Life's
Precious. Make it Memorable With a Good Photograph
by Betty Muscott
The most precious moments of life, are the first. Capturing the initial
crawls, steps, stumbles and falls of your child will ensure that they
have something to look back on when they're older - evidence of your
love and devotion to their entire lives. We want to guide you along the
path of making their lives memorable by providing you with a selection
of technical (yet easy) and composition tips for these pictures to make
them the best they can be.
A Few Handy Tips And Tricks
Here are some of the more technical aspects of ensuring that every picture taken, is a brilliant one.
Lights...
New parents often have the advantage when
their children are still unable to crawl or walk out of a good shot.
This is the time to get practicing, this is the time to get those
precious first moments preserved forever. And as such, our initial
focus falls on the lighting.
Now, to get started we'd recommend that
you turn off the flash of your camera. The reason for this is quite
simple: sudden bright flashes of light will not only startle your
child, but could be potentially hazardous, especially when directed at
their infant eyes. So to ensure that enough light exposure is in the
picture taken, set your camera's sensitivity to light (industry term:
ISO) to about 800. In some cases this might take some trial and error
before the right light sensitivity for the environment is found, so be
sure to acquaint yourself with that specific feature of your camera.
Camera...
However there's something else you can
do, especially if you are in possession of a digital camera. Most
camera models have preset modes that change the light sensitivity
automatically. If you don't know where to find them, refer to your
camera's manual and look for keywords that include 'Night', 'Day',
'Shade', 'Tungsten', and so on (do note that these keywords or
setting-names might vary from camera to camera).
Once found, just point your camera toward
your little bundle of delight and start snapping away - you'll be
surprised at the different results of the various settings in different
indoor environments.
Action?
Almost! While you're getting used to the
settings and features of your camera, one of the things you have to
take into account is that, when the light source is behind you, your
shadow will more than like also try and get into the picture. While
these 'accidents' can make for priceless moments, they do have the
potential to spoil a good picture.
That being said, there's one remaining
tip, especially for those parents whose child is already a couple of
months old. And it involves the flash: when the light source is behind
your child and fairly bright, use the 'fill-in flash'. This will
highlight your child's features instead of hiding them in shadow.
The Secret to Success
Before we kick off with the assembly of a
good composition, we want to touch on another, related, point. Due to
human nature, we are often fascinated by, sometimes even scared of, new
things. And the same rings true for your child. Initially the camera
will be the very center of their attention as you try to get that
perfect snap. We'd like to encourage you to take as many initial
pictures as possible to ensure that your child gets used to the camera
from a young age to encourage 'natural' behavior in front of the lens.
Now, getting down to business... The
essential thing to remember when taking pictures of infants and young
children is that the best photographs are often found at their level.
This means getting down on your knees or, when your child is on his or
her belly, your belly. Once that's done, look for the following:
Lines
The edges of objects or 'things' in a
picture ensure that there are always lines in virtually every picture.
These lines add to the picture and can even supply it with an emotive
quality. Being aware of lines and knowing how to use them will ensure
that your pictures have that dramatic appeal inherent to all
world-class photographs. Here are a couple of tips:
- - Use naturally occurring lines to indicate direction.
- - Oblique lines can be used to facilitate the idea of movement.
- - Look for objects that form a pattern or that repeat - a
composition where your child breaks the pattern will emphasize the
focus.
- - Use curved lines to supply a picture with calm and intimacy.
Thirds
The rule of thirds will help you place
your child on the right place in the photograph. It states: use
imaginary lines, two horizontal and two vertical to equally divide the
shot. The focus of the photograph (be it your baby's hands, eyes, feet,
etc.) should either be on the lines or where they intersect with each
other. And finally: avoid using the center or the corners of your
imaginary grid for features that should serve as the main focus. The
following image should resemble your imaginary grid:
And Finally…
You’re just about done. But there’s one
thing remaining, even after you’ve photo-documented the span of your
beautiful child’s younger years: preserving the pictures.
Those parents who’ve taken the
old-fashioned route and either had their little one’s pictures stored
in photo albums will simply need to keep the albums in a safe, dry
place and perhaps try (yes, we know it’s hard) not to look at them too
often for the sake of preservation.
And just in case you’re up-to-speed with
technology and have gone the digital way, do keep in mind that all
computer – and electrical hardware are subject to failure. As such we’d
advise you to not only store the pictures on your computer’s hard disk
drive and / or removable hard drive, but to also ensure that you’ve
backed up your child’s young life to CD or DVD – on a number of
different disks – and stored these in various locations where you’ll
remember where they are and where you are sure they’ll be safe.
About the Author:
Betty A. Muscott is a child photographer whose passion in life is capturing images that reveal the “real kid” in her photographs of children. As a photographer Betty has learned the importance of archival photo storage because early on in her career she lost some precious images. Today she uses a photo online sharing website to let her subjects view the images before they make their final selections.
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