Help with photographing children

greenpea

I just found out that my wife has volunteered me to be my daughter’s class photographer, and this coming Tuesday is the first day of class.

This is a co-op school class of mostly 3 and 4 year olds with their mothers and a few fathers. Last time I tried to take pictures of the class was parent night, and none of my pictures really turned out, but this time the parents will be looking to me to get good shots.

And just to give you an idea of the scene, it will be 2 hours of complete chaos with kids running everywhere. Depending on the weather it could be all inside in a large room without windows, or we could be outside for part of the time.

What I am looking for any suggestions for technique? recommended lenses? flash? Any advice would be much appreciated.

(I should mention I searched a bit for advice on this topic, and the best thread I found was this one).

gluwater

I would suggest bringing lots of Tylenol .

What is your current equipment?

greenpea

gluwater wrote:

I would suggest bringing lots of Tylenol .

What is your current equipment?

I will definately bring the Tylenol

I have a D70, 24mm 2.0, 50mm 1.8, 105mm 2.8mm, & 18-200mm zoon 4.5-5.6.

However, I have access to Glazer's Camera extensive list of rental equiptment.

ballentphoto

greenpea wrote:

I will definately bring the Tylenol

I have a D70, 24mm 2.0, 50mm 1.8, 105mm 2.8mm, & 18-200mm zoon 4.5-5.6.

However, I have access to Glazer's Camera extensive list of rental equiptment.

Unless you are planning on taking these outside you will need a strobe, or two, a background (and something to hold up the background) use iTTL if the D70 supports it (think it does) and place the sb-800/600 on either side pointing 45º to the children with one with more power than the other. Do not place the children too close to the background otherwise it's harsh shadow city.

As far as lens probably the 50 unless you want to rent an 85 (it will depend on how much space you have to play with) set the lens to f4 to blur the background and take test shots of your setups with your child so that you do not have to fiddle with the speedlight settings, and if your camera supports it FV lock is your friend (it will not do as many pre-flashes so the kids will be less likely to blink and shutter will fire sooner) Best of luck.

greenpea

ballentphoto wrote:

Unless you are planning on taking these outside you will need a strobe, or two, a background (and something to hold up the background) use iTTL if the D70 supports it (think it does) and place the sb-800/600 on either side pointing 45º to the children with one with more power than the other. Do not place the children too close to the background otherwise it's harsh shadow city.

As far as lens probably the 50 unless you want to rent an 85 (it will depend on how much space you have to play with) set the lens to f4 to blur the background and take test shots of your setups with your child so that you do not have to fiddle with the speedlight settings, and if your camera supports it FV lock is your friend (it will not do as many pre-flashes so the kids will be less likely to blink and shutter will fire sooner) Best of luck.

Wow. I can borrow an 85 and I can rent the rest of the stuff. This could end up being kind of interesting, beyond the 85 and the SB800 all of the rest is new to me. But I suppose that's what you get when you are looking for a free photographer.

Any advice on dealing with 3 year olds (other than telling them, "If you sit sitll I'll give you candy")?

Nandita

I don't have any technical advice but here's what I do to get candid shots.

I use a telephoto and zoom all the way out (300 mm) so that I can keep my distance. This way the kid isn't aware of my presence and I also get the bokeh, blurred background that I want.

I try to pick a child who is still and absorbed by what they're doing or saying and I shoot 4-5 shots in quick succession.

You can check out my kid shots at www.candidglimpses.com and see if that's what you're looking for.

Good luck. We'd love to see the results.

mikeshots

When we shoot set shots with young kids, we typically try to engage them in a fun way right off the bat. If they're wearing a Spongebob shirt, ask them about Spongebob. If it's Star Wars shoes make a comment about those. It helps the kids engage with you pretty quickly. We usually ask them to start repeating us saying, "Monkey!" When they hit the "kee" part of the word, they'll have pretty close to a natural smile. If they're not responding to monkey you can always try "stinky." The teachers don't always like it, but it will get a guaranteed smile from almost any kid!:D

greenpea

The shoot was today. It was an interesting experience. The school is a co-op (meaning the parents help out). There are a total of 16 children between the ages of 2 and 3. For the first day of schoolthey do a "slow start". Instead of the usual 2 hour school they break it into 4 classes of 4 kids each (with the parents) for 30 minutes each. There was no *official* photo time, I was just given the assignment of getting a good photo of each child. I haven't had a chance to look at my pictures yet, but I'm hoping out of 120 photos that I have at least one good photo of each kid.

After this whole experience, I have a whole lot more respect for child photographers.

SloYerRoll

greenpea wrote:

The shoot was today. It was an interesting experience. The school is a co-op (meaning the parents help out). There are a total of 16 children between the ages of 2 and 3. For the first day of schoolthey do a "slow start". Instead of the usual 2 hour school they break it into 4 classes of 4 kids each (with the parents) for 30 minutes each. There was no *official* photo time, I was just given the assignment of getting a good photo of each child. I haven't had a chance to look at my pictures yet, but I'm hoping out of 120 photos that I have at least one good photo of each kid.

