8 Tips for Photographing Children

A Post By: Dawn Bell

Children’s expressions are genuine; they love to live life with passion and abound in energy. When they are happy, their laughter and joy is infectious. They can be the best subjects of all – busy, happy, playful and real. If you’ve ever tried to take photos of kids who were not so crazy about having a camera in their face, you also know that while they are all these wonderful qualities, they can also be difficult and may require a little more planning for a smooth session.

These organizational tips for photographing children will help you prepare yourself for some extended camera time with a child – whether you are a professional photographer prepping for a session with an advanced DSLR, or a parent with a simple point-and-shoot wanting to get some nice shots of your young children.

1. Timing and location

Time of day is really important. A photo session generally works best after a nap and snack when the child is the happiest. Also something to keep in mind is harsh light. Outdoors at midday when the sun is bright and strong is not ideal for photography.

A close second for importance is location. Outside is optimal and allows for lots of space to move around, but if you would prefer indoors (or it’s -40), make sure you have adequate space.

2. Be prepared

Both you and the little ones want this to go as fast as possible. If you waste too much time floundering around when you could be shooting, children get bored, antsy and quickly lose interest. Make a flexible plan and be prepared before you bring in the child. Have your camera (charged battery, lots of room on a memory card, check your settings) and props ready (hide any toys where they can be easily accessed and only bring them out if or when they are needed). If you are using various backgrounds, know ahead of time the order you would like them in, and make sure they are ready to go.

3. Make a list

Make yourself a list of potential non-posed shots such as: sitting, standing, laying down, playing, running, etc. – your child will not pose the same as the kids in Pinterest photos – and you don’t want them to. Look for ideas and themes, but don’t expect those exact poses. You want the picture to express who they are. Include activities that you have ready, as well as some back-ups such as snacks or a phone. Get any electronics you use to entertain them ready beforehand – their favorite Netflix episode ready-to-go, or an upbeat song already opened in iTunes just waiting for you to click play – however, these should only be options when you are desperate and have tried everything else. Be flexible with your list and ready to throw it out if needed.

4. Get reinforcements

If possible, get some help. Ask your helper to stand directly behind you at first, not to the side – you want to try and get some pictures where the child’s eyes connect with the camera. For little ones your helper can plop them on a chair and quickly move away, while you wait ready with your finger on the shutter – you might only have two seconds to get the shot. Choose someone who can get them smiling and laughing. They will also help you keep your sanity when photographing your own kids.

5. Start with poses

Take the most posed, formal, look-at-the-camera pictures first. For example, a sibling shot where you want them all looking at the camera and smiling. You still might not get it, but this is where you have a chance.

6. Limit movement

Limit their movement at the start: A chair, stool, couch, basket, swing, etc. Just be flexible and don’t force it – a picture somewhere else is better than a red, blotchy, crying face. I will sometimes keep a chair or prop hidden until it’s time to use it. Stick a fun chair down where you want them to be, and see if they naturally head over there to explore. You might get lucky and have them crawl up there on their own. But they might not want to sit on the chair at all – move on, or let them stand holding onto it, or sit on the floor next to it. Come back later if you feel they are not ready. If not, just ditch it. You might have lots of ideas and only actually use a few of them.

7. Let them play

Let them play after you have tried the formal, posed shots. Don’t try too much posing or force them to sit still; you are in for a battle, and they will likely win. Consider centering the rest of the session around an activity they enjoy, or a new one that you think might be a hit – in the yard with the sprinkler, at the park on the slides, walking along the beach to collect shells and go adventuring, tea party outside, flying a kite, jumping on the trampoline, bucket full of soapy water on the grass, etc. Music can also be helpful – a fun little dance party, maybe? Unless you have a kid that really likes to run far away, outside is an excellent option – kids love to have room to move around, and a big space affords more options.

8. Relax

Take a deep breath and relax! Kids can sense your stress, and it transfers onto them (and usually makes them do the opposite of what you want).

