10 Tips To Get Started In Child & Family Portrait Photography

Posted on August 7, 2009

I’ve been shooting portrait photography in West Palm Beach, Florida for almost a year now. Prior to then I had studied photography about 20 years ago and had spent quite a bit of time working with film and processing it in a dark room. After school I had moved more into movie film and had shot a couple of short films and music videos. Back then I had felt this was a more creative outlet for me but a far less instantaneous form of satisfaction from what photography gives you. Anyway, since picking up a DSLR a year ago I’ve had to teach myself all over again how to take better pictures from learning these new fancy cameras to lighting techniques etc. I would also say that my style has changed a handful of times since day one. Someone asked me 6 months ago what my style was and I simply replied “what style?”. Now, things are slowly coming together and I can say that I have now found my style. Took a bit longer than I thought but I think I’m finally there. So if you’re just starting out here’s 10 things that I learned in the last year and hopefully they’ll give you a head start in becoming a better photographer. Oh, I should mention that I’ve had absolutely NO training or attended a single workshop so don’t think you need to either.

One last thing, there are plenty of articles out there that offer much more detailed and professional advice on techniques or business acumen. Advice from professionals that have been in the business for many years. What I’m offering is my observations from a newbie with only one year in the business. Hopefully you will find it useful!

1. Learn the basics: Exposure, Aperture, Shutter speed, ISO.

This is an obvious one but you’ll be surprised how many times I see newbie photogs shooting paid clients and not understanding these basic things. The first thing you need to do when you get your camera home is read the manual. Then go get a book like DSLR For Dummies. Spend every night of the first week with your new camera practicing these three basic functions. Shoot anything and everything in your home until the moment it clicks. Don’t worry about learning the f-stop scale for now. There are three modes you want to learn: Aperture priority, Shutter priority and manual mode. For portraits you can pretty much forget about shutter priority, so just learn how aperture priority mode works then as soon as you learn it, forget it and learn manual. I shoot EVERYTHING in manual mode! It’s REALLY easy to master. More on that later..

A great book to get you started is Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

2. Immerse yourself in photography.

Within the first month of getting my shiny new DSLR I had joined as many forums and discussion boards as possible. Get a Flickr account, join forums such as Opensourcephoto.net, photography-on-the.net etc. There are a wealth of resources online where you can ask questions (even dumb ones) whenever you get stuck or need help.

On Flickr: Strobist, Natural Child Light Child Photography, High School Seniors On The Creative Edge, Portrait Photography Business, Semi-Pro and Pro groups.

Spend as much time scouring these groups and forums and harvest the information available. On Flickr go through all of the photo pools and when you find an inspirational photo save it as a favorite and add that photog to your contact list. Every time a photog on your contact list uploads a new photo you’ll get a notification.

Soon enough your wife/husband/partner/kids/dog will get bored with your new hobby and you’ll be wanting to try new things. So what better time to go join local photography groups and clubs. Check meetup.com for local groups then go meet with other photographers. Surround yourself by other photogs whether they are newbies like you or pros. You’ll learn a lot more in a faster amount of time.

3. Learn how to light.

Lighting is one of the most important parts of photography, if not the most important part! I’m not going to give a lecture on lighting, there are tons of books and online sites to learn this stuff. I will give some tips though. First of all NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER use the flash on your camera. Forget it even exists! With that out of the way, I started learning off-camera flash (strobe) lighting before I learned anything about lighting. I’m not saying that’s the right way to do it and there are plenty of seasoned professionals who will tell you the correct way to learn lighting. I just found it easier to learn that way because I could control the light. If you’re learning to light using natural light you’ve got little control (without the use of modifiers) of controlling it. With off-camera flash you can control the light, experiment and understand the nature of it. So, with that being said the first thing I did was go buy an external flash and get it OFF the camera. To do that you’ll need either a brand specific flash that works wirelessly with your camera body (most if not all camera manufactures sell them, albeit at a hefty price). Or you can buy and old regular flash unit and a cheap method of triggering it. I won’t go into all the details but will point you to two places:

Strobist.com and the lighting 101 workshop, including his workshop DVD.
The Flickr group: strobist
Zack Arias: www.zarias.com and his one-light DVD.

