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Summertime Digital Photography - Teen Model v the Kids
Summertime... Summertime... Summertime...
You love your kids but there under you feet all day and you don't get a chance to try out your new digital point-and-shoot camera. Well here's a suggestion... Why not take the little dears to the beach, believe me you wont get a better set of little models.
Maybe you have just opened up you new digital camera and you have been reading up on all it's great features that these incredible latest cameras posses and your can't wait to try them out. Get yourself together and plan a trip to the beach and find out how simple it is to get it right.
For the serious minded hobby photographer, or if you happen to be thinking of going pro one day, why not go practice your photo technique with your new digital SLR camera, plus the new teen model you have just discovered.
However, if you are just out with the kids and your headed for the beach to get some great photos with your digital point-and-shoot camera, be careful not to expose your kids to the sun before applying a sunscreen to prevent their skin from sunburn.
Here's a tip that will also help. The best time of the day for photography is either 2-3 hours before sunset, or 2-3 hours after sunrise. This is when the lighting is much better for outdoor photography as the sunlight is soft giving you better images. The biggest advantage is that the sunlight is less lightly to cause any serious harm to your kids.
When you've arrived at the beach, set your camera to the AUTO setting and forget about all the problems you use to have with older cameras. This will give you time to think about your picture composition. The next step is to learn more about your digital camera and get even better results.
The first rule when photographing children it to get down to their level, by kneeling or lying down. Secondly take a few seconds to check what is in the background of your photo and make sure there's not a lamppost growing out of the top of their heads.
Now here is a very important rule that will make your photos look professional and that is simply move in closer to your models, or zoom in to fill the frame of the picture. Don't be afraid to fill your frame with your kids faces for example, this will add a dramatic impact on you images.
Take a few seconds to frame your photo carefully and make sure that the background is not cluttered and be sure to fill the frame with their lovely faces! You will be pleasantly surprised at the professional looking results!
You may also be aware that your kids don't take too kindly to staying in one place for any time longer than a few seconds, so choose your camera 'moments' carefully. By that I mean, if your on the beach and your kids are building sand castles for example, they have something to keep them occupied and in one place for more than five seconds. This is your chance to get some great shots, it will also give you time to compose the photo, following the suggestions made above. You could also set your camera to Continuous Shooting mode, capturing up to three photos a second and in this way you are more lightly to get a great image from the selection.
Another idea is to set up what would look like a candid shot while suggesting to the kids what to do, sometimes it can work quite well. Or just keep following them around, remember your on a photo mission and not there to enjoy yourself by sitting around, well at least until you have some memorable images to take home with you. Keep in mind to shoot from low level and keep you models in close up.
I will repeat these two main points one more time, get down to their level and fill the frame with your kids in close up.
Now for the more advanced worker and especially if your thinking of going pro sometime in the future. We will assume that you have sorted out a teen bikini model and together with her Mom your headed to the beach and you've brushed up on how to pose your model
Careful planning of you photo shoot, whether it's with the kids or a teen model, should be the normal way of thinking, but it's vitally more important if you propose to shoot a teen model at a semi pro photo beach location. There are several reasons for this and the first must be that you are taking your photography more seriously, possibly with the view of moving up to a pro and if that is the case, you will have to think in terms of paying modeling fees... No room here for any mistakes.
Most pro photographers would have visited the proposed location a day or two in advance of the photo shoot and at around the same time of day they intend to shoot the pictures. They would not only be checking out the backgrounds but making a careful note of the lighting conditions they will find.
Remember, the best time of the day for a location photo shoot is 2-3 hours before sunset or 2-3 after sunrise, this is when the the shadows are long and the light is soft and ideal for a fashion shoot.
If you planning on going pro or at least if you are taking your photography seriously, you would be wise to use either a pro digital SLR camera, or a semi pro SLR digital camera such as the Canon EOS digital Rebel XTi, this is a great entry level SLR digital camera to start with and many pros use them for light commercial work.
The most important part of your planning for your photo shoot, is to create a list, writing down what digital photography equipment you need to take with you, typically a SLR digital camera, two different focal length zoom lenses, camera bag, separate flash gun, tripod. Also make a list of the shots you want to achieve and you will need to make a list of the garments that the model will need to bring with her.
You could be teaching yourself valuable lessons, keeping in mind that you are beginning to think professionally and as you progress from semi to pro photographer, this will help with your future success, especially if you plan to turn professional one day.
Much of the above advice in photographing your kids, should be applied when shooting your teen model, such as shooting from a low angle to bring impact to your shot. Framing your image carefully and checking out your backgrounds to avoid clutter. Applying these simple rules, you are not only making you images stand out as a professional photographer, but bring eye contact to the clothes the model is wearing.
This is what your client could be looking for in your images, but keep in mind that it's OK to break rules and if your model is on the ground it could be good to shoot from a higher camera angle.
If you model is in a standing pose, a general rule here for fashion photography is that the camera height should be the same height as your knee. Therefore it would be a good thing to follow some of the camera angle suggestions, giving you a chance after to be more creative and show other ideas as well. If you have a client in tow who has commissioned you for the photo shoot, he will surely be impressed with your work.
It will be necessary to use a separate flash unit for your photo shoot as the cameras built in flash is simply not powerful enough for a pro shoot. You will also have to work with your separate flash gun set to 'AUTO', used at a ratio of 1-2.
Let's explain, cutting through the technical jargon. Suppose your using a Digital camera setting ISO 100 and your can see that camera meter is telling you need an exposure of say 200/second at f11, a flash ratio of 1 to 2 simply means that you set the separate flash on AUTO to f8. This will reduce the power of the flash.
If you set the flash also to f11 the same as the exposure, your image will be over exposed. Be careful not to set your cameras shutter speed faster than the cameras recommended flash sync speed, usually 200/second.
I personally like to work with the camera set to Shutter Priority and read the f. stop number in camera and then set my separate flash unit to the AUTO setting and the appropriate f. number.
To shoot action shots of your model, jumping, somersaults etc, first turn off the flash and then set you camera mode to the "SPORTS" setting. You will find in the summer on a beach for example, your exposure could be as high as 800 - 1,000/ second, which is more than enough to freeze the action. The f.stop setting will change to suite the shutter speed. Pro Photographers use this setting for action photography.
