First let me explain the majority of my portraits of young children are created with natural lighting techniques. I prefer to use reflectors and subtractive lighting techniques, instead of flash fill. However, I do use a portable beauty-dish or soft-box for teenagers and adults for more dramatic lighting effects. 

The reason for natural light is speed, as little ones have a short attention span and move too much for additional lighting to be placed correctly. Flash on camera just isn’t an option for my style.

Before we talk about the images, I’ll explain that my approach is directive. Yes I’m a “control freak”. I treat the session like a movie set by finding the direction of light, the scene I want, and then place the kids within this scene and make a series of images. Pretty simple..........

Let me step back a bit. It’s a huge advantage to know something about the kids prior to the session. By arranging a consultation with the parents before making the session appointment, allows me the opportunity to personalise the session. When a young child brings something personal to a session, it can create a feeling of security for them. With older kids, it can be pride of having their toys or hobbies included. Example of these can be dolls, teddies, bikes, football, musical instruments etc.

This commissioned portrait session of the seven cousins was planned by the two mothers of these boys a couple of weeks prior to the session. I asked the mothers what was the common interest amongst the boys and the answer was the bikes. These bikes are special, as the boys only get toride the when they visit their grandparents farm.

I visited the farm a week before to do a location check for lighting and ideas. The grandfather toldme this area was popular for the boys to ride up and down, but it was very open to the setting sun and photographing the boys from the opposite side didn’t give me the scene I wanted. So I decided this series of the boys and their bikes would be done last, when the sun was setting. This late glow is directional, but soft enough and still bright enough. This was shot 10 minutes before sunset.

To get the boys to slow down for the bike shots (they were riding off in all directions) I got them together and told them I was going to photograph them racing down this track, of course they had to then ride back up to go again. While this allowed me to take control of the scene and lighting direction, the boys were having a ball and cooperation was great.They thought they were in control !!!!

Eventually they started to tire, so when they got back to the top of the hill and were preparing for another downhill race, I took a series of portraits while they were talking.

So, with a bit of planning ahead of time and understanding the boys loving the freedom of riding the bikes around the farm, I was able to take advantage and personalise their portraits. This meant so much more to the families.

No props in this portrait, just a natural bond between sisters. Again, I set the scene. This time with the handrails diminishing into the background. By angling my camera about 45 degrees to the handrails allowed the focus fall off to create a soft background.

Next was to place the children into my scene. Firstly the elder girl was positioned with her legs away from the camera and her body at an angle to the camera. Much more flattering than legs and feet pointed at the camera.

The younger girl was positioned at an angle opposite to her sister, making sure her little legs and shoes pointed away from the camera. Simple stuff, body away from camera, head back to camera.

There are two main elements here, one is the emotion, two is the bond.

First, the emotion comes from the little one responding to her mother, not me or the camera, but someone she relates to. This is very important for male photographers to understand. Then I askedher big sister to watch her little sister giggling. (Siblings usually mimic each other).

Now for the bond. I simply asked big sister to hold the little ones hand. This moment of touching links the portrait technically by forming a nice “V” within their arms, but most importantly creates a timeless,irreplaceable emotional bond. 

It may look like a point and shoot candid moment, but I think you would still be waiting for the “decisive moment” if you were looking for this result. Within seconds of getting two shots the little one was off.

Just a note.... I live in Brisbane, Australia and being sub-tropical we have very little twilight in summer and zero in winter. So my preference is for the soft late afternoon light. Usually the last hour.

With this portrait I was having a little bit of trouble with the youngest boy. A typical situation of this age group when they hit the beach, they want to run wild.

I could follow them around and take snap shots, but that has no challenge to me. I truly think theparents may see how easy that looked, and diminish my value as an artist.

So I chose the creative path by rounding them up and giving them something to do. By the way this is all amateur psychology based on photographing tens of thousands of kids over 25 years. Most successfully, but I learnt more from the failures, as we all do.

