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How to Use Photography to Teach Your Children Maths, English, Physics and More!

14 Apr

The post How to Use Photography to Teach Your Children Maths, English, Physics and More! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

It is certainly a weird time right now. We are all suddenly expected to become teachers due to the current lockdowns. While we all have different skills, we are all full of knowledge about photography. You may be wondering, how you can use photography to teach your children during this difficult time.

It’s actually easier than you think! Moreover, it can give your children a passion for learning during this difficult time.

A small boy photographing with the camera up to his eye. Using photography to teach your children can cover a multitude of subjects. — Photography is a powerful teaching tool that can be linked to many subjects.

Where to start?

I first want to give you some more general points about homeschooling during these times.

In a classroom, your child will be one of many. They do not have a teacher over their shoulder the whole lesson, so try not to hover. Set them a task and let them explore.

It’s hard to do as we always want to see our children happy, but sometimes you just need to let them make mistakes.

When using photography to teach your children, it can be easy to take the camera and do it for them. However, this does two things:

It means they don’t learn anything for themselves
It can make them feel stupid or incapable.

Remember when you first started with photography. I know I made several mistakes, as I am sure you did. When I finally figured out my mistake and got the result I wanted, I felt a great sense of achievement.

The only way for your child to feel this same sense of achievement is to let your child fail and figure things out for themselves. Failing is one of the best tools for learning. It gives them a great sense of satisfaction when they succeed.

So let’s take a look at some of the key subjects and how you can use photography to teach your children.

Maths

Maths is usually the most dreaded of all subjects. The best way to use photography to teach your children maths is by using the exposure triangle.

The exposure triangle uses equations, which is a key skill in maths. Unsure of using manual exposure yourself? Why not learn along with your child. This demonstrates to them that learning is a lifelong skill.

Start by explaining that every time you double your shutter speed, it equals one stop of light. Conversely, every time you double your ISO it equals one stop of light. So, if you double one, you need to double the other. If you halve one, you need to halve the other.

To start, take a correctly exposed photo. Then challenge your child to alter the shutter speed and ISO but to keep the correct exposure.

To demonstrate this, take a photo at ISO 400 and make a note of the shutter speed. You can then explain that when you halve your ISO you also have to halve your shutter speed. You can make this harder by giving them a high ISO (say 1600) and ask them to keep the exposure with an ISO of 100.

You can also give these questions on paper, then take them out into the real world.

Example Question.

Jack takes a photograph. His camera gives him the correct exposure at ISO 400 and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second. If Jack wants to change his shutter speed to 1/100th second, what ISO value does he need?

You can then make things more complex by adding aperture. This is a great way to show how equations work in a practical environment.

Using exposure is a great way to use photography to teach your children. — Two images, same exposure, different ISO. Halving the ISO also means halving the shutter speed. It’s all just balancing the equation.

Science/physics

For this, you will need a flash for your camera to demonstrate.

There is an inverse square law and how it affects photography. The inverse square law states:

The intensity of an effect such as illumination or gravitational force changes in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the source.

When you double the distance between a light source and a subject, the amount of light falls off by 3/4. This also means that the greater the distance between the light and the subject, the less harsh the fall off of light across it.

The most fun way to demonstrate this is to show what happens when you change the distance between a flash and subject, and the impact on the light fall off.

Start by placing the flash close to the subject (say 30cm) then move the flash about 1.5 meters from the background.

When the flash is close, any background will be almost black, but when further away, the exposure on the background and the subject will be almost identical.

For more science-based work, give your child a shiny or reflective object to light. Light travels in a straight line, so getting them to change the position of the light or object means reflections can be minimized or enhanced.

A photography of a mannequin lit by a single flash. This demonstrates the inverse square law as the background is black. — Teach the inverse square law by changing the flash-to-subject distance to show how light falls off over distance.

History

This can be done in a variety of ways. They can research a specific photographer from history or research a time period (e.g., the 60s) through photography. Get them to look for similarities in the works and create a presentation or written report on this. Try using our Lessons From the Masters Series for this.

