Tips for stress-free photos of your children
Seeing them go through this awesome period of their life- stress-free, happy and often juvenile- makes you want to capture every single second of it so you can live this experience over and over again. But photographing children is as difficult as raising them. They are jumpy, often cranky about being told to sit at a place, too fast to catch and they have pretty much no regards for the effort you have put in to make them look picture perfect. So, what can you do to make sure that, years down the line, your kid has an album full of smiling memories to look back to. Here’s a few of our tips:
Timing
Babies follow nobody’s schedule. You know your child best, their sleep schedule, their playtime and so on. While photography wisdom tells us that sunlight is good for photos, we know that good sunlight cannot redeem a photo of an unhappy baby. Choose a time that gives you the best possible alignment of happy baby and natural light.
A Restful baby is a happy baby
Make sure your baby has had a restful day/night before coming for the photoshoot. Having had a relaxing night, they’d be more amenable to strangers flashing lights at them!
Play with your child
You know what’s the purest experience in the world- children playing with their parents! The best part about such candid photos is the wholesome joy and happiness radiating from both parent and child. Play with your child, give them their favourite toys, and you get a picture-perfect moment waiting to be clicked.
Beautiful Location
A good background makes for a great photo. A monochrome wall, a lush garden, a soft bed or even the baby’s play room – all of these make great photoshoot backdrops for different reasons. Plain backgrounds highlight the people in the photo while a place like baby’s play room shows the world of children.
Breaks between shots
Continuous flashing of lights is only going to tire out your baby. Have break between series of shots to change the setting, adjust position, let the baby relax. The key is to find the ‘happy moment’ of the child and capture that moment.
Dress them good
Dress your babies in something nice, funky or even outrageous. The really fun photos do not take themselves too seriously. Baby photos are no exception. You don’t know the amount of time I’ve spent scrolling through pictures of babies dressed as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and what not. This way, your child can have really fun photos to show off to their friends later.
Hire a good photographer
With babies, timing is the tricky part. A good photographer should be able to make the baby comfortable, find the right angles and be able to tell a story. No natural light, beautiful location can make up for a photographer who doesn’t know his art. Make sure you carefully select your photographer.
