10 keys to master child photography |Photolari

By Manuel Santos.Taking photos of children is one of those specialties that apparently anyone believes to be able to dominate but that at the moment of truth is very complex.Especially if we talk about professional child photography in which the usual technical factors (composition, lighting, retouching ...) add a very special one: the little protagonists of the photos.

Manuel Santos, author of the book Children's Photography, Techniques and Styles of the Photo Routeos collection has some of the keys to this photographic specialty that addresses in detail in this work.

1.Team: reduced and quality

To photograph children, a great team is not necessary as in other photographic specialties.Fundamentally you want to take good portraits of them.For first planes and medium planes, a short teleobmic.

To complement and give variety to your reports add a large-angle target of 35 mm.In the event that you have or prefer to acquire a more compact camera, consider some that have a quality zoom objective, with a zoom factor not exceeding 4x, for example a 24-70 mm (equivalent focal distance in 35mm format).

2.Learn everything you can about every age of children

Each age has its peculiarities and the more you know them, the better you can raise the session and interact with the child.From his first jobs, Alba Soler still remembers the face that the mother put, when he asked a two -year -old boy to jump, because with that age they are not able to do it!Knowing the needs and abilities of each child is essential to start the session with good foot.

For example, with newborns you have to get them to be very sleepy to be able to place them in the position we want and do not wake up.For this, it is essential to take the photographs during the first fifteen days, keep them with a relatively high room temperature and that the mother has breastfed or the bottle immediately before starting the session.

There are easier and more complicated ages, so you must be prepared and with resources to deal with them.From 18 months to 3 years old is the favorite age for many photographers specialized in children, possibly because in the images they still retain the tender features of a small child, while they begin to show their personality and interact more easily with adults with adults, which results in much more comfortable and natural work sessions.

However, Pepa Valero says - there are some terrifying months: about 18 months or two years, when they usually enter the nursery and are very distrustful, they are very afraid of almost anything.It does not happen to all but it is usually quite common.In addition, photography is not counted among your favorite activities and you have to work it a lot, as you say it is not that it is not.

It is the period of "no".If they protest because you have to change your clothes or place them on another background, they simply continue or give them something to entertain.You have to keep insisting, not claudicar and after a while they calm down.

3.Count stories or transmits emotions

Mothers and fathers usually enter the photographic study with a predetermined idea: the photographer will collect the happiness of their children.However, that obsession with a typified image does not facilitate the best images.

That is why many specialized photographers prefer that family members are not directly on the set of the study, in order that the child can feel calmer and with less pressure from adults, which makes it easier for them to collect other moods that can be muchmore suggestive.

Look how Manuel González's photography next to these lines collects the concentration of this girl in her inner world.He previously told him to hug his favorite book and think of all the characters in him.The photograph is taken in front of a white background, on which the texture, cloud and wings overlap in digital postproduction.

Of course stop obsessing with capturing the smile "Potato".Throughout this book you can see that there are countless examples in which children appear observing, playing, thinking ... with a relaxed attitude and transmitting much more of their inner world than what he would have achieved with a forced smile.Relax, do not obsess that the child puts a certain face and you will immediately notice how the child will also relax.

4.Find the stage and accessories for your history

Make a list of places close to your town that can become stories scenarios for children.They can be a small road in the forest, a jetty on the edge of a river or an abandoned construction.The most important thing is to look for a quiet place so that the child does not get too distracted and choose an hour of the day he has an attractive light.

Evaluate the coherence of the background with the theme, for example a city scenario, perhaps a roof with an attractive buildings horizon, will be more attractive and coherent for a child's report with its Batman or Superman disguise, which if you place it next toA Riachuelo del Bosque.

Or vice versa, raises a strong contrast between the boy's action and the chosen stage, for example: a girl dancing ballet in an industrial environment or in front of a container.

If the background is relatively neutral, choose accessories that can give a certain character to your image.Look how the umbrella in Pepa Valero's photograph gives him the winter character of the chosen day and also an atmosphere of the girls.

Many times the difference between a conventional portrait and another with magic is in the accessories used, whether a small paper butterfly, a scarf or a special headdress.

5.Do not take photos until you have become a friend of the child

The little ones do not understand many things in the world of adults: why do they take them with a stranger who hides behind a black apparatus and dizzy their heads with flashes of light?

The photographer's first task is to make the little ones not reach that perception and accept it as a friend.Forget about your camera, sit with your protagonist on the floor with a toy or doll and plant him a game that consists of a simple task.

You can ask him to move the doll's head to answer the questions asked, or to walk or stop the doll when indicating it, or to press the spring button to get a doll out of a box.

Try that the movements that you request are easy to understand and link to a word;Do not associate them with a visual signal because then the child will look too much at his hand.Finally, try that the possible sequence of movements facilitates an adequate pose of the child.

Motivavo to laugh;The child will react very differently if he sees that you laugh at the synchronization failures of his movements, instead of overwhelming him with a pern every time he does not move just when you indicate it.

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Laughter, like the game, triggers a whole series of physiological, cognitive and emotional reactions that facilitate learning, sociability, liberation from accumulated stress and allow the child to be more open to new people and experiences.

