Tip Number 4: How to take Great Baby Pictures

Here are some tips on getting some great pictures of your baby!

1.  Snap away and delete the ones you don't like.
     Taking pictures of babies is different than taking pictures of adults.  Sounds like common sense right?  But too many people tend to take only one or two pictures of babies (like they would for adults) and wonder why their pictures were blurred or that the baby's eyes were closed.  The fact of the matter is, babies are unpredictable and they pretty much do what they want, when they want.  So as the photographer, we must adjust to them.  Patience is the key here.  Rather than taking a picture and walk away, point the camera to the baby, focus the lens, wait, and snap continuously when picture taking opportunities arise.  This does not guarantee a great shot, but at least you will have maybe ten to choose from, rather than one.

2.  Have someone attract the baby's attention immediately above or next to your lens.
     The most helpful thing a helper (mom, dad, aunt, etc) can do is to help get the baby's attention and somehow help squeeze a smile or giggle from the baby.  However, if the helper is standing to the far right, the baby will be looking up and to his far left rather than looking forward to the camera.   Unless you want a picture of the baby looking up and to the left, have your helpers attract the baby's attention towards the lens.  Doing this will increase your chances of getting a nice shot of the baby's facial expressions.

3.  Focus on the eyes and smile.
     Arguably, the most interesting parts of a baby are her eyes and smile.  So why don't we fill the frame and focus on those two things?  When taking pictures of babies, I use a big aperture (f1.8 to 2.8) and focus on either the eyes or smile because I want to bring that part of the face out.  Using such a big aperture focuses on a single point and everything else becomes somewhat less focused, which actually brings out the point of focus even more.

Notice how the focus is on the eyes and not on the baby's entire face in these two pictures.

4.  Move around!
     Babies can't move, so you should!  Many times, people stay in one spot and take a bunch of shots of the baby from the same level and angle.  The result is that you get a bunch of similar looking pictures.  So my advice is to first get low to the baby's eye level and take pictures from there.  Once you have enough of those, stand up and get some pictures of the baby looking up at you.  Then try other angles and levels like going to either the right or the left of the baby. Take pictures of the baby from a variety of angles and levels and you will get some pretty interesting shots!

5.  Take close-ups.
     Babies are small by nature, so why don't we help them appear bigger by zooming in?  Doing this will enhance the baby's features and bring focus to details.  You should not feel the need to capture the baby's entire body or face even.  Framing the shot so that only parts of the face is showing can lead to interesting shots.

6.  Use manual mode if you have a dSLR.
     I used to use aperture mode to take pictures of babies, but many of my shots were blurred because the camera sets the shutter speed, and more often than not, the shutter speed was way too slow.  I did not like using the shutter mode because it doesn't allow me to select my aperture, and as previously discussed, selecting a desired aperture is desirable!  Soooo, I've resorted to using manual mode.  I generally keep my aperture around f2.8 to f4.0 and use shutter speeds anywhere from 1/100 to 1/3200 of a second, depending on how bright the environment is.

Those are my baby picture taking tips.  Try them out and see if you are able to get better shots of your baby!


Check out the babies page on my blog for more examples
http://lusalaiphotography.blogspot.com/p/babies.html

Tip Number Three: Improve your Pictures Instantly! Using the Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is not really a "rule," but more so a guideline that helps your pictures become more interesting and balanced.  The idea emerged from painters hundreds of years ago and photographers have adopted the rule to help create a more balanced picture.  The belief is that images should never have equal parts because the equal parts tend to steal attention away from each other.  Hence, an image should always have a principle subject, and everything else in that picture exists purely to enhance that principle.  If this does not make sense, think back to your high school or college writing class because this idea is somewhat analogous to writing a persuasive essay.  You need your main argument and all the mumbo-jumbo in your paper needs to support your thesis to make it believable.  If you have two or possibly even three theses in a paper, your ideas are too scattered and your paper becomes confusing or uninteresting.  Now let's look at what the Rule of Thirds means in in photography.

Look at the image below and imagine the grid layered on top of your image.  

The Rule of Thirds is quite simple actually.  Basically, to follow the Rule of Thirds, all you need to do is to place your subject along one of the lines or place your subject where the lines intersect.  To put this more simply, all you need to do is imagine a grid on your viewfinder when taking a picture, and place your subject somewhere on the grid.  Following the Rule of Thirds is one of the easiest and simplest way to immediately enhance your photo's composition.  

I included some examples below to help make this idea more clear.

In this image, the subject's eyes are aligned with the top horizontal line (you have to imagine the grid) and her body is aligned with the right vertical line.  Compare this picture with the following picture where the Rule of Thirds is not followed, then decide for yourself.  Which picture looks more pleasing to you?

This is the exact same image, but the picture was cropped so that the subject was more or less centered in the middle of the photo.  Her body has moved closer to the middle and her eyes are slightly above the top horizontal grid line.  I don't know about you, but this picture feels cramped to me, especially because her fingertips are right next to the edge of the image.  

One more example for landscape photographers =)

The subject here is the dandelion (again, you have to imagine the lines).  The dandelion is placed where the lower horizontal and right vertical lines intersect.  Now I'm going to crop this exact picture so that the dandelion is centered.  Watch what happens.

In this picture, the dandelion is centered in the middle.  How do you think this picture compares to the first?

Now that you've seen a few examples of what the Rule of Thirds entail, try taking some pictures using the rule as a guideline and determine whether you like the results of using the rule.  Remember, the "rule" is more so a guideline and there really are no right or wrong answers.  Rules are meant to guide you and should not dictate your creativity.  So I say, use the rule to your advantage when you want, but always stick to what looks best to you!

Follow this link to more visual examples!

http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1107&bih=873&q=rule+of+thirds&gbv=2&oq=rule+of+th&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=863l1852l0l3192l10l7l0l0l0l0l174l897l1.6l7l0