Do you have any other tips for photography children? Please share in the comments below.

Dawn Bell is a family, child, and wedding photographer in Manitoba, Canada. Her absolute favorite subjects are children - there is nothing quite like the expressions and giggles that naturally tumble out of them! She is also a pastor’s wife and mom to two beautiful girls. To see more of her work, you can check out her website and Facebook page. For some behind-the-scenes and glimpses of her personal life, you can also find her on Instagram.

Photography: Understanding the HSL Panel in Lightroom for Beginners

A Post By: Adam Welch

There are many things involved in post-processing an image, that might seem a little bit daunting at first. That doesn’t mean that they are difficult to learn, or hard to understand. The HSL panel in Adobe Lightroom (or similar editing software that uses Adobe Camera Raw), tends to bring about feelings of anxiety, when it comes to making sense of all those sliders. Some photographers choose to pretend it doesn’t even exist, just because it looks a little complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Simply put, those three little letters stand for Hue-Saturation-Luminance. What makes the HSL panel so powerful, is that it allows you to control different colors independently. HSL adjustments will enable you to brighten, or emphasize specific saturations, and control the hue of only certain colors. Like working with black and white? Then you should definitely make use of the HSL panel, and take your black and white conversions to a whole new level. Let’s get started!

We’ve already talked about what the letter HSL stand for, so now let’s break it down, so that you will really understand how each one affects your image.

H – What is hue?

Admittedly, trying to discern the functional difference between the words hue and color, can form a little bit of a gray area (haha color humor). But generally, we think of hue in terms of the shade of a color on a gradient and is dependant on the wavelength of the light reflected. Don’t worry, that’s about as scientific as we will get.

Let’s say that I see a flower out in a field. The flower has beautiful yellow petals. What shade of yellow are the petals? Are they actually yellow, or are they maybe a dark yellow with a little bit of orange? Maybe a brighter, more greenish yellow? This subtle gradient of color is what we might describe as hue, and it varies infinitely across the color wheel. Controlling the hue of the colors in your image is a great way to bring realism to your photo, or even depart from it usingpsychedelic alternatives to the actual colors within the scene.

S – What is saturation?

Saturation is much simpler to comprehend. When we talk about saturation, we are referring to the intensity of a color. Saturation can play a central role in controlling the mood of a photograph. Highly saturated colors generally convey brighter emotions, whereas muted, desaturated color can lend a sense of brooding or sadness. What the HSL panel allows you to do is control the saturation of only the colors you choose, which will really expand your creative range.

L – What is luminance?

This may very well be the most easy part about HSL to understand, and requires the least amount of explaining. Luminance is simply the reflective brightness of colors. It is extremely useful when there are certain colors within the image that you feel should be either darker, or brighter. This comes in handy, especially when working with black and white images (converted from color), but more on that in just a moment.

There are a couple of ways to configure the HSL panel, but I prefer to leave each adjustment section open while I work. True, it takes up a fair amount of space in the develop module, but it also let’s me make quick adjustments as I go without switching back and forth between the dedicated hue, saturation, and luminance panels.

Adjusting specific saturations:

Let’s say you have an image that you want to bring out only certain colors. You can do this by using the saturation slider. An easy way to select the color you want to adjust, is by using the color picker. It eliminates the guesswork of deciding what color is actually which. In this case I want to increase the saturation, brightness, and hue of the leaves, without affecting the blues of the background.

Find the saturation section of the HSL panel, and select the picker tool (see red arrow below to locate it).

Hover over the color you want to saturate or desaturate. Notice that this will subtly highlight the corresponding color values in the saturation section of the HSL panel. Then simply click and hold while you drag up or down.

The change here is barely perceptible for the time being, but after some more adjustments, it will be obvious.

Adjusting specific luminance:

Next, we will make the leaves a little bit brighter, so that they stand out from the blue background even more. They mainly consist of oranges and yellows. Go to the luminance section, and again select the color picker tool. This time it will control the brightness of the selected color.

