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Advice for a Parent-To-Be?


dave_l.

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<p>I'm going to be a first time dad! Obviously, it's an exciting time, and I'm looking for some guidance. I've been a hobbyist photographer for over a decade, and I have a reasonably complete DSLR setup. The problem is that my interests have skewed heavily towards nature and travel photography. Landcapes, insects, temples...you bet. Babies, small children, families...not so much.</p>

<p>In one way, I'm lucky in that I'm not starting out from the classic "going to be a parent, time to buy a nice camera" situation that starts so many photographers. But I still have very little idea what to expect. So I'd like to hear from photogs with kids. Any pointers on taking good family shots? Good resources for taking baby and family portraits that go beyond typical snapshots? Do you actually take an SLR kit with you on family outings, along with all the "stuff" that accompanies modern parents? Or should I just be practicing my cellphone photography?</p>

<p>Honestly, I'm just looking for general tips, tricks, and advice for shots of little kids and families. Most stuff on the web that I can find is geared towards new photographers and is more an explanation of how cameras work. I haven't really learned much from them. </p>

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<p>Congratulations. One bit of advice I wish I had figured out earlier is to watch the backgrounds. Excess crap/clutter behind the children drives me nuts in pictures, and has ruined many otherwise good shots. Shooting at large apertures helps.<br>

Try and anticipate their moves and setup so you can get them acting natural. This also give you a chance to control the background. It also helps avoid posed pictures, which for my kids never turned out well.<br>

Get down to their level. Having all the images looking down on the kids seems odd.<br>

Learn to use off-camera flash if you must use a flash. Or bounce flash.<br>

Finally take lots of shots. I don't delete the bad ones (well the total blurs I do) and I periodically enjoy going through the old shots in lightroom, even if they aren't good enough to frame.<br>

I do take an SLR with me on some outings, and other times a smaller point and shoot like the Panasonic LX5 if I don't need low light capabilities. My wife is tolerant and thinks of the DSLR as the quick camera, since I also sometimes subject the family to my use of the 4x5 if we are on a scenic trip.</p>

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<p>Especially in the first year, you'll probably be taking a lot of indoor, available-light pictures. And babies are, yeah it's obvious but, <em>small</em>. So with an APS-C DSLR, reasonably fast-focusing, large maximum aperture lenses of about 50mm and 85mm are (IMO) ideal, or on full-frame, about 85mm and 135mm. If I haul out the DSLR specifically to shoot my ten-month-old daughter (my fourth), the 50mm f/1.7 is the go-to lens (and I wish I could justify an 85mm f/1.4).</p>

<p>But there is also something to be said for having an always-ready-to-go camera. A camera with which mom is comfortable, even if she is wholly uninterested in, and largely ignorant of, the technical aspects of photography. A camera where you don't have to worry that it's still dialed in for a landscape, or an older one's ballgame. In our case, currently it's a Canon SX230 HS (since replaced by the SX260 HS). One of the great things about it, for a compact, is that between image stabilization and a CMOS sensor that gives very usable (for small pictures, with appropriate expectations) ISO 1600 or even 3200, it really is a viable option for available light pictures inside the house at night. If fact, during the schoolyear, even for my wife, I usually leave it set to aperture priority, wide open, ISO 1600. (During the summer, where she takes many more outdoor shots, I leave it on the green-box 'push here, stupid' because you really don't want or need ISO 1600 outdoors.) Oh, and the SX230 takes pretty nice video clips, too.</p>

<p>Use both a lot. In our experience, there are many misses, but the hits can be wonderful.</p>

<p>And before you know it, you'll be reflecting on the need for a new 55-300 or 70-400 (or 50-500!) for baseball games.</p>

 

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<p>In the first six months of my daughter's life she didn't move around much and had tiny fingers, toes, etc. So I got good use out of the 105mm VR Micro lens (normally with the limiter on). Sometimes by available light but more often with a flash (bounced on the ceiling with a reflector card for catchlights). Since she's started moving around more I've begun to use the 24-70 more, mostly still with an on-camera bounced flash.</p>

<p>But regarding technique, I think the important things have been said already; watch the background and the eye level.</p>

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<p>[[Do you actually take an SLR kit with you on family outings, along with all the "stuff" that accompanies modern parents? Or should I just be practicing my cellphone photography?]]</p>

