Salaaam & Goodday fellassss,

My second tutorials on how i approach kids portraiture. The tutorial will be base on my own experience on shooting my own kids and my clients. So the tutorial can benefit anyone, not only photographers. Lots of parents now have their own digital slr. And lots of my friends has been asking me to do a workshop on basic photography.

Serius i do think, i’m still not at the level of giving workshop, teaching people. I’m still learning. Lots of people asking me about technical terms on photography, and most of the time, i could’nt answer.

So i will write the tips on this page based on own my experience. Stay tune

Chapter 1 : Introduction

I was not into kids but when Aqil (my son) joins the family in August 2007. I found them to be unique, innocent and cute little people that often open doors to unpredicted moments. They laugh, smile cries and those moment makes you smile when you look back at your pictures over the years.

It has been two years of shooting aqil, and as he grows up, it become harder to shoot them. They don’t really care, and just want to run, run and run!

Chapter 2 : Your photo stream, no albums.

# Online

Now most of us shoot digital, so i bet, most of you, 99% of your family photos now is in your computer. I would suggest you guys to spend on getting into a reliable online storage, as hard disk or cd/dvd may fails anytime. I would suggest flickr.com because of its affordable subscription. You can also set the albums to be private, as only you and your family can view it.

# On your hardisk

Have a proper folder name according to the dates. This is because you can easily track your oldest photos to the new ones. As for me ; i would name the folders as follows ;

09-01-30 GreatOceanRoadTrip ( Year-Month-Day ) ( the trip/event )

I would label each folder in color as to green (complete editing), yellow (in progress) and red (to edit).

Chapter 3 : Your camera

You don’t have to have a good camera to get a good photo. Just get a nice decent lense. I would recommend you to have at least;

# It can be a point & shoot camera like G9 or G10 ( i only know canon models )
# It can be your built-in phone camera
# It can be a nice entry-level digital slr with 50mm 1.8 lense that now may cost you less than 1.5k
# If you have the budget, for the awesome 1.2 & 1.4 L prime lenses! ( again Canon lol ) because of its superb color and sharpness

Chapter 3 : Shooting Tips

# Rule 1 : Manipulate the ‘Bokeh’ to compose simple images

As when i’m shooting, ‘bokeh’ will be my main priority to get simple image out of my kids. The ‘bokeh’ will blurred all the unpleasant sight on the background. But again, to get a nice ‘bokeh’ you’ll need nice lense with wide aperture capabilities.

My favourite lense would be the 70-200 L USM 2.8 lense ( might cost you around 4k for a second hand ) but the 135mm F2 is another beast that you might want to consider. Its a fix prime lense but you’ll get a nice sharp images, vibrant colors and a nice pastel-like ‘bokeh’

The images above  was shoot around a hotel poolside in Bali in 2007 during our three days family trip. I planned the shot so that Aqil ( my son ) plays with the water. As he likes to wear those red sunglass, i asked her mother to put on the glass. At the time, i was using 1D Mark II, superb high speed camera with 135mm F2 attached. Set to Aperture priority, i just shoot around 35 frame and selected this image as it reflects the best moment at the time. I chose an angle where i can get the depth nicely using the poolside and the water splash. I keep myself low as keep the composition simple.

Another lovely moment that i manage to capture during out trip to the Tulips Festival in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne. A yearly event that shouldn’t be missed just because of the photo opportunities. Upon arriving the first time, looking at the lovely tulips in rows, i knew i wanted to used the rows to composed my images. I let aqil runs through the small alleys and got the image above.

Naufal ( my friend’s eldest son ) giving a pose.

Aqil walking in the alleys . I wonder how he would react to this images in 20 years time.

Autumn is one of the best moment to capture your kids. Beautiful leaves everywhere. Just keep your camera low down and you’ll capture beautiful images. The images above was taken on a wooden playground. I saw the leaves on the wood and ask my wife to put him over and i’ll shoot from the other end. Just be careful on your child safety when shooting, for the above case, my wife is just nearby within her safe range.We went to Cherry Picking at the Red Hill and my son was wearing white shirt, a good contrast with the green bushesThe picture above again, was taken during our autumn trip to Bright, in Victoria. There was a short pipe at the lower part of the play area and a nice morning light towards the other side. I asked my wife to place my son and let the sun hit part of his face. I frame the big pipe as to compose my image.

My wife and son, on a tourist old train ride, as usual i want to take opportunities of the train to get my depth of field.

# Rule 2 : B&W Photos

When your photos turns out not to be interesting in B&W, just turn it into black & white and you’ll find its gives values to the images.

Stay tune to this page as i will be updating this tutorial from time to time, for the time being, enjoy few photos – archiprezmosis