This will often require shooting a lot of frames and it may
inhibit your lighting setup. Available light is often best
with these active subjects.
Older Children.With older children the best way to
elicit a natural pose is simply to talk to them. Kids are to-
tally uninhibited and will talk to you about anything
under the sun. Good topics involve your surroundings, if
you are working outdoors, for example. Or you can talk
about them—their interests, brothers and sisters, pets,
and so on. While it is not necessary to talk all the time, be
aware that silence can be a mood killer and may lead to
self-consciousness. Try to pace the conversation so that
you are both engaging and yet free to set up the techni-
cal details of the photo.
Kids also like being treated like as equals. They don’t
like being talked down to and they value the truth.
Be honest about what you expect of the child and get
them involved in the process of making the picture.
You can even try asking them how they would like to be
photographed—kids like to be asked their opinion and
they might just come up with a great idea.
With children, it is a good idea to size up personali-
ties—just as you would with an adult. A good plan is to
ask children about their favorite thing to do, then watch
how they react when they start to think about it. If a child
is on the quiet side, any kind of wild, exaggerated behav-
ior might send him screaming. In this case, try a quiet
story and some low-key talking. With very shy children,
you may even have to stay in the background and let the
parent direct their child, following your instructions. In
these situations, you might want to use a longer lens and
back off so that you are not part of the interaction.
Well-known portrait photographer Frank Frost thinks
that kids are too sharp to have anything pulled over on
them. Before he starts a photo session, Frost gets down
on the floor and visits with the child. He always uses an
assistant, noting that he doesn’t see how it’s possible to
get great expressions from children and babiesandhan-60 CHILDREN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY HANDBOOK
When you are photographing a child
and his pet, very little needs to be
done to elicit priceless expressions.
Photograph by Kersti Malvre. The
image was softened and given a
unique edge treatment in Photoshop.