<p>Only you can answer this. How much "baby stuff" you think you need will vary with both age of the child and your experience. How much extra weight you want to carry in terms of camera equipment is up to you and your partner. Cellphone cameras are far more capable than they were a number of years ago, so that seems like the ideal solution now, but we carried a small digital point and shoot most everywhere in the camera bag. </p>

<p>With my first child, I spent the first 6 months shooting heavily with a APS-C DSLR and a 50mm f/1.8. This was mainly for DoF control, noise control at high ISO, and the ability to use and bounce an external flash. After he started to move around I switch more to wider focal lengths and zooms. </p>

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<p>just click and appreciate the moment, stop thinking technique.. you only gonna live that once; first walk, first run, first daddy word, first... well you get the idea.. just click and get those moment while you can...better to take everything then regret not having those later ; )</p>

<p>oh, and get some sleep while you can.. the slow morning start are over.. welcome to the club.</p>

 

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<p>Get down to their level.</p>

<p>Get a quality, small camera for outings. Leave the big camera at home.</p>

<p>Some of the time, leave the small camera at home, too. You can create great photographs. You can be totally immersed as an active participant. It's hard to do both simultaneously.</p>

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  • 3 weeks later...

<p>I was in the same boat as you a few years ago when my son was born. Usually shooting live music in small venues, band photos, landscapes, and occasional portraits, I now shoot mainly children and portraitsm with everything else being secondary. I can tell you how I shoot, which works for me, though your mileage may vary.<br>

For starters, what I use:<br>

Nikon D2Xs with 17-55 IF and sb800/900 off camera<br>

I shoot ALL the time. At home doing routine things, at the playground, on vacation...everywhere. You never know when those perfect moments will happen and it is never bad to have the camera there when they do. My approach is as follows...<br>

I usually shoot in aperture or shutter priority, depending on the location. If I have good light, I perfer A, as it allows me to control background, but I switch to S of the light is such that I start to get motion blur in A. I always keep the ISO as low as possible given the situation. When I use flash I always use a cord to keep it off camera and I always hand hold it, so that I can put where I need it depending on if I am using it for key or fill. This necesitates keeping an eye on the images and histograms as TTL is not available off camera. Change power settings to adjust as necessary.<br>

The lens is key. The fast aperture keeps it fast and allows shallow DOF with a pleasing bokeh (my opinion). As important to me is the fact that it is a very wide lens, meaning that I do not have to necessarily compose the shot, as long as I have them in frame I can crop later, which brings me to HOW I shoot.<br>

Typically, unless the child is old/calm enough to sit and follow directions (what kid is) I am not even looking through the viewfinder. I usually hold the camera with either the normal grip or vertical grip and simply point it in their general direction while they are doing whatever they are doing, while using the flash in the other hand to direct light where it needs to be. The fast WIDE lens allows me to get them in the frame most of the time, and I crop in post. More importantly, it allows me to get the camera at their level, which is probaly the most important piee of advice I can offer. If you are at their level, they appear to be normal human beings or normal proportions. If you shoot from your height, looking down, they look like liens with huge heads and tiny bodys. Additionally, photographing them at their level humanizes them and really gets into their worls more than a shot from above.<br>

Lastly, shoot in RAW when available. While I shoot RAW as a general rule, it is more critical when photographing children than any of my other work. You will find that you are changing light and settings so often that you are bound to forget to change something back, change settings too slowly, or just be too busy to remembe much more than "point and shoot". RAW will allow you to fix a great many small errors that would be unfixable in JPEG, though it may take some significant post processing time.<br>

Like I said, this is how I work, you experience may vary.</p>

 

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  • 5 weeks later...
<p>I have a daughter who is 3 and a son who is 1. I only use my DSLR. It is always very easily accessible, so each time I feel moved by a situation, I can grab it and take pictures very quickly. I just try to vary my way of taking pictures. Shallow depths of fields, close ups, motion blurs ... A few times I setup a kind of studio and tried to take pictures (good post : http://strobist.blogspot.se/2006/06/on-assignment-shoot-your-kid.html ), it didnt happen often, but definitely the resulting pictures are a bit special. I also like playing around with flashes so I sometimes have an off camera flash that I move in different position and experiment with. I actually find it quite easy to take pictures of my young kids. They havent developed yet the instinctive "i dont like being photographed".</p>
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