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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.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

1 – Ditch your portrait lens

The first thing to do, weirdly enough, if you have a go-to portrait lens that you use to photograph your family – is to ditch it. The reason is simple. Most of the time when we think of images of our children, we immediately think portraits.

I have nothing against portraits (there are a few on this page), but there’s more to your child than their portraits. At the end of the day, it’s really not about portraits, posing, making them pretty/handsome in the image, it’s about capturing snippets your child’s life as a whole.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

2 – Have a camera with you always

Life goes on whether you are ready to shoot it or not. One of the things I recommend is to get a small pocket camera that goes everywhere with you. Photographs present themselves

Photographs present themselves whether you have one with you or not, so having a small camera makes you ready for any situation. And let’s face it when you have enough bags (diapers, snacks, etc.) as-is you REALLY don’t want to be lugging around your DSLR.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Great images can be made while going to the grocery store, at the wee hours of the morning, or just going to the park. In other words, when you least expect them. Like one time we had to call 911, my camera was with me. That is one of the times when you NEED your camera, it allows you to be present in the moment and yet detached enough not to lose your mind.

But besides those stressful times, the best images of my kids have been made when I least expected them.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

3 – Think in terms of LIFE

In order to make more intimate photographs of your kids, you need a mindset for it. Here is the question to ask yourself: “What are the images that only I could make?”

Imagine you just hired someone for a family shoot, what are the types of images that the hired photographer can’t get? If you think about it, these are the most intimate moments. Ones that can only be made in the process of living life itself.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Photos of the kids sleeping peacefully, or that time where one was crying their eyeballs out…or when they finally scored a goal. It’s all about trying to find the majesty in the mundane parts of life when there are no special vacations planned, just plain old LIFE. Here are a few ideas to get your mind working:

Kids while playing
Kids recovering from sickness
When they are sad
When they are happy
While they are sleeping
What they look like right after waking up
Unwrapping a toy
Them being amazed at something

It’s all about photographing them while they are living their life. Capturing moments of intimacy that only YOU could capture because no one else is capable of getting that close to them.

The other part of the equation is to photograph your kids in this way as if you are doing a fine art project. That will help your mind find images that are not only intimate to you but also have inherent artistic value to them. Make art out of your family images.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Why? Because between you and me, great photography outside of the home starts inside the home. So give your family photography the star treatment, and trust me, at the end of the day these images will have more value and be more meaningful to you than any other photographs you have created.

I would know, I once completely lost my hard drive. I was on the bed, tripped on the wire and BAM! Lost everything. I believed my best images were those of my street photography, that simply was not the case. I didn’t care at all about those images, all I wanted was to get my son’s birth pictures back. The hard drive is somewhere in storage, but I don’t know if I can ever recover the images.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

4 – Shoot for your eyes only

One way to make more personal images of your kids is to make photos that you will never show anyone. Images of their first shower, on the potty by themselves, you get the point. Of course, you will NEVER show them to anyone else ever, but it starts training your mind that not every image needs to be shared or have external thumbs up to be meaningful to you.

So start making the kinds of images you know will never be seen by any other set of eyes, maybe theirs when they grow up. If they are nice that is!

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

5 – How to get them to be REAL

Let’s face it, when you deal with kids and children, they have already been spoiled rotten by the camera. You just point your camera towards them and you will hear “chhhhhheeeeeeese” with a fake smile to boot. That will only lead to uncomfortable looking kids in your images. So what do you do? Simple – you fake it.

Kids are themselves right before and right after you take the photo. So you either have to be quick and take the image BEFORE they start putting on their picture face. Or you have to do so after.

If your camera makes a CLICK sound, just wait for it, and say “Okay, done!” and about half a second later take another image. That one is always better because that’s when the kids let their guard down.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Also sometimes it’s better to do two images, one for you and one more for them. For example, I like dark, moody, pensive images. My first son is all about smiles, fun, and giggles.

So sometimes what I do is direct him to make the image I have in my mind. Then once I have done that, I just tell him to do whatever he wants, and I usually end up with a grimace and shoot that. The first image would be more of a reflection of me and the second is more of a reflection of him. It’s win-win in my book.

6 – Give them the greatest gift ever

Imagine this: Your son (or daughter) is getting married. It’s your turn to make a speech. You can’t contain your emotions, and you want to cry. Yet you muster up the courage to give the speech and all of a sudden you take hold of the remote control and start a slideshow for everyone to see. It’s your son, his baby pictures, that time he was 6 and lost his tooth, times of sadness, happiness, and more.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Make a photo project out of your children’s lives. And when it’s time…give them a book with the best images you’ve ever made of them. I think the greatest gift you can give them – besides the basics, like character – is an album of their life.

How important is this? Very! I can’t show my kids any photos of myself growing up. All of those images were lost to an earthquake that happened in Haiti a few years back. I can’t show them when I was sleeping with some spaghetti in my mouth, or my first tooth falling out.

