Children's portrait photography

All kinds of models come into the studio for photoshoots, but this was definitely one of the younger ones! Easton is only four years old, but is already a great model with loads of personality and he knows how to pose too. Easton, and his mum, came in for a portfolio shoot recently and it was a lot of fun. Photographing children can be a challenge, but Easton was a brilliant little model and the photos are great.

However, when you're shooting children, there are a few things to keep in mind...

Safety first! It can be very easy to trip in a studio with all the lights and the wires all over the place, so it's really important that the studio is set up so that nothing can come crashing down. I tend to pull the lights much further back then I would for an adult's photoshoot. Fortunately, the clear smooth skin of children means that you can get away with this without affecting the image too much.

Shoot fast! If I'm doing a modelling photoshoot, the model may need to pose for hours on end, but that's not going to work with children who get distracted much quicker! When shooting youngsters, I'll always try and have the studio and the lights set up before our young subject even gets there to move things along as fast as possible, and then shoot for no more than around 20 minutes before breaking for a rest.

Improvise! Small children won't follow your instructions for very long, so grab the shots as they happen rather than trying to do a stilted, posed shot.

Make it fun! If your little model isn't having a good time, then it'll show in the final photographs, so make sure it's fun!

I'll go into the technical details about the best way to shoot children (the lighting, the best camera settings to use, etc.) in another blog post soon.

Cheers,
matt g