…or ‘You must have a really good camera’

It is the comment that every photographer gets once in a while: ‘you take really good pictures, you must have a really good camera’.

I’m not sure how many times I’ve been told that and of course it’s true. But I’d like to think that I’m a fairly decent photographer too. I think that with digital cameras becoming quite amazing these days and every phone having a camera as well people are starting to realise that there is a difference between a great camera and great photographer.

So first of all if you want better pictures you don’t necessarily have to go out and get a better camera. You might really want one, you might feel that you’d take more pictures if you had one, that might actually be true (it happened to me 5 years ago) but you probably don’t need one. Now in many respects a newer, more expensive camera, be it a Digital SLR or a more expensive compact camera is capable of many really cool things, but in general what makes most people’s images very ordinary isn’t the number of megapixels or the lack of vibration reduction.

So here’s some things to try next time you take out the camera and aim it at your kids.

1. See things their way. There is a certain charm to taking photos of kids from your normal standing position. You’re photographing them as you see them, from above, often looking up at you. But try getting to their level, you’re seeing them as they see each other and it’s a very different perspective on things. So be prepared to squat down for your toddler or get right down on the carpet for your 6 month old.
2. All good portraits have eye contact: the photographer needs to ‘engage’ the subject but that’s not easy with young kids. Some kids love it of course and the more photos you take the more they don’t mind. But if they’re a little uninterested, line up your shot, get focussed and then try to attract their attention and try to capture the moment that they finally engage with you. Now I have been known to mention certain ‘magic words’ like ‘treat’ to get the very uninterested to react but of course you have to be prepared to follow through on it.
3. Be careful with flash. We all know the startled rabbit photos – red eyes or not. They’re not great. Red-eye reduction flash is clever but it takes all the spontaneity out of a photo because kids get mesmerised by the pre-flashes. But in general try and avoid flash indoors. There should be plenty of light near a window for most modern cameras. Work out how to turn the auto flash off and give it a try.
4. Step back a bit.  No-one looks good close up with a wide angle lens.  Most cameras power up with the lens set in the widest setting and many people snap away from there.  Wide angles are great for distorting perspective - close objects are bigger and further objects are smaller - great for isolating a subject with perspective, not so great for portraits.  If your camera has a zoom lens, zoom out and step back.  In general, the further away you are the more flattering it is for your subject, but make sure you still fill the frame.  Ideally I guess you’d be about 50-70% of the way out of your zoom (since most lenses are a little soft at the far end) but in any case go tele rather than wide.  It will also help isolate the subject from their background a bit and should make the flash less harsh (if you’re using flash).
5. Frame it.  People have a habit of looking into the screen (formerly known as a viewfinder!) and subconciously zooming with their eyes and not with the camera.  Look at the whole frame and make sure it is filled with your subject.
   
6. Avoid that Kodak Moment. Those old brownie cameras needed a lot of light and so they were mostly used on sunny days – that’s why most photographs were taken of people out enjoying their selves in the sun (which did wonders for Kodak). But in general direct sun is a problem: people squint into the sun; kids often just won’t look into the sun at all; if the sun is off to the side there will be some harsh, very unflattering shadows across their faces; with the sun on their backs people are a lot darker than their surroundings so many cameras will mess up the exposure. So if you’re out on a sunny day and want to take a family photo, find some shade. If you are faced with direct sun, now is the time to use flash. Take the flash out of auto mode and force it to fire every time. If your subject is pretty close it will help to fill out the harsh shadows created by direct sun.
7. Keep at it. As with any skill, the more you do the better you get. Take loads of photos, look at what works for you, do more. Try some new things, see if it helps. You should improve. The only thing to realise about taking photographs is that it takes you out of the moment. Sometimes it is better just to enjoy precious family time and keep it in your memory, rather than disrupting the moment by racing for the camera and screaming for everyone to turn around and look. You might get a photograph but whatever it was that you originally meant to capture might have gone forever.
8. Look at your photos: they are meant to be seen. We used to just toss photos into a drawer, these days they hide away on your hard drive. Print them, frame them, stick them on your fridge, get a digital photo frame (put it in the kitchen and not the lounge and remember to turn it on), set up your screensaver, whatever works but enjoy your photos, enjoy your memories.

Good luck and remember if you want really professional pictures, hire a professional photographer!

Here are some useful links:

• http://picasa.google.com a must have photo tool to find and manage all those photos hiding on your hard drive.  Also a lot of pretty handy editing tools are included.
• http://www.flickr.com share if you want to but definately browse and search and see what other photographers are doing, what you like and what you don’t like.
• http://www.gimp.org if you don’t have photoshop, GIMP is an extremely powerful image editing tool (and its free)
• http://www.roblambphoto.com shameless self-publicity