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

I think it makes it easier for our kids to relate to us when we can show them we were kids too. My kids? I’ll make sure each one gets an album of their life when the time is right…if they don’t make me lose my mind first that is!

6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children

Conclusion

Your most important work as a photographer is family work. It may not feel like it now, but don’t wait until a hard drive crash to figure it out. Always have your camera at the ready and photograph their life as it happens.

When it’s time you will have a collection of impactful images you can give them and they, in turn, can share with their family. Be yourself, stay focused and keep on shooting.

The post 6 Simple Tips to Capture More Expressive Images of Your Children by Olivier Duong appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Scratching the Surface: Expressive Portraits Chip Away at City Walls

08 Sep

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

vhils scratched mural 10

Set in neglected parts of the city, scratched into deteriorating surfaces, expressive portraits loom large, often created with nothing more than a chisel. Alexandre Farto, better known as Vhils, creates art through destruction in a process some might consider vandalism – but this is street art, so what else is new? Vhils first caught the public eye when one of his portraits appeared beside a work by Banksy at London’s Cans Festival in 2008, and since then, he’s been taking his work to the next level.

vhils scratched mural 1

vhils scratched mural 2

The portraits splash the faces of anonymous city residents onto concrete, brick, plaster and other surfaces on buildings and walls throughout the world, particularly in the artist’s home city of Lisbon, Portugal. Nobody else is creating large-scale urban artwork quite like this.

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The process literally cuts through the outermost layers of wall surface, often utilizing scraps of faded billboards to provide contrast with the rougher surfaces hidden underneath. Sometimes, a little bit of paint is strategically used to highlight the image. Some of the works are even applied on top of much older murals completed way back in the ‘70s and ‘80s after the Carnation Revolution, as if the remains of the older ones are fertilizing new growth.

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“As a kid, I remember seeing how these murals would peel,” says Vhils in an interview with The Atlantic. “I started thinking about how my work could use the layers of the past to reflect the city, to show people living in it and how their identity was lost, or forgotten. I started to paint these billboards white, then carve away the negative spaces. It’s not illegal, because that sort of advertising was illegal already. Carving these walls, peeling away these layers, it’s like contemporary archaeology.”

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Vhils divides the images into three colors to create a three-dimensional effect, scratching out the darkest parts of the portraits and highlighting the lightest. Electric drills and chisels make the process easier on hard walls, and in one extreme example, the artist even used explosives to break away some of the plaster, capturing the process for a music video called M.I.R.I.A.M. Follow Vhils on Instagram to catch his latest works.

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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26 Expressive Images of Hands

19 Sep

It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul, but hands can be very expressive as well.

Let’s take a look at this set of images of different hands and see what they say, what story do they each tell?

Victoria Bjorkman

By Victoria Bjorkman

Khadija Dawn Carryl

By Khadija Dawn Carryl

Peter Lee

By Peter Lee

Alex Berger

By Alex Berger

Bill Gracey

By Bill Gracey

Riccardo Romano

By Riccardo Romano

Jun Aviles

By Jun Aviles

Craig Sunter

By Craig Sunter

Le Vent Le Cri

By le vent le cri

Jonathan Kos-Read

By Jonathan Kos-Read

Marjan Lazarevski

By Marjan Lazarevski

Toni Blay

By Toni Blay

Son Of Groucho

By Son of Groucho

Rob.

By Rob.

Kasia

By Kasia

Victor Bezrukov

By Victor Bezrukov

Chiara Cremaschi

By Chiara Cremaschi

ArTeTeTrA

By ArTeTeTrA

Mark Spearman

By Mark Spearman

Hamed Parham

By Hamed Parham

Serge Klk

By Serge klk

Jason Devaun

By Jason Devaun

Thomas Szynkiewicz

By Thomas Szynkiewicz

Strep72

By Strep72

Toru Watanabe

By Toru Watanabe

Ricardo Machado

By Ricardo Machado

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The post 26 Expressive Images of Hands by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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5 Simple Ways to Create Expressive Photos in Black and White

14 Aug

Can you visualize the world around you in black and white? It’s not easy to do at first with an array bright colors competing for your attention. Look a little closer however, and you may recognize the broad potential for expressive imagery. Of course, not every situation lends itself to this artistic style. There are however, certain characteristics you can look for, to identify the best opportunities.

1) Embrace High Contrast

A subject with dark shadows and bright highlights would not be ideal for a color photograph. In fact, it’s one of the reasons techniques like HDR have become so popular. Yet, for black and white photography, this type of high contrast light can be extremely effective. The harsh mid-afternoon sun is no longer a detriment, but an enhancement. This is a major shift in the way one thinks about exposure. To help recognize these chances, look beyond what is immediately evident and pre-visualize the scene in grayscale. A scene you passed on, in color may prove quite dramatic in black and white.

