Kids, Kids, Kids & Portraits (Help)

[Curby]

I have a 10 year old daughter & a 3 1/2 year old daughter and I'll be darned if I can keep their attention for more than 30 seconds for a quality photo. Turned heads, running away, frowns, gritting teeth, how do you keep the attention of a child for a quality sit down portrait?
Any tips?
Thanks
________
Curby

[Trav]

It's VERY difficult! I just had a similar experience when I wanted to shoot some pictures of my 10 month old son and two other kids at our local botanical center for Easter. First of all, it was hot in there (tropical climate) so that didn't help. Then each kid wanted to do something different.

My son has been quite used to his picture taken from birth, so he normally has no problem doing cool stuff for me when I take pictures of him. The other kids, however, would not sit still for a second (and that G1 shutter lag doesn't help).

Sometimes you just have to shoot candid picutres of kids while they are in action! This pictures can actually be better than planned portraits. However, you need to use a faster shutter speed or you'll have blurry body parts when they are on the move!

If you really want good sit-down portraits, you absolutely MUST have a partner who can adjust them and get their attention while you take the pics. There's NO way you can do it alone!

Travis

[Curby]

Thanks Travis,
I will try to have a partner present to distract them. Good advice. I must say with the addition of the B-300 I have been getting wonderful candids.
_______
Curby


Trav wrote:
It's VERY difficult! I just had a similar experience when I wanted to shoot some pictures of my 10 month old son and two other kids at our local botanical center for Easter. First of all, it was hot in there (tropical climate) so that didn't help. Then each kid wanted to do something different.

My son has been quite used to his picture taken from birth, so he normally has no problem doing cool stuff for me when I take pictures of him. The other kids, however, would not sit still for a second (and that G1 shutter lag doesn't help).

Sometimes you just have to shoot candid picutres of kids while they are in action! This pictures can actually be better than planned portraits. However, you need to use a faster shutter speed or you'll have blurry body parts when they are on the move!

If you really want good sit-down portraits, you absolutely MUST have a partner who can adjust them and get their attention while you take the pics. There's NO way you can do it alone!

Travis

[Trav]

While we're speaking of the B-300, does it decrease the amount of light to the camera? In other words, does using the B-300 result in slower shutter speeds? I'm thinking of getting one myself - especially for this spring/summer outside.

Cheapest place that has it?

Thanks,
Travis

Curby wrote:
Thanks Travis,
I will try to have a partner present to distract them. Good advice. I must say with the addition of the B-300 I have been getting wonderful candids.
_______
Curby

[Curby]

Travis,
The B-300 seems to increse the Fstop by one f8 will give you f11 etc. I actually like that a lot.
As far as price goes. It's $123.50 at B&H when in stock. It's $132 at Tristatecamera. You need a 49mm to 55mm step-up ring for your Lensmate adapter. Tiffen makes a good one at B&H, but the standard one is good as well.
B&H is out of stock right now but They have been pretty good at replenishing.

Get to the B&H homepage:
In advanced search at the top left enter this product code in the B option.
OLTLIS3

Talk to you soon.
______
Curby
Trav wrote:
While we're speaking of the B-300, does it decrease the amount of light to the camera? In other words, does using the B-300 result in slower shutter speeds? I'm thinking of getting one myself - especially for this spring/summer outside.

Cheapest place that has it?

Thanks,
Travis

Curby wrote:
Thanks Travis,
I will try to have a partner present to distract them. Good advice. I must say with the addition of the B-300 I have been getting wonderful candids.
_______
Curby

[Pekka]

Trav,

B300 does not affect shutter speeds, but gives less DoF which is good for portraits and compressed depth illusion. You might have problems focusing in very low light with B300 as it blocks the focus assist light, otherwise it works great and is a must-have addition to G1.

Trav wrote:
While we're speaking of the B-300, does it decrease the amount of light to the camera? In other words, does using the B-300 result in slower shutter speeds? I'm thinking of getting one myself - especially for this spring/summer outside.