They should also be encouraged to create history by recording their experiences in this time. The possibilities here are endless, including creating a Vlog (you don’t need to upload it to YouTube if you don’t want to), creating a photo story, writing a journal, etc.

We are living through a major historical event, get your children to record it.

Design and technology

Get your children to create a backdrop for a photoshoot. Get them to choose a toy or give them a household object such as hand soap and create a backdrop for this.

You can keep the brief as open or closed as possible. You could get them to build something only using a set of equipment given to them. Or let them create something from whatever they can find. If you have access to a tool shed, you can get creative with scrap wood, etc. This can then be used for the next lesson.

Making a backdrop will involve physics and maths skills (forces and measurements respectively).

See more DIY projects here.

Graphic products and graphic design

Use the backdrop your child has built to create an image that will become an advertising campaign for a project.

You can teach them how to edit a photo. From here, you can then get them to use the image in a poster to promote the product they have photographed. Not only does this involve graphic skills, you can involve English skills by encouraging them come up with the slogan and blurb for the product.

This also has a nice crossover into ICT in terms of using the software for designing and editing the photographs.

A poster of an American Football with the Text DPS Sports Equip, Stay Fit, Feel Good. — Taking Images and making them into a poster is great for developing graphics & ICT skills

English

Although not strictly photography, a great way to involve English in using photography to teach your children is to make a film. This means writing a script, which teaches them about formatting work. It also gets them to think creatively and produce an original piece of writing.

You can extend this to include art by getting them to storyboard the project. Then push it into design and technology by creating a set.

If you have access to lights, you can even get them to light the scene and look at how placing the light in different positions creates a different mood. This can then lead to talking about low-key lighting and high-key lighting. This also involves physics in terms of light direction and the inverse square law.

A short film script excerpt on a white background — The next Hollywood BlockBuster has to start somewhere.

Art

The most obvious way of doing this is getting your children to take photographs, but it is easy for this to lack structure. To make sure this is more learning-based, you can give them a brief.

Give them a household object and get them to photograph it in an unusual or abstract way. If you want to make this more game-based, get them to take photographs of 5 household objects of their choosing and then present them to you and see if you can guess what they are.

For a more traditional photographic approach, you can give your child a theme to photograph. You can use our weekly challenges to give them the theme if you are stuck for ideas.

When complete, sit down and critique the images together. You can use this to explain things such as composition.

If you want to go more into theory, you can teach them about the rule of thirds. Get them to look at photographs and see if they can see this within them.

The easiest way is to use a grid in something like PowerPoint that you can overlay onto different images. They can then use this to identify patterns in images they like or that you give them to study. You can also use this for things such as leading lines, foreground interest and so on.

Art fits in perfectly for photography, but to make sure it aids learning, all you need to add is a little structure.

An abstract representation of blinds shot on an iPhone — Shot on an iPhone, this is an abstract representation of Venetian Blinds. Did you guess what it was?

Equipment

Obviously, you can give your kids your camera, but if you don’t feel comfortable with this, for most of these lessons, you can use a camera phone or the camera on a tablet. Many of the images in this article are iPhone images.

The lighting you use also doesn’t need to be some beautiful color-balanced LED panels. An angel-poise lamp works brilliantly, or even a simple torch will do the job.

For the sections on the exposure triangle, you will need access to a camera with full manual controls. In fact, you can possibly use a manual camera phone app in a pinch.

In terms of software, there is GIMP, which is free for photo editing. Also, Affinity Software is doing a 90-day free trial on all their software during this time.

Over to you

Hopefully, I have given you a few ideas on how you can use photography to teach your children during this difficult time. It gives some activities to try and maybe work that they find more interesting than sitting at a desk writing away.

Remember, homeschooling is very different from being taught in a classroom. There is no expectation of getting it perfect. You are doing your best in a bad situation, and that is all anyone can ask. The same applies to your children; they are finding homeschooling every bit as weird as you are.

Stay safe.

