Beginning Photography Tips

Most people have a young baby in their family or in their group of friends. If you’ve ever thought about or tried to photograph them, here are some great tips to keep in mind!

One of the best tips when it comes to photographing babies is getting on their level. So many people take photographs of their kids from 4 or so feet above the child. The only thing that this does is dwarf the child and make them look toy-like. Get on your hands and knees or crouch down to their level before you take the shot. This will put you in the child’s world and help you engage with them through the photographs you take.

One reason that it is hard to photograph babies is because they are so immobile. One of the best ways to get good shots of them is to put them on a baby rug or blanket and lay down next to them with your camera on the floor. This way you are looking directly into their big beautiful eyes and it shows the viewer of the photo the unique perspective of the baby. If the baby you are photographing has the ability to lift it’s head up the effects can be amazing, you will almost find yourself looking up into their eyes.

The principle of getting down low applies with older children also. You don’t have to do as much lying on the floor with them if they are walking age. Particularly with older children the best time to photograph them is when they are doing something that they enjoy. Go places with them and their parents that they love, whether is be the park, zoo or a bike ride. While they are doing their activity, hover around at their level and take lots of shots! Make sure you include shots of them with their parents and keep an eye open for candid moments when they fall over, do funny expressions or ham it up for the camera!

If you camera has continuous shooting mode it will be very helpful to turn that on. Especially when photographing bigger kids who tend to move around more. The second or third shot in a sequence is almost always the best. Shooting just one frame at a mind can cause you to miss golden opportunities. One other benefit of continuous shooting is that you can end up with a great series of shots that might go nicely together to tell a story.

This beginning photography tip is one of the simplest tips out there, and the one that has the potential to make your photography the best, but it is also the one tip people resist the most. The tip is to move in close to your subject. Really close. A lot closer than you’d think. If you search the internet, you’ll find dozens of references and quotes about how much you can improve your photography by simply getting in closer to your subject. You’ll find the famous quote that says “Get your shot set up to where you think you’re really close, then take two steps closer.”

Another great quote by the famous photographer, Robert Capa says “If you’re pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” The pros know this, practice this, have embraced this, and passed it along to their students. But the average photographer still tries to get “the big picture.” Step out of the average and step closer to your subject. You’ll get much better shots.

Some subjects just look great when you convert them from color to back and white, so when you’re out shooting, keep and eye out for anything with lots of texture, like the peeling paint on the side of an old building, rusty old machinery, anything with an interesting shape, or lots of contrast (because you don’t have the crutch of color, you have to look for other things to lead the eye), objects with a lot of metal, old barns, old cars, old abandoned factories, and also consider cloudy days with dark menacing skies a perfect subject for black and white. In fact, any gray nasty day can wind up being a field day for black and white because you don’t have to worry about avoiding the ski since it’s not a nice, blue, sunny day. In black and white…it’s all gray.