Some advise needed on children's portraits

So in a couple of weeks our youngest,her hubby and three grandchildren are coming to stay for a holiday, i am so looking forward to seeing them, although we all stay in touch with emails, phone and photo's, it's not very often i get to actually see them.

They are always sending me photo's, but between me you and the gate post, they are not that good, i want to take a group portrait shot of the kids to frame and put on my cabinet.

Any advise would be really helpful, i've never had a go at portraits or people in fact, i was hoping to take a studio looking photo, so is it worth me investing in some lightning? my hubby has some industrial lights not really sure they will help

the youngest two children are only 2 and 3, so i think i need to get it all sort first and have a practise, before sitting them in front of the camera, as i'm sure they won't want to sit there for long

And any suggestions to what i can use for a backdrop ?????

The best back drop you can use is the open air.

Outside portraits look the best with natural lighting. Also the kids will keep more interested if you take some toys along to the local park or field or beach.

Get the kids playing with the toys and snap away.

Look up some photographers and take some ideas

http://www.barefoot-memories.com/mainmenu/#/portfolio/


http://www.kidsnaturally.com/galleri...y-gallery.html

Try this. Sit the kids by/in a window with natural light coming from one side. Get somebody (out of shot) to hold a reflector on the other side. A siver sun reflector for a car windscreen will do admirably.

Moving the reflector slightly for different shots will alter the lighting markedly, so experiment and take as many shots as you need to be satisfied.

Take a few shots with the automatic settings for portraiture.

Make a note of the settings and try to emulate them with the camera set to manual, then experiment with different shutter speeds and aperture setting to get the effect that you want. eg: the wider the aperture, the better the bokeh.

Lastly, I tell the younger kids that a little man will pop out of the camera lens, take their picture and pop back into the camera so quickly, they will have a job to see him.

Then we have a game of spot the little man and you get some real concentration from the kids.

Hope this helps.

It's all been said above - just wanted to say good luck, and hope we get to see the shots if you're comfortable with posting them!

xx

Thanks for the advise and links jols I think, weather permitting the garden maybe the best backdrop i have





Thank you for the advise Fogey I'm looking forward to having a go at this


Thanks Zoundz I will see how the end results turn out

Posed studio photos of children look so set up and not what they are normally like. As others have said try in a garden some candid shots so much more natural.

Bazza