The world of photography is full of different ideas for professionals and amateurs alike. The boundaries between amateur and professional photography are gradually disappearing these days as everyone wants to achieve a perfect picture. That's why the Internet is filled with various tutorials on camera settings, how to choose the right angle, how to pose the models, and how to carry out the subject micro and macro from wildlife to home life. We have already talked about a lot of things like these in our previous threads. But today we are going to tell you about what is child photography and give you some interesting ideas to make your babies feel like real photo models in the frame so that your relatives and friends will be surprised by the quality of your photo.

Child photography ideas are based on the point of conveying some plot and the way they appear in the frame. Children are different, we have toddlers and growing kids. Some ideas are good for one, some for another, and rarely they are good for both. But we are going to try our best to represent their personalities, no matter the age. The main difference between children photography and adult photography is that you need to find a way to play a game with them using a camera.

Child photography poses ideas

To begin the plot, we need to start with photography poses for the child, which should be simple both for them and their parents to implement, and then we can add some props to an image that will emphasize the storyline.

Education of the future scientist

The main priority of any idea is to have storytelling shots, therefore we need to have our kids do something in the frame. That way, children poses for photography should be a part of the plot, conveying some story behind it.

So let us start with the idea of the child reading a book. Probably the most difficult thing about child photography is the fact that they are restless. But if you occupy your child with something interesting, you are more likely to get very natural photos, without any clowning around from their side. Even without going into the essence of the book and just by looking at the pictures in it, the child in the frame will look like a future scientist or educator sitting behind a book at a young age.

On their tummy

This is a very simple pose and effective at the same time. Just get the child to lie on a tummy, and then they can either hold their head in their hands or they could even lie their head down, so it is resting on their arms. This pose is easy to do for any age of a child, it works great for a toddler and adult kids. As a photographer, we recommend mimicking your child's position and behavior. That way it allows you to control the process better by being a part of it, and do the photography from a better angle at the same time. It is very important to stay on the same level with a kid, so he does not feel forced to do something from your dominant perspective, therefore you also keep better eye contact. This will entertain a child, and you will get that pretty smile in a photo. It works great, the same for solo and for groups of children.

Over the shoulder

This pose is good for younger kids. You can make a game of this with your kid, asking him to walk with the face away from you, meanwhile, you are going on the side. Then you call your child by name for him to turn and for you to take a shot at the moment he looks at you. It usually provides a smile. You can adjust the angle by yourself and the time for doing a shot. We recommend setting your camera for multiple shots of that one action to choose the better angle of the turn over the shoulder.

If you have a child that enjoys posing, then you can definitely get them a play with this. This will make even more giggles and beautiful smiles to capture.

Jumping

It is a bit of an anti-pose, but that is a really fun, playful, and joyful pose for children, obviously. Because we want to capture children when they are full of fun and play and become in their natural state. And that makes it really simple, all you are just going to have them jump in the air. You can ask how high they can jump or make a challenge to jump over something like a rock or a fallen branch for the distance measurements. For indoor shots, you can use a bed instead. To make it look more dramatic, you need to take a lower angle to make it look like they are jumping a bit higher than they actually are. If you have a trampoline, this opens a whole new world for your child to show some skills.

Headshot and Looking down shot

We combine these two because you can do a play of that with the child, since you have their attention on the eye level doing a simple headshot, you can also take an angle above them to have a child-parent perspective. Or you can have your child lying on a bed reading a book and just call them by name to look at you when you are already in a position for the look down shot.

As you may notice, these were more about girl child photography poses ideas. Girls are usually more open to any social interaction and expressions by nature. That's why it's easier to position girls for a particular photo ethic. At a young age, girls are slightly ahead of boys in their mentality and try to imitate adults, so it is usually easier to work with them. Therefore, we can incline toward more complex ideas here. However, it is better to follow your heart and know your kids so that most of the ideas will be unisex.

Children portrait photography

Child portrait photography is probably the hardest to do due to the fact it requires a more serious approach and behavior from your children. There is not that much of an interesting action happening from your children's perspective, and it is hard to find the incentive for them to appear the way you need them to be in a frame. Therefore, it fits better for adult children who have an idea about what portrait photography is, because they may already have their idols from show business to follow. And you can use that to explain why they need to behave a certain way in front of a camera to be like some artist or an actor they like. The younger the kid, the more important it is to establish contact the right way.

Businessman

If previously, we’ve been discussing ideas for girls, portrait photography is easier to do with boys. And the reason is they tend to be more serious. So we can emphasize it by being a businessman for your little one.

Clothing must fit the idea the same as the place. Set your boy on the table, put a notebook in front of him, and ask him to count money. Take a couple of shots at the moment when he will be most involved in the process to get a more natural shot.

Thoughtful

If your boy feels comfortable posing in front of a camera, you ask him to imagine something or dream about it while sitting on a chair and take a picture from a 45-degree angle while he is looking away into his thoughts. This will create a thoughtful image of your boy’s personality.

Caught off guard

Probably the best shots are taken when a child is caught off guard. If you see him in the middle of something being completely distracted, just aim your lens and say something like “surprise!” This will get some happy facial expressions of a good mood from your kid, and you do not have to explain to him the way to act. Candid shots are the best photographer's weapon for any type of photography! Those were 3 good child photography ideas at home. For the outdoors you can also use the list above, it fits well both for boys and girls.

Children photography props ideas

Depending on the chosen idea, you can have a set of props for making different scenes.

  • Let us say for girls and outdoor shooting, you can use skipping rope as a prop that will be used to capture your girl jumping and entice her for the action at the same time.
  • Flowers for portrait scenes indoor/outdoor, the same good prop for girls and also for portrait shots.
  • The same good as flowers, you can use plush toys in the frame. Works good both for boys and girls of younger age.
  • You can use a bubble thrower for the specific scenes playfully.
  • A children's swing or tire swing is a good way to do the photoshoot.
  • Incorporating glitter for close-up portrait shots for young ladies would be a nice start for their model photo shoot.
  • If you're shooting outside in the fall, the leaves can be a great prop, you can shake a tree to achieve a similar entourage.

Best camera settings for child photography

We discussed how to photograph children, but the settings are also important. Photographing kids while they are in action requires versatility from your camera.

Lens variety

It comes down to the lens at first, choosing something between 24 and 70 is good for action scenes like jumping or moving kids and also for candid shots. With that range, the lens will allow your camera to focus and adapt faster to the scene, and you will not miss your perfect shot.

ISO settings

ISO depends on the light that you have in the place you have chosen for the photoshoot.

Set ISO to 200 as your default setting, and then adjust it the following way:

For outdoor shooting, you can decrease ISO on a sunny day.

If it is dark outside, or you are in a low-lit environment, you can increase it up to 600-800 depending on your shutter speed response.

Shutter speed

This setting varies depending on the action. If you do action shooting, while your kids are running or rapidly and fast-moving, you can set it to 1/500 or even more. For static shots like portraits, you can decrease it to 1/200 and below to allow better focusing.

Aperture mode

There is usually one of those allowed in different cameras: priority mode or portrait mode, which is good for children's photography. If you do not have them either, try to set it to f5.5 - f5.7 this allows you to blur the background away unless you do portraits against the wall. Depth of field should be enough for action and static shots.