The post How to Use Photography to Teach Your Children Maths, English, Physics and More! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

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7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

06 Dec

The post 7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

When it comes to photographing children at portrait sessions, most often it’s not the gear that gets them to enjoy the session or has them laughing. In this article, we are going to share the best tools for photographing children that are not gear related and useful for every portrait session with children.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

1. The squeaky chicken (rr any noisy toy)

When it comes to tools for photographing children, there is nothing more fun than a toy that makes noise. A weird, interesting, noisy, and curious squeaking chicken is all of those things and more. They come in various sizes and offer lots of ideas for getting the attention of smaller children and laughs from older children.

Tools-for-Photographing-Children-that-are-not-Gear-Related

This is the chicken that I have. When squeezed, it makes a sound that is able to capture anyone’s attention. As you can see it gets used quite a bit.

Use the toy as a way to get the child’s attention toward the camera. A great tip is to bang your head with it and pretend that it hurt in a fun and interesting way. Children love unexpected reactions, and you’ll definitely get big smiles using the chicken.

You can also play hide and seek with the chicken popping it from behind you in a different direction each time. The child won’t know where it’ll pop up from next! A huge hit!

These laughs are brought to you by the chicken hitting me on the head. Camera is on a tripod to avoid shaking.

When the children are a bit older, you can plop the chicken, or any other noisy toy, on your camera and ask “Hey, where did my chicken go? Have you seen it?” This can get a great reaction out of the child and also keep their attention as a fun way to look at the camera long enough to shoot off a few frames.

2. Bribes

This one is a staple for all children at portrait sessions, but first, make sure you consult with the parents before the session to know if bribery is okay.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

Ask your clients if you should bring candy or if they can bring a favorite treat for the child when its time for the session. Only use in emergencies since children can lose interest if they have to continuously work for it.

A small lollipop or chewable candy works wonders when you need them to smile. You can bribe them with a taste or piece. Make sure to work quickly, though, because they’ll want that bribe instantly!

Here we used two different games with the parents. The swing game while they walked and the tickling game. Smiles all around!

3. Play games

Games are probably not going to get you many of those photos where the children are looking at the camera, however, they will bring about some smiles and great photos of the family interacting. Luckily, you don’t need much for this other than some interesting games for all ages!

One that works great with children is to pick them up, especially for the younger age group. Have mommy and daddy tickle them too.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

Another one is to ask the family to look at each other and make some silly faces! Children love to make silly faces. You can ask them to do one with silly faces and then one where they smile big at the camera!

Chase is a great game, just make sure you focus fast and can capture the motion! Children are pretty quick and mommy and daddy will also get a kick out of chasing their little one around while getting big laughs!

Peek-A-Boo is a great game to play with smaller children under the age of 3! They know it so well from playing with their parents that when you do, it will seem familiar. They might even want to play along! Play peek-a-boo from behind your camera or use a toy to hide and pop out. Both work really well to grab the attention of the child.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

A game that gets the biggest laughs is also when you get close and tickle them and then back away quickly. Only, the next time you go in to tickle you don’t actually tickle. It’s good to say “I’m gonna get you” as you play this game so they anticipate the game!

This trick works best when you have an assistant so that you don’t miss any shots. If you have to do this yourself, try and put your camera on a tripod with a wireless shutter release so you get the smiles even if you’re not at your camera. That works wonders! If the parents don’t want contact, have one of them play the game with their child and it can also work to get lots of laughs!

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

Also, children are great at making up games. So when they start to play, have everyone play along and then ask them to smile or look your way! Sometimes you’ll get the child looking at you and other times you will get great interaction among the family members. Both make great additions to the final gallery of images!

Children are great at playing games, let them have fun and they’ll look at the camera soon enough.

4. Children’s playlist

When it comes to tools for photographing children, consider music. Children love music. So it would be a good idea to have a playlist on your phone of all the classic favorites like Wheels on the Bus, The Ants Go Marching In, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and others.