In this portrait I asked the eldest boys, who were more passive, to dig for shells. Boys love digging, so I don’t have to ask twice. I asked the parents to hold the young one back until I was ready.

The eldest one is the leader, he’s digging the biggest hole.  Next was to let the young one loose and he did exactly what I thought he would do...... go and see what his big brothers were up to. Naturallyhe wanted to join in and not be left out. 

The interactive moment was when he put his hand on his big brother. Priceless. He may have wanted some balance, but I’m selling it as a bonding moment. Three boys doing something together without fighting, parents love it.

The parents came up with the lolly pop idea. Apparently it’s a very special treat for the kids to get them, so I made sure it was the last thing we did. If you do it too early, try taking candy from a child.

This was just too easy. Give them candy and get them to walk up and down the jetty, while I lay on the boardwalk taking candids. mmmm. Well first I set the scene and angle I wanted to give the portraitmore impact. Next was to instruct the eldest boy, (who had broken the lolly pop stick off), to show off  to his little brother. He took it a bit far by trying to shove the whole lolly pop into his mouth, but his little brother was amazed at his brother. Although it’s a fun shot at the end of a session, it’s still priceless.

Similar scenario as the the three brothers portrait. First set the scene and position the eldest boy,giving him the dominant role by getting him to draw in the sand. Then let the little one crawl into the scene. 

Always make sure that they enter from the angle that suits the final position. You don’t want to reposition them once they are there or they may take off. I prefer the parents to pick them up, takethem out and let them go again. It’s quite funny to watch them a second time, as they are so predictable.They are like little wind up toys, point them and let them go.

Just a note..... As a male photographer, I rarely touch or move the kids. I always get the parents to do it.If I ever have to, I always ask for permission, but I prefer to stay at the camera position. Besides, if I’m moving kids around, I may miss a “point and shoot moment”. I’m afraid it’s the world we live in.

Same scene as the two boys, but a different angle and composition. The use of a sailing boat personalises the portrait and the interaction between the kids is taken from a semi back view for the sake of interest. Not all portraits need to be front on. I find this type of portrait also works well as part of a sequence, such as a triptych or multi print storyboard.

Parents find this style of image emotionally powerful. Brothers,“fight like cats and dogs” but always best mates. To get them to hold hands at this age is easy, just try in two years time.

Again, find the direction of light (right of camera), set the scene, create an angle of view to give some extra impact. Tell the boys what you want them to do - walking on a railway track wasn’t hard for themto do. But the trick here, was to ask the little guy, to ask big brother his girl friend’s name. Yes silly, but the reaction is all I’m interested in. Timing for this is paramount, the little guy’s laughing, waiting for his brother’s reaction, but meanwhile big brother is trying to process what his little brother has just said to him.

CONCLUSION
Digital photography has introduced many new photographers to this industry by making the technical side of using a camera easier to grasp. I welcome all levels of photographers to this wonderful lifestyle, it has been an extremely rewarding journey for me both professionally and as an artist. To ensure the longevity of craftsmanship in both technical and creative excellence, we all need to continually improve our skills.

There is much written and taught of the “point and shoot” style and there is nothing wrong with a candid/journalistic approach, if done correctly, but we as a profession are in danger if we make it look too easy.Turning up to a portrait session and not understanding lighting, composition, proper exposure for printing, how to find locations, facial analysis, mood lighting, (I’ll stop, I think you get the message) and hoping if we point and shoot, we will get something acceptable would be a shame.

Most photographers get into this profession because they love to create (self expression), so my adviceto new comers is to learn as much of the craft as possible and practice it until it is second nature. Once you have those skills you can make better choices on where your photography can go. Hopefully you will develope your own unique style which will be a benefit to you and the future of the photography profession.

I hope you enjoyed this article on “creating interactive children’s portraits”. It was written to show another way of achieving emotional timeless portraits. They are fun to plan and create and even more fun when your clients are happy and reward you for a job well done.

Be the Photographer of Your Dreams

© Wayne Radford

PORTRAIT TIPS AND TECHNIQUES: BLACK & WHITE
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