Tips for Children's Portraits

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a new parent - all of a sudden he's very intersted in photography and understandably so!  He was actually asking me for advice on cameras and lenses, but it got me to thinking that it might be fun to do a piece about taking kids portraits for all those parents out there trying to capture great shots of their growing kids.  I'm going to illustrate these tips with  some shots I took of my daughter when we were at the beach this past fall. 

1.  Make it fun.  I think this is probably the  most important tip when shooting kids.   Try and make it a play session instead of a photo shoot  - there's nothing worse than trying to get a kid to sit still and smile when they're unhappy - it's much easier to make them happy and just grab some shots - this is a more "candid" approach and often the results are not as "clean" as more traditional portraiture, but the results can be great. I actually hadn't planned on doing any portraits during this beach trip, but I had my camera at the ready and was able to grab some really fun, spontaneous portraits of my daughter having a great time.

2.  Use leading lines.   Leading lines are lines in the photo that lead the viewer's eye to another point in the image (your subject).  In the shot below where my daughter is sitting in front of the fence, the fence leads your eye right to the focus of the shot - my daughter.

3.  Don't put your subject in the center of the frame.  I know this sounds counter intuitive, but it generally makes images much stronger and is the poor man's rule of thirds.   The rule of thirds is a bit more complicated than just not putting your subject in the center of the frame, but when you're shooting fast (which you have to do when you're taking kid's pictures) it works! I know, I know I broke the rule in the vertical shot below - but no one says you have to follow the rules all the time!

4.  Don't always focus on the child.  I love the shot where my daughter is blurred in the background and there's sharp focus on the sand castle she was building - it tells a great story about the day and makes it a little different than most portraits.

5.  Think outside the box.  The shot of my daughter looking out at the ocean is a great example of this - I never would have set out to shoot a portait from behind, but once again, it tells a great story about the day. 

I hope these little tips help next time you go out and try to grab some shots of what are generally the hardest subjects to photograph - your kids!