Also, ask your clients what the child likes to listen to as far as music goes and create a specific playlist for that session.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

A good plus would be to have a small external speaker so you can have it on location. That way, you don’t really have to move or hold onto your phone for the songs to hear the songs. External speakers also sound a lot louder than just your phone, which can grab the attention of the child.

5. Mommy and Daddy

One of the best tools for photographing children is Mom and Dad! Using mom and dad as a way to get the attention of the child can help because the children can recognize their voice and identify them quickly, even when they are very young!

Have the parent stand behind you or at least very close to the camera. That way, when the child looks at them, it’ll seem like they were looking at the camera.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

It’s also fun to play games while the parent is close to you and have them bonk your head or act like daddy farted. That one works best when the children are around 4 years old and usually gets a laugh out of them.

Getting the parents involved in the fun makes the child feel more comfortable around you, who is new to them or maybe not so familiar. Have the parents toss the child up into the air or just raise them up high and smile.

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

They can also go exploring, dig in the sand, and walk hand-in-hand with the parents if they’re willing to participate! It will get a lot more laughs and more authentic expressions from the child.

This tool works great, especially when the child isn’t cooperating, or it’s difficult to get their attention. The parents know their child best and can help get those smiles, and they’ll be glad to help!

6. Using the Uh-Oh method

When a child is small, typically around 3 years and under, the sound of “uh-oh” can get their attention much more than a solid “no”.

Tools-for-Photographing-Children-that-are-not-Gear-Related

Using “uh-oh” can be a great way to get a child’s attention and stop them from doing something that is not allowing them to look at the camera or follow instructions. Of course, they’re young, and sometimes won’t follow instructions at all, so using “uh-oh” can divert them much better.

7. Props

Props work for various reasons as they can help with the session set up and overall look. However, when it comes to children, props help keep children engaged and, most often, in one spot.

Tools-for-Photographing-Children-that-are-not-Gear-Related

Speak with your clients and see what props will work best for the age of their child(ren). For little ones perhaps cars, blocks, and plush toys work. For a bit older children, perhaps a kite, picnic set up, or game works best.

Look for items that add to the session rather than take attention away from your clients. Choose toys or props that are neutral in color or go with the color scheme.

Tools-for-Photographing-Children-that-are-not-Gear-Related

In conclusion

7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime!

While your gear is important during portrait sessions, especially with children, adding in games, toys, and noisemakers to your set of skills and gear can really change the way they experience the session. Your clients will thank you for providing a fun experience for everyone, all while capturing great images of their children!

Do you have any other tools for photographing children that are not gear related? Share with us in the comments!

The post 7 Tools for Photographing Children That Will Get You Great Shots Everytime! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

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How to Photograph Children Under Five with Little to No Meltdowns

13 Jan

The post How to Photograph Children Under Five with Little to No Meltdowns appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

Photographing children under five can be really challenging. However, the most effective photographers are the ones who know how to avoid meltdowns that lead to children shutting down or simply, not wanting to participate at all. Read on to learn tips on how to photograph children without meltdowns!

Pose children with parents closeby can give them comfort and confidence during the session.

Choose the best time for the children

The best way to avoid a meltdown with children from newborn to five years of age is to choose the best time during the day that works best for them. That’s right, we’re working on the child’s schedule rather than the parents or even your photography calendar. This is because some children may be more alert after a good nap and others may be in a better mood after breakfast.

Catering to the child’s already existing schedule avoids any disruptions or over-tiredness. Having the session as part of the day’s activities also gets them excited to explore and play.

Bring snacks and toys

There is nothing more cranky than a hungry child. This goes for any child age 6-months and older. Kids need a snack or drink of some kind often. If your session is going to last from 45 minutes to more than an hour, it’s a good idea to have snacks and drinks on hand. Allowing children to have a snack during the session can also serve to give them a boost in energy and get them back into the session.

Ask the parents to bring the kids favorite snack and drink to the session as well as a snack that could be considered a reward or treat. These rewards/treats can help use bribery in order to get some smiles or to avoid a meltdown in the middle of the session.

Having parents interact and play with children can help relax them enough to get smiles.

