Take your own kids' portraits

Hey, it's Sharee here in Texas and I'm here to help all my fellow momma's out!  Let's talk about children's portraits.  We all want a good picture of our children at least once a year, but perhaps cannot spend the money or are bored of the boring school picture background.   

Over the last couple years, I have practiced taking thousands of pictures of kids and here are some of my best tips!  Whether you just have a phone camera or a DSLR you've been shooting on auto, follow this simple recipe for some amazing pics taken by you!  Trust me, you'll never regret having good portraits of your kids.

1) Lighting is everything!

I try to only take portraits within the 40 minutes before sunset.  At this time of day, my background will not be blown out and my subject's skin tone will be rich and creamy.  I keep my subject's face well lit by facing them towards an open sky or field rather than towards a building or thicket of tall trees.  

My favorite way to get a stunning background is to place my subject in front of the sun setting through trees and branches.  I mean, just look how beautiful it looks . . . 

  

2)  Get your lens at the kid's eye level

When taking a standard portrait, you want to be at the child's eye level or one to two inches above.  This also produces a more intriguing background as you usually are able to include the horizon instead of just grass when shooting from too far above.  

3)  Tips to get kids to look

These days kids are done looking at the camera because, let's be honest, we take at least five pictures of them a day!  When you are ready to take a lasting portrait, get some things ready the child has not seen before.  Finger puppets, a silly hat, noise maker, or light up toy has worked well for me.  It is best to have a partner help with this so you can keep your camera steady.  If you do have a partner, make sure they stand right behind your shoulder so the child's gaze is towards your lens.  

If your child is old enough, have them help you make a paper bag puppet earlier that day for them to smile at.  They will be proud to look at it when it is picture time!  

I often use a Pez dispenser that I slide into my flash sensor to get the kid's attention.  I tell them if they smile at it, he gives out candy!!

One more trick I learned from a friend is to put a leaf on your head and tell the child to see if they can blow it off from where they are.  As they blow, I throw the leaf up and behind me and act shocked that it flew off my head.  This often produces laughter and I am able to get some quick shots of a real smile.

4)  Taking pictures on your phone

When taking portraits with your phone, be careful not to get too close.  If you are too close to your child, you're more likely to get what I call a "fish bowl" effect where the face looks a little disproportional.  I snapped two quick pics to show you the difference below.  Try to stay more than a couple feet back.

In this picture I was too close and too high with my phone

Here I was about four feet away with my phone and at her eye level.
Notice the difference in what is seen in the background as well.

Phone photos can safely produce good quality prints up to an 8x10.  The best way to maintain quality while photographing your children is to avoid zooming in with the phone camera.  Instead, try cropping to your liking after the photo has been taken.

5) My Sweet Spot with a DSLR camera

I was intimidated by my DSLR camera for about a year before I started trying to work with all the settings.  I would look at stunning pictures taken by amazing photographers and wonder what settings their camera was on.  Well, let me just cut to the chase and tell you where my sweet spot is.  My sweet spot is a half hour before sunset on a sunny evening.  My camera is set to manual mode with ISO 250, Shutter Speed 1/160, and aperture 4 (My favorite lens is my 50mm I have always used for portraits).  If you wanna go one step further, set your camera to shoot in RAW instead of Jpeg.  RAW files can be uploaded to iPhoto for editing and the detail they capture will make your portrait that much more stunning!  I use Adobe Lightroom to brighten my RAW files and slightly enhance the contrast and vibrance.


Good luck you guys!  I hope this helps.  Don't worry if photography isn't your thing.  I mean, I still love my mom for providing portraits of me on a carpeted stool with vintage props :)