A telephoto zoom and kids / I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE natural smiles.
I have to say that I have always liked taking pictures of people with a telephoto lens. It is particularly great for taking pictures of kids with completely natural expressions. In this particular portrait I was at a competitive trail ride near Dayton during the vet check portion of the ride. This young rider is the son of Shannon Loomis. All her children are quite cute and this young man was waiting his turn to show his horse to the vet at the finish of the ride. Natural smile come so easily to young children when they are unaware of the camera.
When I do a kids portrait session there is nothing that can frustrate me more than a parent telling their child to smile. Sometimes this results in a completely unnatural pasted on smile that is unappealing. It is not the smile that comes from delight or finding something funny. It ends up being a false representation of the person. There are two things that can help with this. First it is important to instruct the parents that they may not instruct there children during the session. No instructions like, “Not that smile…you know the smile we want.” There is nothing that will cause a child not to relax more than a parent making them feel selfconscious about how they look or what they are doing.
And second I have had good success doing a “candid” session where the parent and the child play together and I tell the parent to just pretend they are alone and to just forget about me. With the telephoto lens I can walk about looking for those natural moments without being right there close to the action. I can be 15 to 20 feet away like I was with this portrait. As I have posted before (this blog appears on my website and on my facebook accounts) sometimes my best images of children occur in the first few moments or the very last moments of a session either before the children figure out that I am photographing or after we announce that we are all finished. Of course all these things depend on the age of the child.
Here is the young boy I mentioned in the paragraphs above – just too cute. One thing that you will notice is that in all competitive trail rides and endurance rides junior riders are required to wear protective riding helmets. In addition Shannon has protective riding vests on each of her children when they participate in these events together.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Natural smiles.
This portrait was taken from 20 feet away using a 70-200 mm telephoto zoom lens using available light.
Related posts:
- Touch and whisper for great looking natural smiles
- Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow
- Kids can be such great fun and challenge to photograph
- Megan models for the Senior Portrait photography workshop
- What do you do if someone “hates” to have their portrait taken
Peter, You do beautiful work! I am an avid amateur photographer always trying to learn and do better. In a few days I am going to be taking some photos of my niece and her horse. She’s 12 yrs old and got her first horse this summer. I will have to deal with cold temps and warm clothes as I live in Saskatchewan Canada. But do you use masking in Photoshop or something because it seems like you get beautiful detail, but the quality of skin tones is so beautiful and also the lighting always so nice. How do you do these things??
Pat
I use Portraiture on all my senior portrait images and most other portraits as well. This program softens skin and warms it slightly while at the same time leaving the eyes and hair sharp. I try to have my sessions when there is good light. By good light I mean light that is soft. This is sometimes light that is available early in the morning or late in the afternoon just before the sun goes down. You can also find even light in open shade or when the sky is overcast. My wife Patty helps me by holding a 52 inch silver reflector that brings more light onto the main part of the usbject.
i’ve gotten great shots of kids – candids & performing at horse shows this summer – my first year shooting equine. Also, with youth soccer for past several years. I’ve been using , this year, for soccer my 300 f4 more than my 70-200. The sharpness, DOF control and compression of detail in the imaage are beautiful. Yes, you have to ‘zoom with your feet’, as some old photog once said!
Another thing that brings out that ‘detail’ & sharpness is a pro lens. Expensive, but you get what you pay for. Amateurs working their way up should try buy next camera, body only and add on a pro lens. You don’t need another ‘kit’ lens, assuming you have one already with an older DSLR(or SLR).