Take breaks often to give the children a chance to snack and drink some water or juice. Take advantage that they are occupied to focus on the older children or on the parents.

Toys are a great way to keep children entertained and you can get a lot of real and authentic expressions out of the child when they are playing with their favorite toy. Sometimes, toys can bring comfort to children and help them to feel more relaxed around new strangers. Also, toys offer a distraction when you are photographing other members of the family all while keeping the smaller children from a tantrum or getting too bored.

Advise parents to avoid saying “no”

This is probably the one tip that will raise a few eyebrows among your clients, but it is really important to keep in mind. Children hear the word “no” over a hundred times a day, and sometimes this can bring about defiant behavior. Avoiding saying no can really help the child to feel more relaxed during the session.

Letting children play and have fun can make the session run smoother.

Not using the word “no” also gives them the freedom to explore, jump, play, run, and yes, even get dirty during the session. Giving children who are under 5 a great experience is really important. They will remember how much fun they had with you and your camera. The next time they see you for another portrait session, they won’t be so afraid or shy.

Let them get it all out of their system and have fun. The more they see this as a fun activity, the more willing they’ll be to cooperate. Of course, all within reason! If something is dangerous then a proper no is okay. For everything else, it’s a banned word for the whole session time.

This also gives you the opportunity to dictate how to say no without actually saying the word. For example, instead of having the parents say “no, don’t climb the tree” where the child will see this as their parents nagging again, you now have the lead to say instead, “hey bud, let’s go over here and see if we can find some sticks, that tree looks like it could have some ants on it.”

This makes you seem like the friend and keeps the parents from using a negative tone during the session. All together giving the child the impression that they are there to have fun and play. Giving you better expressions and eventually, they will listen when you ask them to look at the camera and smile.

Try posing other than smiling at the camera

Most children under five don’t have the patience to stand still for very long and smile at the camera. The most you’ll get from children of this age group is 30 minutes, with bribes! The best way to get them to participate longer is to capture them doing what children do best: play.

Children in this age group are learning so quickly and love to apply what they’ve learned or can identify all the time. This means that if they are at a park, they’ll want to pick up a stick and play. Show their parents and then jump around poking the dirt.

Which means, posed photos may not be what you expect with children so young. In order to capture the whole family together, for instance, is to pose all other members of the family in a way that when you join the smaller children, they are in direct contact with mom or dad. Either in their arms, next to one or the other, or on their laps. Laughing and telling jokes can help them to stay in place long enough for some good photos.

Having the family walk holding hands is also a great way to get the children more involved. You want them to play and explore but you also want them to participate in the more posed family photos as well.

Don’t be afraid to reschedule if necessary

Sometimes, you will get a child who isn’t willing and has multiple meltdowns that were simply unavoidable. If this does occur, offer the family to reschedule the session for another date and time that best suits the child’s schedule and mood.

This is the great thing about portrait sessions as they can be re-done in order to best suit the child who perhaps wasn’t in the mood for photos that day. Reassure your client that rescheduling is the best option and that it is completely okay and happens with children.

Sometimes you won’t get smiles out of children but it’s important to try and get a good solid portrait of them anyway.

Make sure that you exhaust all of the options before deciding that a reschedule is necessary. Sometimes, a child might just need a quick snack break or a break in general. Focus on taking photos of the parents or the other siblings to give them a rest. If all else fails, rescheduling could be the best solution.

Sometimes children open up toward the end of the session. Like this little girl. On the left was at the beginning and on the right, she was smiling toward the end of the session.

If you can’t reschedule, try and get as much as you can from the child before they completely shut down. Work quickly and let the child know that you know they are tired, hungry, or don’t like photos but if they do well they can get a prize. Here, allow the parents to say whichever prize they want to offer. This can sometimes get a few last smiles and give you enough photos.

In conclusion

Children under five years of age aren’t always easy going and willing to take portraits, however, using these tips can help get the most out of them before they burn out. Try and follow their lead and make sure that they have a fun time at the session. This will help them to feel more comfortable the next time they are in front of your camera.

