Groups of children
Jun 5, 2015 20:00:10 #
I will be taking pictures of children at a church vacation bible school. I have recently starting visiting this church so I don't know any of their names. Any suggestions on how to get their attention, make them smile or laugh, maybe hold their arms up. I'm really looking for fun funny questions or things to say or do that would make them react to me as I take the pictures. Thanks in advance for thoughts. Connie
Jun 5, 2015 20:13:29 #
ConnieLynn wrote:
I will be taking pictures of children at a church vacation bible school. I have recently starting visiting this church so I don't know any of their names. Any suggestions on how to get their attention, make them smile or laugh, maybe hold their arms up. I'm really looking for fun funny questions or things to say or do that would make them react to me as I take the pictures. Thanks in advance for thoughts. Connie
In my experience taking shots of children is that calling their attention to the camera is not a good idea. Many children say cheese or give a fake smile. Spend a little time watching them interact, be patient & if you can get a helper or two to help keep them in one place during an activity & to talk to them about the things that are of interest to them. It would help to know the ages of the children. Some techniques work better than others depending on the age groups. Bab
Jun 5, 2015 20:29:24 #
I had to photograph children and I got the host to put name tags on each child so I could call them by name. The look on there face was all it took.
Jun 5, 2015 21:13:14 #
Grammieb1 wrote:
In my experience taking shots of children is that calling their attention to the camera is not a good idea. Many children say cheese or give a fake smile. Spend a little time watching them interact, be patient & if you can get a helper or two to help keep them in one place during an activity & to talk to them about the things that are of interest to them. It would help to know the ages of the children. Some techniques work better than others depending on the age groups. Bab
There will be classes of kindergarten to sixth grade. I will ask the teacher of the classes to help and hopefully they will look at her. In areas that I can I plan to use a tripod and remote shutter release so I can move away from the camera a bit. I want to be prepared for being the one to get their attention if the teacher is not able to help. At snack and craft time I hope to get some candid shots. I'm pretty sure they will have name tags, someone told me last year they had about 75 kids. I won't be the only photographer.
Jun 5, 2015 22:34:32 #
ConnieLynn wrote:
I will be taking pictures of children at a church vacation bible school. I have recently starting visiting this church so I don't know any of their names. Any suggestions on how to get their attention, make them smile or laugh, maybe hold their arms up. I'm really looking for fun funny questions or things to say or do that would make them react to me as I take the pictures. Thanks in advance for thoughts. Connie
A friend is a P.E. instructor in a K-12 school. For the young children he uses colors and games to keep the kids under his command. It works incredibly well with a certain amount of creativity, "Everyone with green smile and clasp their hands together" will include many of the kids in a group, figure out another setting for the rest. You are dead if you try to offer the camera as a carrot on the stick, they see right through that feeble attempt. Be honest and talk to them in a manner they can understand without preaching to them, or ordering them around. To a kid in kindergarten everyone is a friend, be one and they will follow your suggestions. GL
Jun 6, 2015 00:05:16 #
Jun 6, 2015 07:06:03 #
APB
Loc: UK
Grammieb1 wrote:
In my experience taking shots of children is that calling their attention to the camera is not a good idea. Many children say cheese or give a fake smile. Spend a little time watching them interact, be patient & if you can get a helper or two to help keep them in one place during an activity & to talk to them about the things that are of interest to them. It would help to know the ages of the children. Some techniques work better than others depending on the age groups. Bab
You need an assistant to play around with a crazy puppet directly behind you just as you want to shoot - almost foolproof!
Jun 6, 2015 09:26:05 #
ralphc4176
Loc: Conyers, GA
What I do for situations like that is to take many candid shots of the children engaging in some activity, showing as many faces as I can in one shot. If they want a group picture, the leaders assemble the children, and I take numerous shots and pick the best one later. One thing I found to get them to smile is to count up--one, two, three, GRUNT. That gets many of them to smile briefly.
Jun 6, 2015 10:21:54 #
Walk around with the kids before you begin shooting, tell them that you're going to come by later and take pictures of their activities. Let them get use to you being there. I typically shoot kids with two lenses, a wide angle and a 35mm. With the wide I shoot up close to the action and I use my 35 for individual faces. With younger kids get on the ground or hold the camera low to avoid those top of the head shots. Try saying "don't smile," when shooting a group, almost always works.
Jun 6, 2015 11:01:23 #
Jun 6, 2015 15:52:15 #
htsmith wrote:
I had to photograph children and I got the host to put name tags on each child so I could call them by name. The look on there face was all it took.
The tags are a good idea. It would get a good look there on their faces.
Jun 6, 2015 16:25:34 #
If you get a chance to do each child tether camera to laptop name file child's name and class. Chance to make cash or a donation with ad motion clip 10 sec per child (what do you want to do when you grow up) slide show everything, cd, your name address telephone number. At $5 you have paid for supplies big plus is the ad
Jun 6, 2015 17:28:48 #
Everyone has given me some great ideas. Thanks. I only have one camera body, D7000 and plan to use my 17-50mm 2.8 with sb700 flash. This should work. Don't know what kind of lighting is in the rooms so using flash with diffuser. Again thanks to everyone.
Jun 6, 2015 19:04:37 #
Jun 10, 2015 13:33:32 #
Hey everyone, turns out there are some many kids there no one is able to get them still for more than 3 minutes. I have just taken candid shots all week and it has been find. So I was afraid on nothing. Thanks Connie
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