Go read the entire 101 workshop by David Hobby and by the time you’ll be done you’ll know everything to get you started with off camera flash. Also pick up the book Light: Science & Magic

Okay, so with an understanding of light and how/where to use it you’re on the way to becoming a great photographer.

Before I even shot in natural light I was lighting everything with strobes. I really do believe this helped me a lot when it came to natural light (which I shoot most of the time now and only shoot with strobes in the studio or at night). I learned everything I needed to know about position of lights, quality of light, strength of light, modifying light etc. So when it came to natural light it just made it so much easier. Plus, there will be times when you shoot in a natural light scenario and you will need to use off-camera flash at the same time. For me it was easier to know how to use off camera flash, than being stuck in a situation where I need to use it but didn’t know how. Regardless of the outside shoot I’m on I always have at least one strobe and light modifier with me in my bag.

4. Shoot, shoot more and shoot again.

I’m not saying that you have to know all of the above prior to going out and shooting frames. Ideally you will at least be familiar with step #1 but you don’t have to be a master. In fact during all of the steps above you should have at least been firing off some frames. For portrait photography however, which is what I’m basing this article on, you should be at a point where you’re at least getting some poor soul into your back yard and shooting some images.

Here’s how I approached it: I’m lucky that I have two young kids who make for perfect subjects, and when they’re not around I also have a dog and three cats. Cats are the worst photo subjects mind you but my dog is pretty well trained and will sit there for a few minutes at a time while I fire off some shots (or until I run out of dog treats). Your goal here is to put everything above into practice. What happens when you open/close the aperture, or change your shutter speed, or increase your ISO? Where is the light coming from? How is it falling on your subject? Is it soft or hard light? What is in and out of focus? All of these questions should be popping into your head as you review every frame in your camera. Again, I’m not going to go into much detail here because all of the books and resources mentioned above do a damn good job at explaining it, but what I will tell you is some of the methods I use:

Jpg vs RAW: Simply put if your camera has RAW capability then you should use it. The first day I got my camera I turned the setting to RAW and it’s never been touched since. RAW can at times save your behind in post production. It gives you much more latitude for correcting exposure problems in post. For more resources see this article.

Some tips for shooting in natural light:

Before you shoot a single frame find the best, quality light possible. I only shoot two times a day: Early morning or late evening. I NEVER accept an engagement between these times. Sure others will tell you it’s possible, I just don’t do it. It makes my life so much easier.

Wait for cloud cover or open shade. It took me a while to understand open shade, or at least where to find it. Now it is one of the first things I look for when I get to the location.

Okay, so you booked your client for a 1pm session at the park and there’s not a cloud in the sky. What do you do? Well, if open shade isn’t available this is where your off-camera ninja like skills are going to come into play. Find the best shaded place and light your subjects with your flash and light modifier. Or if you can’t find any shade at all (you are stuck in the middle of a field say) then position your subject so the sun is behind and off to the side then use flash to fill the shadows. Failing all of that, just shoot into the sun for some great back lit summery type pictures (see picture below).

Example backlit shot using sun for nice flare effect

5. Composition.

This step might be more at home in the earlier steps of this article, however I believe composition is just one of those things that comes over time. Once you know the basics such as the rule of thirds you’re pretty much on the way to getting composition right. For example, unless I’m setting up a specific pose where I’ll be strategically placing the subject, I’ll usually shoot with some composition in mind taking into account the subject and surroundings. And at times I don’t have time to think about composition (candid child portraits for example) and will just take the shot and then figure out the composition later. This is where your post processing (PP) kicks in (something I haven’t got to yet in this article). In PP you can then play with the shot and find the best visual appealing composition by cropping the image. My wife, who would constantly be looking over my shoulder while I edited, would always complain that I cut off people’s heads. Here’s the thing, back then my style was very tightly shot portraits (head and shoulders) and I would always move the subject so their eyes aligned within the top left and right thirds on the grid (remember, rule of thirds). There is absolutely nothing wrong with this so don’t be afraid to do it. Lately though I’ve been shooting more life-style like portraits and so my shots are not as tight as they used to be.