The post How to Photograph Children Under Five with Little to No Meltdowns appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

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How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

08 Jul

In this article, you’ll get some tips on how to survive photo sessions with difficult children.

When you imagine photographing your client’s family session, you envision taking beautiful photographs in a pretty location and getting all of those great photos that will make your clients happy. However, you never imagine walking into a session only to find that the child, or children, are protesting, throwing tantrums, or simply not willing to cooperate.

Don’t freeze up and don’t give up, these helpful tips will keep you moving along during the session so that you can get those beautiful expressions and give your clients the best experience.

How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children - boy in a white shirt

This little boy kept saying no the entire session. After exhausting all of my tips, I started playing hide and seek and exploring looking for treasure. He was all smiles afterward!

Set client expectations

Preparing your client for what to expect and giving them tips on how to help can make all the difference during their session.

One of the main tips you can give your clients to plan the session to coincide with the time of the day when their children are in the best mood. This means, if their child is the best right after a nap, schedule their session then. Children get tired quickly and you don’t want to have a sleepy cranky child at your session, which will be nearly impossible to bring back to the side of contentment.

How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children - girl with toys

Bringing toys and snacks can really help the children take a break and reset for a little bit. I photographed this little one playing with her favorite toys.

Have your client bring snacks for their children that can be used to help get the smiles and good behavior during the session. I would caution you not to bring candy unless you have already spoken to the parents ahead of time and they’ve approved it. Best to have them bring appropriate snacks their kids love.

Water or juice is also recommended. Even if you schedule the session after a mealtime, those snacks always come in handy.

Letting kids play keeps them busy and happy.

A very important tip that is also helpful is telling your client that the word “no” is off limits during the session. In other words, parents cannot say “no” to the children during the session.

Letting children play and explore is part of the fun and giving children a little bit of time to get a feel for their surroundings can make all the difference in their participation. The word “no” usually makes children shut down or protest, both behaviors you want to avoid.

How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children - boy in the grass

Having mom or dad tickle and play with the children helps the kids to focus on them and not so much on the photographer.

Play, explore, and enjoy

Part of the session should allow for some playtime and exploration. Children are incredibly curious and playing to that curiosity is going to help you get those in-between moments. This is especially helpful when the child is protesting or doesn’t want to cooperate but just do their own thing. Go along with it.

Tell your clients to play and draw their child’s attention to a particular tree or place where you’d like to photograph them. Ask them to walk together hand in hand. Have your clients make silly faces or tell jokes, and singing their favorite nursery rhymes or songs also helps to relax the children.

Exploring during portrait sessions with difficult children

Walking around and exploring the location can help smaller children to enjoy the session and find it interesting.

Their experience during the session is what they’ll remember. Make sure it is fun and that they enjoy themselves. With that, have your clients bring extra clothing for the children as well.

playing in the leaves - How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

Playtime is very important during sessions and helps children to enjoy the process!

Crying and shutting down

Sometimes, you’ll come across children that are simply not willing to cooperate and participate. You’ve tried exploring, you’ve sung their favorite songs and nothing is working.

Sometimes giving them a break from the session and focusing your camera on the parents can make the kids come around. Focusing on the parents can often lead the children to want to get their attention and they usually end up walking into the frame. When that happens, tell your clients to go ahead and interact with their child.

How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children - family on the beach

We focused attention on the parents during this session and the boy ended up wanting to walk with his mom and dad and we were able to get these photographs.

Interactions between children and parents make for the most intimate and meaningful photographs of the entire session. Letting the children and the parents be themselves without too much direction helps to relieve some nerves. It also helps you to build rapport with the children as you explore and play with them as well.

How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children - playtime

Playing with the children during a session can lead to real emotions and interactions between all family members.

Be aware that children under the age of 10 are usually willing participants for about 45 minutes. After that, they either get bored, want to play, or are hungry.

Try and anticipate this time frame and get the full family portraits done quickly and early on if you can. Afterward, you can choose to take individual portraits or just capture the family being a family.

