3 steps to taking better pictures of your kids!

Hello again!  It's been awhile hasn't it?  I think that most of you know that I've taken a bit of a vacation from photography to have a baby.  Little Max was born July 19th at 8:43 am weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz.  He is such a cutie, and a wonderful addition to our family.  Come to think of it, I never posted his newborn pictures on this blog--I'll have to do that shortly.  In the meantime, I thought I would try something new today and write a tutorial.  Let me know what you think!

Like many photographers, my interest in photography really peaked when I had my daughter.  I wanted every picture of her to be perfect so that I could remember all of those early moments.  Today, I'm going to teach you three steps to take better pictures of YOUR kids with YOUR camera.  These are steps that everyone can do no matter what camera you have.  Try it and see the difference it can make!

Step 1.  TURN OFF THAT FLASH!

 This picture was taken in my living room with my curtains closed and my camera set to AUTO.  The camera automatically popped up the flash and took this awful picture.  So I immediately went to my window and opened my curtains and came up with this:

There.  That's MUCH better.  The key is to figure out your camera's ISO capabilities.  ISO controls how sensitive your camera is to light.  Even on point and shoots you have the ability to control this, just pop out that manual and look it up!  You may not be able to control it in increments like on DSLRs, but most point and shoots will at least have a HIGH ISO setting.  There is a downfall though, the higher the ISO the grainier your picture will be.  So you have to decide what is more important to you.  Personally, I'd take a grainy picture over one with flash any day. 

Step 2:  Find the light in your home! 

Which rooms are the brightest?  Where are your windows?  Really study where the good light is and do activities in those areas. 

Step 3:  Get down on their level. 

This picture was taken just seconds after the one above, only I laid myself down on the floor to be able to take it.  Perspective is everything when taking pictures of kids.  See how much more intimate this picture just became?

Then I just laid there and let the kids be themselves.  

I did cheat a little and had my camera in Manual mode for those last three pictures (2.8, 1/125) but that's a whole other tutorial and we won't go into that just yet.  But these three steps will improve your pictures I promise!  So go play with your kids and start shooting away!