6. Lenses and moving away from the kit lens.

One of the biggest realizations and WOW moments in the time since I’ve been shooting has been when I’ve upgraded my lens. The kit lens, which will be typically a zoom offering a wide angle to somewhat of a medium focal length ie. 17-70mm, is great for learning photography but useless for *real* photography. Others may beg to differ and may shoot a lot of commercial stuff with their kit lens. Hats off to them for that. I simply found the kit lens restrictive and frustrating at the same time. I would spent countless nights staring at other photographer’s work, photogs that used the same camera body, and compare the quality of their photos to mine (mine were always a thousand times worse for some reason). But there’s no better feeling when you mount that new lens and it just adds a whole new level to your work and you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. That being said, here’s how I approached it:

Shoot with your kit lens for your first week with your new camera, take it off the camera put it in the box and store in the closet. Don’t reach for it until you’re either a) broke and need to put it on ebay b) you lost all your other lenses in a freak accident and need *something* to get you by (even then I probably wouldn’t even bother or c) your wife/husband/partner wants to borrow your camera and take a few pics. If you’re going to spend a good amount of money on a state-of-the-art DSLR at least buy some decent prime lenes, which brings me to:

Prime lenses: Fixed, focal length lenses such as 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm etc. I shoot with Canon gear and so the first two lenses I bought were the 50mm 1.8 (nifty fifty) and the 85mm 1.8. These two lenses were already in the shopping cart when I ordered the camera body. Together, you can buy both lenses for about $400. I shot for 6 months with only these two lenses and they are great lenses to get started. If I was shooting outside I would always shoot with the 85mm 1.8. The quality and sharpness from this lens is wonderful. If I was shooting inside, say in the studio, I would go for the 50mm everytime. Why? Because the 85mm is a little too long to be shooting indoors. The other thing I found with zoom lenses is it can make you a little lazy with your composition. Instead of physically moving around to find the best angle or distance to shoot from with a zoom I’d just zoom in tight or pull back and forget all about the creativity of the shot. With the primes I’m constantly moving around, ducking down low or climbing on chairs/walls etc. to get the best looking shot.

Lens rentals: In total I think I’ve blown about the same amount of money as the two lenses above, as I have renting them. Why? Well for me it’s all a question of what are the possibilities, what can I do to make my work better. It could take some individuals years to save up enough to money to purchase a quality piece of glass. For example, I just needed to see what Canon’s L series glass looked like and so far I’ve rented the 85mm 1.2 ($1600), 24-70mm 2.8 ($1300), 50mm 1.2 ($1200), 135mm 2.0 ($1200). All of which are Canon’s top of the range luxury line of lenses. Could I afford to go out and buy any of these lenses right away? NO. Did it make my photos look any better? You betcha! My point being that you should at least at one point during the first few months of purchasing your new camera go and rent a top of the line lens so you can see the difference between that and a $300 or kit lens. Renting a lens will cost you, on average, about $50 for a weeks rental. My last point being that glass is very important. Camera bodies come and go but good glass will stay with you forever.

Lens rental services that are AWESOME: www.lensrentals.com, www.rentglass.com. Rentglass.com is based in Orlando, Florida and is superfast service for me (next day delivery). Rentals a are cheap at both places and it’s great to try out a $1500 dollar lens for only $50.

Note about my shooting style: For portraits where there are less than a couple of subjects, I typically shoot as wide open as my lens will allow me, that is the sharpest point on my lens. For example, my 35mm f2.0 is very sharp around f2.8. So I try to always shoot at f2.8. I LOVE shallow depth of field (DOF) shots which make for a beautiful portrait with the subject’s eyes in focus and the background a beautiful, creamy blur.

7. Portfolio building.

There will come a point, typically within the first month, where your current subjects (wife/husband/partner/dog) get fed up with having their picture taken and you’ll be forced to move on from your comfort zone and find some *real* subjects to practice on. Not only that, but you’ll already be thinking about building a portfolio of work so that you can attract the real paying clients. This is typically called Portfolio Building (PB’ing) and basically means you spending a lot of time with complete strangers, for free, but in return for practice and to use their pictures in your own portfolio. So how do you go about doing this? Well there are multiple ways to do this but the best place to start is with relatives then move onto friends, or your wife/husband/partner’s friends and finally to complete strangers (probably from Craigslist!). Starting out I believe I shot in the region of 20 or so sessions before I had an adequate portfolio to show people. Today most of those earlier photos are not in my portfolio but they all gave me great practice and helped me take my photography to the next level. Remember it’s all about the practice so your subjects don’t all have to be extremely beautiful. Typically at the beginning I’d shoot anything. The key is to just keep shooting and eventually everything will fit into place.