Acting out and being overly silly

Portrait sessions with children acting silly - How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

This silly boy had so much fun jumping and making silly faces and playing along helped to get the portrait on the left. The right makes for a nice memory of his personality as well!

There will be times when one or more of the children are acting overly silly and makes it difficult to get a portrait of them where they are smiling nicely for the camera. When this occurs, don’t allow the parents to try and wrangle their children into doing what is expected. Instead, turn it into a game.

For example, tell the child(ren) that you love their silly faces and they are very good at making them. So you’re going to take two silly photos and one serious one. Change up the faces they are supposed to make and mix in the one you want by saying, “Okay, now I want you to smile like mommy wants and then we can make a funny face, deal?”

Once they agree, which they usually do, be quick to take the good photo and then continue with the game for a couple more photos. Then move on.

funny faces - How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

Being silly helps to let the children be children.

This helps the children enjoy the session and display their playful personalities while still getting the photos that mom and dad will want. It also helps to not force the children to do anything which can lead to crying or shutting down, both of which you want to avoid.

Tweens and teens

Tweens and teens are also important during a session and usually, because of their age, can be the least cooperative. Here, I would suggest asking the parents for a little information on what they like or what school they go to before the session. This can help start conversations and get them to open up and relax a little.

These brothers had a completely different vibe than my usual style but I went with it in order to get who they were at this stage in their lives.

Taking the individual portraits in a part of the location where the parents are not too close by helps teens to relax. Tweens and teens are very aware of themselves, often more than adults, especially now with social media, therefore, taking their portraits should be done quickly.

Showing them the photographs can also spark more interest and help to boost their confidence during the session.

Tips for portraits with teens - How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

Sometimes the awkward sibling hug can bring out real smiles. Let tweens and teens be themselves.

Tweens and teens are notorious for not wanting to smile. Ask another sibling to say something funny or ask their parents to remind them of an inside joke. If they aren’t willing to smile despite all of your attempts, it’s okay. Take some photos of them with serious expressions.

Sometimes, the serious photos are more striking than smiling ones. Reassure them that they don’t have to smile if they don’t want to. Letting them know that they have an option makes them active participants in the session and gives them the green light to also make suggestions.

Don’t be afraid to reschedule

If you feel like you are trying everything in your power to turn the session into a positive experience but it just isn’t happening, there is always the option of rescheduling the session. This can give both your clients and yourself a break so that you can attempt the session at a different location and perhaps at a different time when the children are feeling more awake and energized.

Surviving portrait sessions with difficult children

The left photo is at the beginning of the session and the younger girl didn’t want to participate. The right is at the end when I connected with her talking about her favorite show and she smiled.

It is very important during the session, however difficult, to keep calm and reassure the parents that their children are doing great. This helps to keep the stress levels down and even if you offer to reschedule, do it in a positive tone.

For example, “We got some great shots and everyone looks great, however, I think if we reschedule for a different time, we can get better photos.”

Family portraits tips with children - How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

Sometimes grouping the older siblings first can help the younger children to go along with the photo session.

Always keep the photos from the original session, you might have taken some really great photos before a meltdown. Sending a preview to the family will keep their confidence up and not leave them feeling like they didn’t do a great job. Instead, they’ll be eager for the rescheduled session to get even more great photos.

Conclusion

Portrait session with difficult children tips

Exploring and letting children get a little dirty or messy can help them stay in the moment of the session.

When you specialize in portraiture, having non-cooperative children at the sessions is inevitable. However, these tips will help you to smooth out tantrums and give your clients the best experience. That is what will keep them coming back to you.

Remember, you don’t have to force it and a quick reschedule can sometimes do the trick. Let me know if you’ve tried any of these tips or have found them useful.

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6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

22 Oct

Images of your children are probably THE most important images you will ever make, even if it doesn’t feel like it. But for the longest time what I did was make very superficial images of my kids, until I started applying a few of the tips below. Follow along to get more intimate and expressive images of your children too.