Click and drag (up to lighten, down to darken).

Adjusting specific hues:

I like saving the hue adjustments for last, because it’s easier (for me at least) to decide the final color tone, after it has reached the desired brightness and saturation. For this picture, I want to make the leaves more orange than yellow in hue. As above, locate the hue adjustment section and the color picker and then…you guessed it, click and drag.

After you finish, make sure to go back and perform any fine tuning using the sliders, in order to get everything just right.

Before adjustments

After – final image

HSL with Black and White:

When it comes to black and white, the HSL panel can work wonders. Of course, seeing as the image is black and white, there won’t be any effect on the hue or saturation of the colors. Rather, Lightroom gives you a completely different set of controls, which is virtually a stand-alone luminance adjustment panel.

Even though you are working with a monochromatic image, the color information is still stored, so the program knows what color was there, before the conversion to black and white. Keep in mind, this does not apply to images shot in non-RAW format (like JPG) using your camera’s black and white setting, or images which you previously converted to grayscale in Photoshop. Doing so removes all the color information from the image file, making the option for working with individual color luminance in Lightroom unavailable.

By being able to selectively adjust the brightness of each color, you will now be possible to adjust the luminance of your black and whites very creatively. This way, you can really control the contrast and mood of your image much better and easier. Adjusting the luminance of certain colors, within a converted black and white image, can drastically change the way the photo appears to the viewer. Here is color image after being converted to black and white.

Here you see the same image, after some selective adjustments in the black and white section of the HSL panel.

Working with the HSL panel may look overwhelming, but once you understand how each adjustment affects your photo, it becomes a lot less scary. By being able to adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance of colors, independently of one another, will allow to take a huge amount of creative control over your post-processing. Don’t be reluctant to experiment with HSL and have fun with your photography!

Have you used the HSL panel before? What other tips or tricks to you have for using it? Please share in the comments below.

How to Find Inspiration Photographing Locations Near Home

A Post By: Leanne Cole

Everywhere you look there are thousands of images depicting beautiful places in the world. How many times have you thought to yourself, “I wish I could travel so I could take the same photographs?” The reality is that most of those photos were taken by people who live close to the locations, or have the ability to travel there multiple times.

It is a statement that you hear from many photographers. It may be true, but the truth is most of us live in wonderfully rich photographic areas. The problem is that you see it every day, so it no longer seems interesting.

Knowing that a storm is coming, then being able to get to a good location quickly, is an advantage when you photograph near where you live.

What would you recommend to a visitor:

If another photographer was coming to your area and wanted to know places to go, what would you recommend? Think about what someone else might be interested in, that is a way you can photograph it. Try to look at your area from another point of view.

Also read :Tips for Minimizing Reflections When Photographing Through Windows

How to find something to shoot:

There has to be something unique or different about where you are located. Look at the history of your town or area. See if you can find out about an event that happened where you can visit the place. Use the history as your motivation for photography. Google the area around you, and see what you can find.

Think about interesting buildings, ones that are abandoned or still in use. There may be some interesting landmarks that can help tell a story. Perhaps there was an industry there that no longer exists.

For example, suppose in your area the local hospital started as a home for incurables. Then the land was given to the city for a permanent hospital. How has that hospital shaped the town? Is the original hospital still there? Has the hospital gone, but now something else is in its place?

There is always the possibility that nothing has ever happened. Maybe your location is devoid of that, and in which case you could photograph the normality of it. What makes it boring? What does the main street look like? Is there anything interesting there at all? There will always be something.

An older part of the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg.

How far are you willing to travel?

Mark a circle on a map of where you would be willing to travel to in a day. For instance, you might be prepared to travel at least two hours to get somewhere. Perhaps time isn’t on your side, and you can only travel 15 minutes in any direction. That becomes your zone, and the area you are going to photograph.