After this whole experience, I have a whole lot more respect for child photographers.

Looking forward to hearing about the results!

-Jon

vangogh

AAhh
A similar question to what I was going to post. I've been asked to take pics of someone's grandchild who is 2. I've never really done any kiddie shots (except snaps) so not sure how to handle it really. I have an Olympus E500 with either a 14-45 or 40-150 lens, small portaflash studio lights system, one with a white umbrella & 2 with barn doors. I also have a backdrop stand. The only problem is the lightts are set on the lowest setting but still slightly over expose stuff because my front room isn't quite big enough to move the lights furtehr away & I don't yet have studio space. I also have a multi way reflector, white, black, gold & silver.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

LuckyBob

vangogh wrote:

The only problem is the lightts are set on the lowest setting but still slightly over expose stuff because my front room isn't quite big enough to move the lights furtehr away & I don't yet have studio space.

One quick fix for this would be to put a ND filter on the lens.

vangogh

LuckyBob wrote:

One quick fix for this would be to put a ND filter on the lens.

Thanks!

I have a graduated ND no4, but that probably wouldn't give the right effect! ? Looks like I'll have to get another one then. How many stops does a filter take the exposure down on average? I suppose it depends on what filter number you get?

SteveM

vangogh wrote:

The only problem is the lightts are set on the lowest setting but still slightly over expose stuff because my front room isn't quite big enough to move the lights furtehr away & I don't yet have studio space. I also have a multi way reflector, white, black, gold & silver.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

1) Lower your ISO, 2) Increase your shutter speed, 3) Close your aperture, 4) Neutral Density Filters.

Steve

bratsscrappy

Personal experience

greenpea wrote:

Wow. I can borrow an 85 and I can rent the rest of the stuff. This could end up being kind of interesting, beyond the 85 and the SB800 all of the rest is new to me. But I suppose that's what you get when you are looking for a free photographer.

Any advice on dealing with 3 year olds (other than telling them, "If you sit sitll I'll give you candy")?

I had the pleasure :ivar of shooting a daycare last spring for a photo album the sold at auction. An off camera flash is excellent, and I used my E-1 and a 40-150 zoom. My strategy was to play with the kids for about 20-30 minutes, let a few that were curious look through at their friends, and then it was outside play using FL-36 for fill-flash. Then back inside for art and crafts time. after 3 hours I was worn out.

You can see results at http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1673352

Lyle

thirdlife

greenpea wrote:

I just found out that my wife has volunteered me to be my daughter’s class photographer, and this coming Tuesday is the first day of class.

This is a co-op school class of mostly 3 and 4 year olds with their mothers and a few fathers. Last time I tried to take pictures of the class was parent night, and none of my pictures really turned out, but this time the parents will be looking to me to get good shots.

And just to give you an idea of the scene, it will be 2 hours of complete chaos with kids running everywhere. Depending on the weather it could be all inside in a large room without windows, or we could be outside for part of the time.

What I am looking for any suggestions for technique? recommended lenses? flash? Any advice would be much appreciated.

(I should mention I searched a bit for advice on this topic, and the best thread I found was this one).

You do NOT want strobes for this situation. Strobes would be a hazard with small chirdren running. Just get a decent flash for your camera.

Also, try not to take photos looking down at the children, get down to there level. This makes for a more interesting shot and the children will probably open up to you quicker.

I'd probably shoot with a semi wide lens. 35-50mm range, ISO400, f/6-8 with flash. Take several test shots before going to this shoot. Also, if you can shoot RAW, it will be a bit more forgiving if you underexpose the shots.

Just my opinions.

greenpea

The results...
So I wanted to thank everyone for the advice. I finally got my pictures uploaded, here are the results:

http://initialphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/1912179

As the *volunteered* parent photographer I get to do this gig at least half a dozen more times over the course of the school year. I am definately going to end up buying either the SB600 or 800. The flash was the key thing to have. All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again!

Let me know what you think of the pics, as I have to do this again serveral more times throughout the year.

mikeshots

greenpea wrote:

So I wanted to thank everyone for the advice. I finally got my pictures uploaded, here are the results:

http://initialphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/1912179

As the *volunteered* parent photographer I get to do this gig at least half a dozen more times over the course of the school year. I am definately going to end up buying either the SB600 or 800. The flash was the key thing to have. All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again!

Let me know what you think of the pics, as I have to do this again serveral more times throughout the year.

Well done! You got some really nice candids and lots of adorable shots.

Seefutlung

1) Duct tape

2} Something fast that can cover middle ground like a Canon 24-70 2.8

3) More duct tape

4) Something wide for tight shots w/ distortion

5) Patience (when you run out of duct tape)

indiegirl

Hi there--I just wanted to link some images from what sounds like a very similar gig I did for two years at my daughter's Waldorf School. I used natural light exclusively. Feel free to PM me with questions.

http://thefreelancemama.smugmug.com/gallery/1320727

http://thefreelancemama.smugmug.com/gallery/844345

indiegirl

So, I'm a little late. Glad the shoot went well.