My secrets to getting your little one to look at the camera!

The other day I was talking to one of the mums from my photography workshop and she was telling me that although she now has all of the technical skills to take great pictures of her 18 month old son, she can't for love nor money get him looking at the camera, not to mention actually smiling at it.

So today I thought I'd share a few of my secrets to capturing your little one looking at, and interacting with the camera. But before I start, I'll tell you what I told her, which is, more often than not a perfect portrait needn't have your little one looking at and smiling at the camera every time. In fact some of my absolute favourite portraits are of children playing, laughing, contemplating, and basically being children.

Understandably though, her reply was that whilst she agrees, she'd like one or two of the typical 'smiling at the camera' type of pictures to send to grandma and grandpa, so below are the technique that I use for each and every one of my photography sessions with little ones. 

1. Don't say smile! Saying smile has the exact opposite effect to the one you are after - either you have a well trained child who then pulls out his best, chandler from friends type of fake smile, or more likely your child completely ignores you and buries his head even further into what ever super interesting task he was already doing.

2. Be interesting! Children are naturally inquisitive, so if you tell them you have something unbelievably exciting or interesting to show them they.can.not.help.but.look!

'wow look what I've got'

'Oh my goodness a huge ant'

'Do you want me to tell you a secret'

These are all sure fire ways to at the very least get your little one to look at the camera - which you have already positioned and ready to snap away as soon as they look.

3. Follow through with what you've just told them - point to where the *imaginary* ant just disappeared to, tell them a secret or a joke, give them the sweetie that you've got hidden in your hand - because when you want them to look the next time you want them to believe you, otherwise that trick just turns in to another 'smile' type prompt.

4. Smile at them! People mirror people and this is no different when it comes to children, if you smile and laugh at your little one they'll almost always smile back!

5. Play peek-a-boo! Children love this and always smile and look right at you so have your camera ready!

6. Ask them to pull a funny face for the camera! This works especially well for slightly older children, and although you don't want to take lots of photographs of the funny faces necessarily, there will be lots of laughs in between which is exactly what you want to capture.

7. Show them the picture! This keeps them interested and makes them want to pull an even funnier face next time, hence more smiles.

8. Ask them to show you what they have - this one usually works at getting them to look at you (the camera) but quite often it comes with a conversation and funny face ;)

9. Be. Patient. - Getting stressed out and desperate for the picture will absolutely NEVER help the situation, so take your time, relax and enjoy spending time with your little one, they will smile at the camera when they are relaxed and having fun.

Well thats it, I told you it was simple, but very very effective! Give these ideas a try next time you're taking photos of your little one and let me know how you get on. Was this helpful? If not why not? Maybe you're struggling with something else photography related, if so leave your question in the comments below or drop me an email and I'll try and cover your problem next time :)

Happy photographing,



Lianne xox

Making the most of your DSLR

Almost every time I meet a new client for a family photo session, one of the parents tells me about their DSLR and how they, either never use it or, only ever use it on the Automatic setting and then, 9 times out of 10 find that they are disappointed with the outcome.

And every time I tell them that, although there are lots of simple techniques they can use as a beginner to improve the quality of their images, one of the most important things is to use the creative settings on your camera.

The creative settings on your DSLR are usually marked Av, Tv and M on a canon and A, S and M on a Nikon. 

These manual settings - Aperture priority, Shutter speed priority and (once you are at an intermediate level) Manual, give you far more creative control over your images than any of the automatic settings. They allow you to select what and how much you want in focus rather than the camera deciding for you.

Here I will explain a little more about using my favourite setting, Aperture Priority, which I would suggest, at a beginner level, you should be using 95% of the time.

This photo of Jessie May was taken at f/3.5, this allows her to be in focus and the 

background to be blurred. 

Aperture priority setting (Av or A) means that all you need to change is the Aperture (otherwise known as f-stop), and the camera will determine the correct shutter speed in order to take a correct exposure. Aperture priority mode is perfect for the beginner/ hobbyist because it is amazingly simple to use but also allows lots of creative control. 

Let me give you an example of the uses of AV… 

If you want to take a portrait photograph of your little one playing, eating, laughing, pulling a face, etc. etc. but the background is really busy with people and things that you don’t want visible and you decide you want a blurry background then you simply set your camera to Av for canon or A for Nikon and select a low aperture number of about f4. Regardless of whether your child is sat in the bright sunlight or under a tree in the shade, the camera will then set the correct shutter speed for a good exposure without you having to fiddle with or change any more settings.

Next you want to take a photo of your child on a beautiful beach and want the whole scene to be in focus. This time you set your camera to Av or A again but set it to a high number such as f16, which will give you a full depth of field, again the camera will select the correct shutter speed for you.

Try turning on your camera and setting it to Aperture priority mode. Next take a photo of an object, anything, a mug, or an ornament, or if you child is willing to sit still then your child. Firstly take the photo at a high aperture, f/22 or f/16 and next at a low aperture, f/2.8 or f/4. Can you see a difference?

 These photos of Nam Fon were taken on Aperture priority mode with the first one at f/18 and the second at f/2.2, Can you see the difference in the sharpness of the background with the gym clearly in focus in the first and completely blurred in the second. 

Try to use Aperture priority for the majority of your pictures for the next 6 months, your skills and photos will dramatically improve as you begin to understand how light, aperture and shutter speed interact to create perfectly exposed images.

If you found this helpful and want to learn more about using your DSLR why not book onto my photography for parents workshop on the 17th April? Read more about it here and if you have any questions or want to book get in touch, 

Lianne xox