Pixiq

I remember a very famous photographer in Manhattan, years ago—I won’t mention his name. He was a grumpy old man and frankly I don’t know how he managed to get good photos of children; I know because my daughter modeled for him. However, his stylist and the people around him were very sweet. I guess it worked because everybody else on the set was nice and he would just click the camera. Nevertheless, if you’re going to photograph children professionally it sure helps if you like them. I love them and they know it. It’s not something you can fake—they are remarkably astute and are turned off by phoniness.

I love to work with young children—the key is to have fun and let them do their thing. You say, “Okay, let’s do your dance,” and they play. Older children can be more selfconscious and less forthcoming, but not always—it really depends on the child. Some of these little professional models I use are four or five years old, but they know when they come in that they’re there to work, and they do their little job and they leave. You make them comfortable in the studio, and if one of them doesn’t want to be on the set, you say, “Okay, go sit down a little while and draw,” and they come back. This is really important when you are working with children; be aware of their energy and their signals. Let them have a bit of downtime if they need it.

When you’re photographing kids, balance is extremely important. Letting them look at your camera’s LCD can enhance their natural energy and enthusiasm, and it also increases their sense of personal involvement. The “Wow, take a look at what we got!” approach is going to pay off for you in a whole variety of situations. Say your child is learning to ride a bike; you’re going to take a lot of shots. You want to give her a chance to get going, to make some progress, and to give you a lot of different looks and expressions. But you’re also going to want to show her what you’ve got. But if you interrupt the activity too often, she’s going to get tired of it. For the best pictures, you have to know your subject and be able to read the situation.

When I worked with the kids in the studio for the stacked heads session, I got between 30 and 40 shots on the memory card, and then stopped and said, “Okay guys, take a break. We’re going to look at this to make sure we have it and we’re going to show you what we’re doing.” Then we started again, and they were good about it. They loved to see themselves. Make no mistake, kids these days are quite accustomed to seeing themselves and everything else in their world on LCD screens, computer monitors, and TVs; they’ll probably get right into it.

Parents are great assets on a shoot because they’re usually familiar with the personalities of their own kids, and can clue you in to what kind of pictures their kids can make best. That’s why it’s always a good idea to talk with the parents first, especially when dealing with very young kids. Often they can help you to set up situations that work better and suit their kids’ personalities, and to avoid potential pitfalls because they know their own kids better than you do. They’re also highly motivated to do so because they want to get the best possible pictures of their kids. As a photographer, you may have a great idea in your mind of how a kid should look or what they should be doing in front of the camera, but if you’re trying to force a round peg into a square hole, you’re not going to get the best poses, or you’re not going get the spontaneity that is the essential element in almost all great pictures of people. Meet with the parents ahead of time and get an idea of what the kids like to do; this will steer you in the right direction from the start.

If you round up your kids and their friends and say, “We’re going to take pictures now,” chances are you’re not going to get very good pictures. A better approach is to eliminate the preamble and just go ahead and do it. In other words, don’t make a big production out of it. Kids want to do what they want to do, and if you photograph them as they go about doing this and that, you’re going to get animated, natural-looking photographs. The age of the kids and their corresponding attention spans is going to be an important factor, too. Here’s where a timely break in the action to show them what kind of shots you’re getting can be really important.

Whoever your subjects are, you have to be aware of where they are—you need to be attuned to their state of mind. With kids, the most effective strategy is to move them in quickly, not to linger, and to shoot while they’re fresh. Don’t take a million test shots—dispense with the preliminaries and just start shooting. Most kids are pretty good in the beginning, and they’ll hang in there until they just get tired of doing it. And then they’ll often tell you (or show you) that they’re tired of doing it. Kids are very direct, not like grown-ups. So you have to employ new tactics. Give them a break. Or tell them they can’t be in the next shot; use a little reverse psychology. Say, “Oh, we’ll use the other child.” Then they’ll say, “Oh, no, no, no, I want to do it!”

Here’s a good example of the kind of balance between shooting, looking, and motivation that occurred just the other day in my studio. We had all the kids exuberantly jumping and I shot a full high–capacity memory card, around 40 to 50 images. Then we had to pause to download the images to make sure we had nailed it because this was a commercial assignment! Well, we got it, but the kids were so enthusiastic that we had the kids jumping all over the place. Then we put all the images up on the screen, and I showed the kids how great they looked jumping. I said, “We’re finished with jumping. Now, we’re gonna stack your heads up in a row!” That was a completely different shot, but the kids were motivated because they could see what the jumping looked like and could show the pictures to their mothers. We didn’t stop in the middle of the card and go over to look. We finished the card and we said “Everybody take a break.” Then we loaded the images to the computer so we could all see that we really got it and what it looked like. If we hadn’t captured what I wanted, I would’ve said, “Okay, back on the set; let’s do some more.” Instead, we were able to show them that we had gotten it and move to the next thing. That’s nice. The mothers love to see it, and the kids love to see it.

Recognize the Saturation Point

There comes a point where the novelty wears off, with adult models as well as kids. They get tired or their motivation flags. Last week we were shooting on location in a house and had these laptops set up to view the images. During the first shoot scenes with the models, they would come over and eagerly look over our shoulders to see what we got. After a while, they’d be talking among themselves and doing their own thing. So, to maintain their interest I’d say, “Come look at this—it really looks good.” So they’d come over and look at it, but after a while, it was clear that the novelty was wearing off. Or, at times they didn’t like the way they looked. Models, whether professional or amateur, can be very funny—I’m sure some of them don’t ever like the way they look, even when the general consensus is that it’s a great shot.

At some point, what started out being an exciting, creative interaction can become a chore. Or as I put it, even when it starts out as fun, it’s work when you’re not getting what you’re trying to get. At this point, it helps to step back and evaluate the situation and figure out what the heck you have to do to get it back on track. You know, sometimes it works immediately, which is absolutely wonderful, but kids can be difficult, because sometimes when they get cranky, there’s no going back. They get tired and either say or act like, “I don’t want to do this anymore. That’s enough.”

Tuning in to the dynamics of social interaction is an important skill for portrait photographers to develop. That’s because you can take better pictures more efficiently by understanding or tuning in to how families and kids and their siblings interact, or figuring out which kid wants to be the center of attention. Many times, these things become very apparent even to a casual observer. You can tell when one kid gets annoyed or another one gets antsy in certain situations. You can pick these things out, and more importantly, you can actually use them to your advantage if you’re alert and aware.