[Trav]

Thanks Pekka. :) Sounds like fun, so I'm sure I'll pick one up when I find one in stock. Perfect time of year to get one too!

Travis

Pekka wrote:
Trav,

B300 does not affect shutter speeds, but gives less DoF which is good for portraits and compressed depth illusion. You might have problems focusing in very low light with B300 as it blocks the focus assist light, otherwise it works great and is a must-have addition to G1.

Trav wrote:
While we're speaking of the B-300, does it decrease the amount of light to the camera? In other words, does using the B-300 result in slower shutter speeds? I'm thinking of getting one myself - especially for this spring/summer outside.

[John - NJ]

I asked my son to pose for me and took a shot while he was thinking about how to pose. I didn't tell him I was taking the shot. He was just watching me fiddle with the camera, like I had a problem. You can see the photo at the link below:

http://www.concentric.net/~Caylor/Dan_Think.html

[Andrei]

Hi, John !

It's better to use AF mode - Single rather than Continuos

[John - NJ]

Andrei:

I have seen alot of the photo descriptions with AF-single rather than continuous. I just don't know why you would choose one over the other. What's the advantage, other than battery usage?

[Andrei]

Battery life is longer :) Really.

John - NJ wrote:
Andrei:

I have seen alot of the photo descriptions with AF-single rather than continuous. I just don't know why you would choose one over the other. What's the advantage, other than battery usage?

[rojoyinc]

>I have a 10 year old daughter & a 3 1/2 year old daughter and I'll be darned if I can keep their attention for more than 30 seconds for a quality photo. Turned heads, running away, frowns, gritting teeth, how do you keep the attention of a child for a quality sit down portrait?


Curby -

Sounds more like a discipline problem rather than a photographic one. You either have control... or you don't.

Hardest part of shooting my kids was keeping them from snickering when I wanted a subdued, classic look on their faces.

[url]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid26/p13ccc26fbfaa5ee2c6667e790c734ae4/fe453c85.jpg.orig.jpg]

[philgabe]

I've a lot of experience shooting portraits of overactive kids, including my own 4 year old (who is like Barney on speed). Although sometimes digital photography is a bit more challenging in terms of exposition, it has two wonderful advantages when it comes to "caffeine kids":

1. The LCD lets you share the result of the picture right away with the child and you can involve the child in PS editing (they love to paint on their own picture and play around with all the creative tools). As a result, they tend to be much more cooperative because they see immediate results and they may become more willing to "pose";

2. You can shoot as many pictures as you want (even really blurred ones!) and experiment a lot, it doesn't cost you a penny to do so.

Unless the child really wants to pose (which sometimes happens), I would recommend shooting "on the move" portraits. I use either +/- 150mm telephoto lens, with high-speed flash sync, shutter speed of roughly 1/500 or faster for indoor pictures OR +/- 60mm (I use a D30, so multiplication factor is 1.6) at f/2.8 and again high-speed flash sync and shutter speed of at 1/500 (with appropriate exposure compensation). I always shoot in raw mode and ISO 100 equivalent (flash exposure compensation is important here because you probably don't have sufficient indoor light at ISO 100, f/2.8 and 1/500--and your camera may advise you that you are underexposing. However, the flash light will correctly expose the child and the background will be blurred and underexposed (i.e., dark)--which makes the portrait stand out from the dark blurred background!). These settings (or settings close to that on your camera--even if you don't have high-speed flash sync., use 1/250 shutter speed), will let you shoot close ups of the child face while she/he is playing, capturing facial expressions and freezing the movement.

For non moving portraits (and non cooperative kids) I've used a trick (dirty trick, but hey!) that consist in asking the child if you can shoot her/him while she/he watches her/his favorite video.

At the end of the day, on average I would guess that I shoot roughly 15-30 pictures to have one that is really a keeper from a joint composition, exposure and child expression perspective. But that picture is worth all the effort!

Hope this helps a little.

Cheers!