Birthday Party - Always a struggle

anonymouscuban

We have quite a few friends and family with small children. We end up going to a lot of kid birthdays and I am often asked to take photos. I always stress because even though I'm doing it as favor, it is an important day and I don't want to give them a bunch of snapshots that blow. My biggest struggle is all the chaos going on and the distracted backgrounds and kids heads everywhere. How can you get anything more than snapshot-type photos in a setting like this?

Here is a birthday we attended on Saturday. I took quite a lot of shots. I tried to get in close since I figured this is the best way to eliminate a lot of the "noise". Am I expecting way too much from these kind of events or do these look pretty decent to you? BTW, I shot all of these with my speedlight which I held in my hand off camera. I bounced the light off various walls as much as I could.

1


2


3


4


5


6

MzChristine

Well, I'm not a professional but my friends and family are pretty much my main subjects and photography is a bit of an obsession so I'll share my opinion (for what it's worth). Family 'photojournalism' is fun but challenging and I think these examples are way above the average snaps people take. The lighting is wonderful (I'm envious of lighting.. i'm still not there yet) and the kids are all oblivious (with the exception of 2) so you are actually capturing their reactions to each other and the fun vs the camera. Because these are so personal, I think to a certain extent capturing some of the background is good. How many times have you looked at an old photo in your album and noticed a pet, or furniture or some other detail that gets you going OH I remember that (and as such trigger a whole different story)! Also everything is nice and crisp while capturing the constant motion that comes with children and parties. I would certainly be pleased as can be to have photos like these of my kids in my album. :

Qarik

don't worry about the "noise" in family/friends type shoots. It's expected and to a degree good to have. Just try to get a few shots that are cleanly framed and "artistic" to acnchor the others. The light you have is pretty nice...except you don't need to hold the flash off camera since you are naked bouncing though at time it can afford some more flexibility in portrait mode

heatherfeather

Consider shooting long and shallow in addition to what you have here... These are great, just add a couple where the birthday girl is singled out as the focus of the pic.

anonymouscuban

Thanks guys. Daniel, thanks for the advice. I did get a few posed and planned shots, but I get what you mean. Not sure why you thought I was naked while holding the flash though. I know I like to take SPs with my shirt off but even I have limits.

Heather, thanks for looking and giving me some suggestions. I will try to remember to get tighter shots. Now that I look at the photos, I did get a couple good shots of the birthday girl. Not the best but not bad I guess:

reyvee61

For this type of activity and unless you are going to disrupt them and get some posed shots, you did a fine job....
I shoot my kids all the time and it's all about capturing those moments.
I have used the off cam flash method in the past and it works well, now I prefer to shoot fleshless and I bump the ISO to 3200 or more if necessary.

Snowgirl

reyvee61 wrote: »

now I prefer to shoot fleshless and I bump the ISO to 3200 or more if necessary.

snicker (in a friendly way). I have a visual of a skeleton perched on a stool or ladder, armed with a huge camera taking photographs. Hmmm. Halloween idea for sure.

anonymouscuban

Snowgirl wrote: »

snicker (in a friendly way). I have a visual of a skeleton perched on a stool or ladder, armed with a huge camera taking photographs. Hmmm. Halloween idea for sure.

HAHA... I read that typo too but decided not to comment. Your idea would make a good Halloween decoration.

reyvee61

Oh dang...
That was the typo of all typos