Tip of the Week - Photographing Children

When my photography obsession really started, about five months ago, I stopped watching tv. I put away my knitting needles, covered up my sewing machine and let my novels sit, unread, on the shelf (wow, don't I sound like a thrill ride!). I'm definitely not known for my balance in life. I'm the kind of person who throws herself in, head first, with everything she has, and that becomes her everything (of course the people in my life come first, but everything else - "climb into the back seat!"). I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it's what I do. So, instead, I spend my free moments searching the web for every piece of information I can find about photography, and learning how to process my photos, and then I look for inspiration. That's my favorite part of photography - looking at pictures.

Anyway, I do have a point to all of this.  Since I've put in all the time figuring this stuff out, I thought you might like me to share what I'm learning with you. I've decided I will do a Tip of The Week.  It will most likely be on Thursday or Friday when I post this spectacular piece of information. Remember, I'm just learning this stuff myself, so I'm not an expert on the subject, but I like sharing, and I especially love sharing with you, my loyal nine readers (I'm up four more! Yippy!)

So here we go...
Today's tip is for those of you with children... or pets, I suppose.. or really short hyper-active friends...

Tip #1 GET DOWN!
The first thing to remember when taking pictures of children is to get down to their level. You will see this advice time and time again. It's everywhere, so try it, because it will make a big difference! When you shoot from above, you get everything from an adult's perspective, missing the point of the photo. You want to capture childhood, which means you need to show it from their eyes. Also, when you shoot from above,  you usually end up getting the ground as background which is often pretty boring.

Shot taken from above.

Although it's not the best shot of Juji, it's much better than the previous one.

Tip #2 Keep them Busy
The other thing to keep in mind is that children move FAST! I think the best thing to do is to find them an activity that holds their attention (that just happens to be in a place with perfect light and a simple background), and then take shots from all different angles.

Tip #3 Be Silly
When you want them to look at the camera forget about saying "look" or calling their name. That might work at the beginning, but kids catch on very very fast. Instead, say something ridiculous. I read someplace that a one photographer used to say, "oh no! I think a bird just pooped on my head!". I tried it and Bella looked at me with an expression of wonder and disbelief. It worked like a charm!  Yesterday I said something like, "OH! Is it raining watermelons?".

Looking for watermelons.

And then she looked at me (Silly Mommy!), and I was ready!

So there you have it. Go forth and photograph!   Oh, and don't worry. I have a blanket about to be cast on the needles very very soon.

Exposing Myself

(I wonder how many times that title has been used in reference to photography. I bet a BUNCH of times!)

Oh, Exposure, my clever foe. Why must you insist on wrecking havoc on my photos?

As I promised, I'm here to share with you a bit about what I'm learning. Have I mentioned that I'm working on exposure?  This is a difficult thing to share tips on because a). I obviously struggle with it and b). once you switch your DSLR into manual mode, this is initially the main difference between a point and shoot and a DSLR, meaning it's a HUGE topic (and if you don't understand why that's a problem, see point a.)

I shall do my best though! Here we go... 

SOOC Underexposed. ISO 160 SS 200, f/2.0

Properly exposed, after Lightroom.

We'll start off with SHUTTER SPEED today, so you don't get too overwhelmed, ok? Relax. If I can figure this stuff out, you can too. It just takes time and patience to get it right. Quietly set your camera to M for manual! (Now you can yell and jump around because Yay! you did it!), set your aperture to 5.6 (or a lower #  if you want and can), leave it there and go find some nice light (evening light or open shade. Stay away from direct sunlight.) Aight, on we go...


Shutter Speed.
These are your  numbers like 40, 60, 80, 100, 160, 200, 250 and up into 1000... etc. This is the speed of your shutter (revolutionary explanation, I know!). This is essentially what makes your photo tack sharp or completely blurry. The higher your numbers, the faster the shutter opens and closes - freezing the image in time. So, if you have very low numbers, you can easily get blurry photos if ANYTHING moves because you're allowing your shutter to capture motion just by having it open longer. (Does that make sense?). The longer it's open, the more motion it's going to capture resulting in a blurry image. Have I beaten this horse enough? I hope.


Things to keep in mind:

•  Use your meter  inside the camera's viewfinder!  That's the little line of itsy bitsy lines and a 0 in the middle. You want to be on the 0 to get correct exposure. It's super easy if you pay attention to this (but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll always have correct exposure. BELIEVE ME!)

•  Lots of Light use  High Numbers
  
  
• Less Light use Lower numbers. The numbers are actually fractions of a second. So 200 is really 1/200 and is faster than 40 (1/40), if that helps.
  
  
• The general rule is when photographing kids or anything that moves quickly and unexpectedly, don't go lower than 160 or you'll most likely get blurry images. I'd compensate with a lower aperture or higher ISO. More on that in the the weeks to come.
  
  
• When you're photographing kids (or anything that moves unexpectedly), keep your shutter speed at  160 or higher (you  don't want to go lower, or you'll probably get blurry images) Hmmm... didn't I just say this? This must be incredibly important. YES, it is!

And this is to show that practice does pay off. NEARLY perfect exposure TA DAH!! I'll keep working on it, and hope that someday Exposure and I will be able to co-exist peacefully.

This one is pretty close to proper exposure. ISO 160 SS 250 f/ 2.0

I upped the exposure not even a  half stop in Lightroom.