted to give a different POV.

Other than that, do a mix of close-ups, quirky, and full body photos. Get kids interacting with you / the camera / each other / a toy. And have lots of fun with it!
 
Helen Bartletts work is beautiful too, and timeless. I love B&W's but I also enjoy colour for the vibrancy. Here is one i shot a few weeks ago, its cropped, taken at the back door with snow in the background, no fancy set up or flash. The only post work i did to it was a crop and soft light layer.

4276241501_2ce980690a.jpg
 
Aw, that picture is absolutely lovely!!!!

Thanks all for the super tips!!!! The good thing is that they know at the nursery that I'm "in training" and they have promised me to go easy.

I'll just have lots of fun, and take about a million pictures, hopefully that will leave me with at least one good pic per child :D
 
NorthernNikon said:
Here's an idea, get a kid, give them a lollypop, take the lolly away from them, then take their photo.

Wha's'a'matter? Well, it worked for Jill Greenberg!:naughty:
Click to expand...


Nice!!!! Below would be my (slightly less talented) Jill Greenberg moment:

My middle one had fallen with her bike, and instead of consoling her, I took out my camera :D


 
Nice image but does look like it was taken with flash?
 
Well, to be honest, I don't remember. It was in the early days when I only had my camera a few weeks. I doubt it though, because I wouldn't have taken my external flash with me on a bike ride, and I don't think the incamera flash would have popped up on a sunny day.

Then again, seeing the pinpricks in the eyes, maybe it did...
 
The shoot was today, and I left well prepared with all your advice, but as it turned out Murphy wanted something to say as well.
It was an extremely dull day in belgium today, on top of that across the street from the nursery was construction work going on which blocked what little sunlight was coming in.

Anyway, I had a good time, took some really nice pics and had quite a bit of opportunity to practice with my 50 mm prime lens. I've realised that it has amazing possibilities, but at 1.8 it's really hard to get the focus just right. And double so when you're dealing with jittery 2 year olds.

Anyway, pictures are in my gallery, if any of you is dying to see what a beginning amateur thinks is a good picture :D
 
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