Plan, memorize and practice some resources to cause laughter in a child: from grimaces and animals of animals for little ones, to jokes or parodies of characters for the elderly.

Even something as simple as making the child think that you play hiding behind the camera can become a source of laughter in the little one.

6.Use spacious illuminations when they are small and lift them with the elderly

It is not easy to keep children under 4 years in the same place, they need to explore and move continuously.In study, and in locations, place them in areas with uniform lighting throughout it.

For example, in study you can place a large window or umbrella in lateral position to the child and with the lower part almost touching the ground, to achieve an attractive soft and uniform light in a wide area, but also contributes a little of shadows, in order to express the volumes and textures.

In a house looking for large windows that reach the ground, for example those of access to terraces, clear the area around furniture and let the child play on the floor or a blanket.

However, children over five years can follow your instructions more easily, so you can take advantage of this factor to include them in a session with a much more located lighting, which contributes a special atmosphere to the scene.

For photography under these lines, Pepa Valero used a lateral light scheme by placing a flash mounted with Beauty-Dish and rack to the right to concentrate the lighting and limit with panels the exit of light to the area where the girl was.

The lateral light molds the girl's face in an attractive way and further highlights her look absorbed in the Bengal.The shadows were filled by a golden reflector.

7.Explore attractive color combinations

Investigating for this book I met many professionals who work very well their photographs of black and white children, however their color images are not always at the same height.

Many times it occurs because they do not know some fundamental rules of the perception of colors and their application to improve color combinations in an image.

Combining with intention and taste the colors, both in the take and in postproduction, is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal to configure your own style in your children's photography

For example, it contrasts a dominant color with others not saturated or gray, following the favorite scheme of Manuel González, which underlines: “The strident colors discard them from the beginning in the protocol that I send to the parents;There I indicate that it is preferable not to bring clothes with pictures, prints, stripes, that they can be beautiful but they are very seasonTo play with that harmony ".

Or you can also contrast cold and warm colors in the image, for example: funds in cold tones, such as green and blue, combine very well with skin tones and some accessory in the range of red or yellow.Warm cold complementary colors harmony is one of the most used throughout art history.It is very effective due to the contrast between figure and background.

In addition to tone it is convenient to pay close attention to saturation.The saturated colors are associated with spring and summer, leisure and fun, bright and pure colors highlighted by the strong sunlight of those months.

By contrast, the little saturated colors usually predominate in the coldest periods of the year, where the fogs and less luminous days dominate.Little saturated colors induce relaxation in the viewer, transmit peace and tranquility, so they are highly recommended for babies photographs.

8.In case of doubts or problems it goes to black and white

Monochromatic photographs are still very effective and requested.In addition, sometimes black and white conversion allows to easily eliminate some problems derived from the conditions in the taking.

For example, if you have made a portrait of a baby at home with two types of lights with very different color balance, managing or making the difference in light tones attractive can be a complicated and laborious task.However, if Black and Black becomes goodbye to the problem!

Sometimes black and white photographs can be a bit cold, the solution is easy to apply a slight virmed, which will transform the neutral and white neutral tones adding a slight color nuance.

With RAW conversion programs it is very easy, you just have to go to the controls called divide tones.Do not do unnecessary experiments with strange colors that are very little favoring.

Some combinations that work well for portrait in general are: brown or violet colors for shadows and yellow-acts for high lights;or blue for shadows and cianes for high lights.

In all cases it proves when choosing the colors of the viral that the saturation control in the tab divides tones is always in values below 25 for the high lights and 50 for the shadows, in order to avoid colors too strident.

9.Edit your RAW files with an idea of the destination you want to reach

Do not throw yourself to move adjustments aloc..The most important thing before you start editing is to preview where you want.

Before struggling with color and luminosity settings in your editing program, consider factors such as the child's age or the story you want to represent.

For babies of a few monthsLightroom or your Raw converter and painting about baby's skin.

In the photographs of outdoor children, Alba Soler recommends dedicating a certain time to adjust the green.In Christmas campaigns on study, Pepa Valero opts to refine in the Los Rojos digital edition, because they do not like to pull the choral color, taking them to more garnets.

Despite the indications you have offered parents about the costumes, it happens frequently that the child comes to the session with a shirt, pants or complement of a color that does not combine well with the scene.

In that case you can choose to reduce the presence of this color in Adobe Lightroom using the HSL panel tools, reducing saturation or slightly changing its tone.If you require a more radical change, you will need the most sophisticated tools that allows adobe photoshop, such as color replacement brush.

10.The fundamental thing: to be children again

Some of the best photographs of this book start from an idea that arose when reading a story for children or simply encouraging the child's game with an object and being attentive to what happens.

For most of his photographs, Manuel González is based on the following production scheme.First structure the basic composition of the subject with the elements of the scene, then add an object on which it is easy for him to direct the child's attention, here for example a butterfly was attached to the wall to attract the attention of the little.

And finally improves the image obtained in digital postproduction, by applying textures on the background and overlapping the other butterflies in several layers, adjusting their position to give greater dynamism to the composition.

The purpose of a good child photography should be to transmit the emotion of children, not only to capture their external features, but be able to achieve a timeless image that continues to move the family during the next few years.

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