My area is two hours, or around that. I will travel somewhere for the day and take photos. I will go back to the same areas. There is a lot that is within that area near where I live.

Find the story:

Perhaps instead of finding individual images of the place you might be better off trying to do a whole story on it. Find the story of the area. What makes it important to the people who live there? Why have they stayed? Why do you live there?

The answers to all these questions will help you find the story, and can inform your photography.

An old car left to rust in the Mallee.

Advantages:

When you photograph where you live, you have nothing but all the advantages:

1 : You can take photos at the best time of day:

One definite advantage you have over visitors to your area, is that you can work out when the best time to photograph that spot. Then, you can go back as many times as you need.

If it is very close, you can get up early and see if it is worthwhile going there for a sunrise. Perhaps in the afternoon you can see if there are clouds in the sky, which might make it a good opportunity to get a sunset. You will be able to look out the window and figure out when you want to go.

Most people have to hope that the one time they go, the conditions will be perfect for what they want to photograph. You know how often that happens.

Getting sunrises is easier when you can wake up and go down the road to capture it.

2 : Visiting the location multiple times:

How often have you gone somewhere, put your photos on the computer when you got home and thought, “I wish I had noticed that tree” or something else on the side of the image? Maybe you wished you could have taken it at a different angle.

If you live there, that will never be a problem for you again. You can visit that spot as many times as you like, to get exactly the photos that you want.

Old towns can have great buildings that have just been left, like an old shearing shed make from kerosene tins.

3 : Experiment with different techniques:

You can try a lot different techniques to take photos. You can go home and see what you have, then go back and experiment with other angles or conditions another time. You can try more experimental types of photography, that other people who only have one opportunity to go there, might not want to try.

Every time you go, try to shoot it that spot a different way.

Sunset over a salt pan in the Mallee. Being able to get back to the same spot to get the best photos is a bonus.

4 : Have access to local knowledge

Visiting any places where you might only go once, you have to be content with information from the internet, or with what you see when you get there. However, when you live in an area, you can talk to people you know, who may be able to introduce you to others. If they know you are interested in the local area and taking photos, then you might find people coming to you, to tell you about places that you didn’t know existed.

Disadvantages:

Are there really any disadvantages? Perhaps the fact that you aren’t going anywhere exotic to take photos, unless you already live somewhere like that.

When you decide to photograph the area you live in, you get all the advantages that so many others don’t have for that place. It is up to you to make the most of it. Some examples:

A Mallee Town of not much consequence:

Take a small town in North West Victoria (Australia) where my mother lives. I go up there to visit all the time. According to the locals there is nothing there. But when I drive around, I see shops that are now empty, or a train station that has closed, and stopped being used many years ago. There are things that give hints to a time past, that was industrious. The town had a past where it was bigger, where those stores were open for business.

It would be easy to agree with the locals that there is nothing there, but that would be a mistake. The story is there in those closed buildings and what is left of the town. As a photographer you can then show what is happening there.

Getting to know locals in towns can give you access to buildings, like this old church in a Mallee town.

Finding the history of where you live:

For many years I always travelled to other places, in the city, or in the state of Victoria, to take photos because I was convinced that what was around me was boring. Who would be interested in what’s here?

I started to realize that this area has a rich art history. Some famous Australian artists have painted this area, and perhaps that was where I needed to start looking. Once I started looking with different eyes, a lot of new places started to open up to me. This area has some great parks. It is quite old so there are ancient homes, hospitals, cemeteries. Now I photograph it all the time.

Knowing the local train station and timetable, can be great for getting to the station at a good time to take photos.:

When you photograph somewhere you live or a place you travel to often, you really get so many wonderful opportunities.

Many photographers dream of travelling to other places and photographing the world, but sometimes your best subject is right outside your door or within a stone’s throw of where you live. You just need to get out there and see what you can find.

What would you recommend to photograph in your area for someone who was visiting it for the first? Please share your local photography finds and your images in the comments below.