Photographing Children Again!

Photographing Children Again!

by William Lulow

I have written before about photographing children and animals and how photographers have to be prepared to do this type of shooting. Well, I had another opportunity just the other day to capture another child in action. It is always fun to watch children react to the idea of being photographed. First, the really young ones (this one was just six months old) don’t really know what’s happening. They see a bright light and they react to what adults tell them, even if they don’t know precisely what is being said, they are learning. Their minds are absorbing all adult actions and speech. It is fascinating to watch. 

This was a location shoot at the child’s house. I usually go it, set up a small, white background and, when the child is very small, I use my super large, white umbrella as my main light and that’s usually it. I am trying to get the child on a white background with very little shadow. In this case, we needed to use a prop for the child to sit on as she really couldn’t sit up for any length of time on her own yet. 

Here is the setup:

You will notice that I sometimes position myself inside the umbrella itself. But I’m usually sitting to one side a bit. This was a half-roll of white no-seam paper that is more than enough for any small child. For this type of shoot, I don’t use any background lights because I’m close enough to the subject to keep the lighting soft and also close enough to the background to minimize any appreciable light fall off. 

Here’s the result:

Since the light was off to camera right just slightly, there is a little shadow on the baby’s face (camera left). And, the background is a bit darker because the chair was closer to the baby. But the overall effect is what I’m after here. 

Here is another example:

In this shot, we got Matilda to sit up for a couple of seconds while I photographed her on the white background. It gave us the shot we wanted. 

So, bottom line: I’m ready to shoot right after I complete my setup (which takes roughly 20 minutes) and I keep shooting while the baby is reacting to all the stimulation around her. I’m trying to get a great expression primarily. But I’m also trying to get the ambiance of the studio setting to work as well.