Photo by Africa Studio via Shutterstock
Whether you are a professional portrait photographer or a loving parent who wants to take better photos of your children, this article is for you. In this child portrait photography guide, we’ll share five photography tips to help achieve better results. Now, without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
Check out the video above by Tony & Chelsea Northrup for a quick tutorial on how to photograph kids, babies, and children.
Table of Contents
- Child Portrait Photography Requires You to Connect With Your Subject
- Choose the Right Location for Child Portrait Photography
- Child Portrait Photography Composition and Posing Tips
- Capture Authentic Moments
- Provide Beautiful Print Options for Child Portrait Photography
Child Portrait Photography Requires You to Connect With Your Subject
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Whenever you shoot portraits, you always want to try and connect with your subjects in one way or another to capture successful pictures. That said, connecting with subjects is especially important when working with children. This is because most children are naturally more shy and reserved than adults.
The best way to connect with child subjects is to try and build rapport with them before starting the photo shoot. Children who trust you and feel comfortable around you are likelier to be themselves during the shoot and convey genuine expressions and emotions. Here are a few tips on how to build rapport with children.
- Smile, be friendly, and embrace your inner child.
- Be patient with children and let them be themselves.
- Ditch your usual pose guide and get silly and creative.
- Always use positive reinforcement with children.
- Bring props and toys kids can use during the photo shoot.
Choose the Right Location for Child Portrait Photography
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Where you shoot child portrait photography will greatly impact the final results. We highly recommend speaking with the parents as much as possible before a photo shoot to know exactly what type of images they want. If you are on the same page as the parents from the get-go, your life will be much easier on photoshoot day.
The three most common locations for child portraits are natural environments, photography studios, and indoor spaces. Each one creates a drastically different mood and will affect how you work as a digital storyteller. Let’s examine each one a bit closer.
Outdoor child portrait photography emphasizes the background and surroundings of children and is ideal for seasonal photo shoots. Studio child portrait photography is more formal and a good option for school and family portraits. Lastly, indoor child portrait photography usually occurs in the child’s home and is good for lifestyle photography and photo cards.
Child Portrait Photography Composition and Posing Tips
Photo by Africa Studio via Shutterstock
As always, composition plays a key role in child portrait photography. If you don’t compose your portraits well, your clients will be unhappy, and your child photography business will suffer. The easiest way to capture visually appealing portraits is to use the rule of thirds. Simply following this basic principle of composition will instantly improve your results!
Once you’ve mastered the rule of thirds, you can get more creative with composition. Experimenting with photography techniques like filling the frame, leading lines, negative space, and angles/perspectives can lead to gorgeous child portraits.
Posing for child portrait photography can be tricky, and your approach will vary depending on each child’s age and personality. For example, we often ignore poses entirely with babies and super young children. If you are shooting kids a little older, we will try to organically incorporate poses into the photo shoot every once in a while. Here’s a list of good poses for children.
- Active poses (running, jumping, playing, reading, etc.)
- Laying down on their stomach
- Posing with parents, pets, and props
- Over the shoulder
- Headshots
Capture Authentic Moments
Photo by Volodymyr TVERDOKHLIB via Shutterstock
Now that we have just finished telling you about poses, we want to reemphasize the importance of capturing real, authentic moments in child portrait photography. Part of the fun of working with and photographing kids is their unpredictability, and embracing this spontaneity is a must for all child portrait photographers.
Likewise, you must learn to be patient. No matter how much you plan, things will inevitably change when shooting children. Accepting this, being patient, and going with the flow will lead to better photos and is the only way to avoid going crazy, haha.
Additionally, you must always have your camera ready to shoot. You never know when a child will do something unexpected, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to capture that candid moment. We suggest adjusting your camera settings for child portrait photography to continuous shooting mode and autofocus.
Provide Beautiful Print Options for Child Portrait Photography
Photo by Alena Ozerova via Shutterstock
Finally, you want to choose a print option that properly does justice to your child portraits. One medium we love is metal prints. They enhance colors and contrast while simultaneously providing unmatched durability, so they will be safe even with little kids running around the house!
An excellent resource for customizing and ordering metal prints is Large Metal Prints. They are a premium online print shop focusing exclusively on beautiful metal prints. Moreover, their prints come in many shapes and sizes, have different finishes, and are affordable. Check out the links below to browse their most popular photography products.
- Metal Print Only
- Metal Print with Hanger
- Metal Print with Gallery Mount
- Metal Print with Euro Frame
- Metal Print with Shadow Frame
Just so you know, some of the cool stuff we mention comes with affiliate links, meaning we earn a commission if you buy (no extra charge to you!). Plus, we occasionally feature sponsored content, but rest assured, we only shout out products we genuinely stand behind.