8. Your branding.

You may or may not have seen this mentioned around the web. Branding is not a new thing but it is very important to you as a professional photographer. Branding is all about you, your work and how you are perceived out there in the industry. I’m not an expert on branding since I’m still working on my own brand, but I can tell you it surpass just having a web presence, a cool logo and a stack of business cards. Strive to create a product that others can buy into, whether it’s filling a niche market or a visual style that separates you from other photogs. For example, I am striving to create a visual style of senior photography in my area that stands out from anything else done here. That starts with a good portfolio, a consistent web presence, a word of mouth buzz amongst the social groups down here. Am I there yet? Nope, far from it. But that’s my goal and something that makes me want to be better every time I take a picture.

There are two photogs in the industry who I think stand out when it comes to branding: Chase Jarvis and Nick Onken. I believe these two guys really know about branding and the importance of it. Check out the links and their discussions on the subject.

9. Dealing with clients.

So you’ve mastered your camera and your lighting. You have a wicked portfolio that is screaming for attention. You have a kick-ass website and blog and some branding of some sort. And you finally get your first client knocking on your door. What do you do? Okay, first of all if you are like me you’re probably at this point really excited. Finally someone has recognized your talent and ready to give you a shot. Then nerves set in along with self-doubt and you begin to feel the pressure to deliver. Okay, take a deep breath… First of all if you’ve been PB’ing up until this point (which I hope you have) you should not be worried about the session itself, because you’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. But to ease your mind here’s a few useful tips I’ve picked up along the way:

Set expectations: Probably the most important part now that you’re dealing with someone willing to give you their hard earned cash for a piece of art to hang on their wall. By setting expectations you are avoiding any disasters that could evolve later on down the road. You need to talk to your client and understand what their expectations are, what type of pictures they want to get. Hopefully, you’ve attracted a client that came to you because they like your visual style. At the beginning I was attracting the wrong client and found that when I delivered the photos the client was disappointed because they were not what they were expecting. By setting their expectations, or understanding their own up front this could have been avoided. If your style is creative, life-style portraits then make sure your clients know this. Sometimes your client may need a little educating, which is fine. The first thing I ensure is they’ve seen my portfolio and then I allow them to ask any questions. Make sure your client understands your pricing and whether you have a session fee, and when it’s due (mine is due on making the appointment). If you are shooting at your client’s home or on location then there is some homework you can do before hand. Look up the client’s home at maps.google.com and you should be able to get a good view of the client’s home and surrounding area. I’ve used this method many times and have lucked out by finding neighboring parks, or a lake nearby. Knowing this information up front gives me additional ideas prior to the shoot and means there is less time spent when I get there, scratching my head and trying to figure out where to shoot. Of course depending on the lighting available when you get there may change this.

Keep a journal with all of your ideas in it. Whenever I see a photo I like on a photogs site, I’ll print it out and put it in my book for inspiration. Take your book with you and keep it in your bag or car and then should you run out of ideas have quick look through your journal for inspiration.

The key thing I tell my clients is that it will be fun, and I go out of my way to make it so, especially when there are small children involved. I have found plenty of good advice in the book Photographing Children Photo Workshop by Ginny Felch and Allison Tyler Jones. There is also a wealth of advice on the Natural Child Lighting group on Flickr.

10. There is no spoon.

At the end of the day the key is to master you camera and lighting. Create your branding, your website and blog, your logo and business cards. Build a great looking portfolio. Generate great word of mouth through friends, social networking such as Facebook etc. And remember there are no hard rules you must follow. If you can create visual images that people will enjoy and gladly pay for it then the rest will fall into place.

I hope you find some of these tips useful and give you a good start towards a very rewarding hobby or career. Good luck!