How to Photograph Your Child and their Valentine

PHOTO RECIPE:  LOVE AFFAIR BETWEEN KIDS AND LOVEYS (How to Photograph Your Child and Their Valentine)

WHEN:  Early afternoon, when kids are rested and still feeling full from breakfast, and in the mood to snuggle with loveys.

PREP:  Have your children gather their favorite lovey.  Be prepared for them to bring a whole bunch, but this will make it more like a fun activity that you get to do together.  Enjoy!

FOR P&S USERS:  Turn off your camera flash, and set your camera to Portrait mode.  This will help you capture the beautiful window light and natural colors.  Portrait mode will either be the capital P on your camera or the little head icon.  This mode will tell the camera to soften the background but keep your subject in focus.

FOR DSLR USERS:  Turn off your flash (that thing is always evil!).  Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, and set your aperture to f/2.8 for the most blur in your background (and most light).  If your photos are still coming out too dark, try bumping up your ISO.  My DSLR settings for this photo were f/2.8, shutter speed 1/80th of a second, and ISO 800.  I shot this with my Sony mirrorless camera and 55mm f/1.8 lens (love those fixed lenses for buttery, blurry backgrounds!).  CLICK HERE to see this gear and everything else in my post, What’s in My Camera Bag for Portraits.

Now Dive into Composition!

COMPOSE: How you compose this photo depends on two things; what your child’s lovey is and what emotion are wanting to evoke.  Pascaline’s lovey portrait had to be a horizontal composition.  It will make total sense when you see what it is on the Babble post.  But this portrait of family squirrels with Blaze seemed to be tight and intimate if I framed it vertically.  Have fun playing around!

CAPTURE:  I love the idea of not focusing on the child’s eyes for this photo but focusing on the Lovey(s) instead.

GOING OUTSIDE:  If you go outside to take a photo of your child and lovey, bring down your ISO to 100 because you’ll have plenty of light outdoors.  Keep your f-stop at f/2.8 for that buttery, blurry background.  And try your shutter speed at 1/250th of a sec.  If the photo is to bright, drive faster (which means go faster in your shutter speed. Make that shutter speed 1/320 or 1/400).  If your photo is to dark, drive slower.  (slow your shutter speed down to 1/125th of a sec).  Keep your ISO and Aperture settings the same, so you can have fun finessing the light with your shutter speed.  More info on capturing great photos in our latest FREE Video Tutorial, Capture Her World, below!