As is always the case in all good art, rules are meant to be broken. The same is true with black and white exposures. You have even more flexibility as shadows can be inky black, and highlights can clip the histogram while retaining the image’s visual appeal. To maximize the dynamic range of the camera, use the “ETTR” technique (expose to the right). Rather than a muddy exposure, you’ll enjoy the crisp contrast of the full tonal range.

2) Simplify with Shape and Form

In the absence of color, shapes and patterns become more pronounced. Lighter tones will stand out boldly when placed in front of a darker area. This is an effective way emphasize the important parts of a subject while minimizing distractions. To compose this way, think about the process of subtraction. What can you remove from the image that’s not essential to the story? As you simplify, the design of the photo will get stronger.

Even something as simple as a shadow on the ground can be used creatively. To the human eye, detail is evident in the pavement, but with a camera they can be rendered as inky black. This may be a very different style of seeing for you. To practice, I recommend taking a photo hike in which you search for nothing but shadows. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many interesting shots you’ll find.

3) Details Tell a Story

It’s been said that a person’s eyes are the windows to their soul. Their character however, can often be revealed in their hands. In black and white, the subtle details that often go unnoticed become more evident. Wrinkles and texture, for example, benefit from a deeper more textured appearance. This method is especially effective when using flat or overhead light. Typically this direct light would be undesirable, but in grayscale it can be preferable to that of a softer, diffused quality light.

4) Imagine a Mood

Blue skies are often used to symbolize happiness. You’ll see this pattern in magazine ads, television commercials, and even movies. Black and white images however, are associated with a different variety of moods. The precise emotion is ultimately up to the viewer, but a few common themes include solitude, contemplation, and pensiveness. Photographers of all genres can work with these traits to effectively portray their vision.

Use your imagination to visualize the mood you want an image to have. A great place to start is to study some of the masters. While Ansel Adams’ landscapes in black and white are very well known, go further in your research. For example, look at the emotion in Edward Weston’s famous “Pepper No. 30”. Another fine representation of this medium is “White Sands, New Mexico” by Ernst Haas. Of course the list goes on, but these are a good place to start. A visit to a local library will undoubtedly prove inspirational as you may discover work by artists you are not yet familiar with.

5) Dark Spaces and Silhouettes

Subjects that linger in darkness are sometimes more compelling than well-lit scenes. Using black and white photography, you have the ability to show the world in a completely different way. Instead of eliminating the shadowy areas, use them to your advantage. An empty space can actually be an effective method of composition. This type of artistic exposure is more edgy than a literal interpretation.

Take a look through your own catalog of images. There will likely be a number of photos that could be quite dramatic as a black and white. As you convert them from color, experiment with different post production filters to see how it impacts the scene. For example, a blue filter may lighten the sky dramatically, whereas a yellow filter will make it darker. If you’re looking for even greater control, there are a number of excellent plugins available. One of my favorites is Exposure by Alien Skin as it offers nearly endless customization. More terrific options include software by Nik, Topaz, and OnOne.

Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a week full of features on black and white photography. Look for another one later today and daily over the next week.

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The post 5 Simple Ways to Create Expressive Photos in Black and White by Chris Corradino appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How Capturing Expressive Eyes Can Be The Key To Good Portraiture

13 Aug

Paul Kostabi

If you look at some of the most famous photographs in history, such as Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, Steve McCurry’s Afghan Girl, or much of Irving Penn’s work, you might notice there’s one thing that they have in common, a powerful emotion in the main subject’s eyes.

While this is far from a steadfast rule, if you’re doing portraiture, street photography, or photojournalism, catching a powerful expression in the eyes can be the difference between a mediocre photograph and the best photo you’ve ever taken.

If you watch a person’s eyes and wait, you can see when they are experiencing something, recalling a moment, or feeling an emotion. That sometimes split second is when you need to take the shot. You can create an amazing composition with gorgeous lighting, but if there is no expression coming through from the subject then the photograph will be lacking. And that expression often begins with the eyes.

It could be a fleeting glance away from the camera as the subject recalls a story or a powerful gaze into the camera. A momentary glance from the eyes can portray strength, fear, romance, nostalgia, confidence, glamour, and so many other emotions.

A good trick to elicit these emotions is to get the subject talking about a meaningful moment in their lives. The more time you are able to spend with them, the more they will open up and the more opportunities you will have to capture these emotions. Or with some, you can even simply state the emotion and they will be able to portray it (“Give me confidence!”)

So the next time you create a portrait, make sure to pay special attention to the eyes.

Pushups, Rucker Park

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How Capturing Expressive Eyes Can Be The Key To Good Portraiture

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Backlit Photography 101: Secrets of Expressive Backlit Portraits

08 May

Do you want to avoid an overworked edit in order to obtain golden portraits with sunrays and lens flares? Shooting against the sun is challenging, however three factors and a bit of practice can easily transform your backlit photography. One of the leading rules in elementary photography is to avoid shooting against the sun. Usually you will end up with Continue Reading

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