Toddler Portraits

Andy77

Andy77

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Hey peeps, im been asked to take some portraits of a close friends little baby boy aged 8months, just looking for idea's and camera settings of how to get the best/sharpest shots, will be shooting indoors with a canon 40d and either a canon 17-85 IS or tamron 17-50 2.8 lso have a 430ex flash....:thumbs:

Thanks Andy
 
Can be difficult - try to find a plain background, and get down low, and ask his Mum or Dad to stand right behind you or off to the side, and entertain him - games of 'peepo' etc. Distraction and entertainment are the key.

Shoot at about 50mm or more on the 17-85 for the best quality. Try different apertures, set the flash to high speed sync and keep the shutter speed high, min 1/250th.

Hope this helps!
 
On a similar note I am interested in this as well. I have just become an Uncle and would like to take some of my Nephew. I would be shooting with an 18-55mm nikon lens on a D40. I'm a relative newby, especially portrait stuff. I would like to avoid using flash if possible. Any tips and help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry to hi-jack the thread but didn't think it was worth starting another.

Thanks Mark
 
Window light will be your best friend if yuo can find that? Plain sheets look very poor if you can't light them correctly imo.

Apart from one outside, these were all inside with window light although I was using a 50mm f1.4

Blank wall is also useful. Best tip is get low down to their level. Don't have them looking up all the time.

Rebeccamulti.jpg
 
Cheers peeps for the tips.................:thumbs:
 
Andy77 said:
Hey peeps, im been asked to take some portraits of a close friends little baby boy aged 8months, just looking for idea's and camera settings of how to get the best/sharpest shots, will be shooting indoors with a canon 40d and either a canon 17-85 IS or tamron 17-50 2.8 lso have a 430ex flash....:thumbs:

Thanks Andy
Click to expand...

high shutter speed...carpe diem
 
Thanks for the replys guys, whats the best shooting mode and focus mode to use? i would have thought ai focus would be best but i may be wrong.....:thumbs:
 
Andy77 said:
Thanks for the replys guys, whats the best shooting mode and focus mode to use? i would have thought ai focus would be best but i may be wrong.....:thumbs:
Click to expand...

thats all i use...try to keep ahead of the game...:)
 
Andy77 said:
Thanks for the replys guys, whats the best shooting mode and focus mode to use? i would have thought ai focus would be best but i may be wrong.....:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Really depends how you're shooting. If the kids are running around yes you really need to be able to track them so AI is useful for that.
 
Yes, you need a fast shutter speed and crank off lots of frames. I'd aim at 1/200th sec. Get there by using a 50mm f1.4 set to f2.0. Crank the ISO right up and don't worry too much about noise, as you can apply a lot of noise reduction on these sort of shots. A bit of 'haziness' is OK. Best light is window light made diffuse with a large white sheet or blinds, otherwise a couple or umbrellas with strobe units. An old roll of carpet hung up in a curve to fill the background might be preferable to a traditional paper background. They'll prefer to sit and play in that. Get one parent to stand directly behind you and the other to wrangle the child into position. Personally I hate high-key child photos as that style has been totally done to death, and shows little imagination, but ultimately it's the parent's decision of course. I also don't tend to crank up the saturation of the eye colour too much. Another pet peeve of mine. Lifelike is best. Anything else will age badly in years to come as fashions change.
 
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