March Newsletter 2011 Issue 2 Volume 1
THE ART OF PORTRAITURE will start with“ you say your name is Joey. I think I’ ll by Sam Moffa call you Danny.” The ice is broken. The children are so fascinated they never have time to wiggle out of
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF position. If they ask me where do you keep your toys?” I respond:“ upstairs in the basement”.
PHOTOGRAPHING CHILDREN Get away from the word“ no.” Replace it with“ okay.” Don’ t talk about taking photographs. Talk about playing and toys instead.
You should always find out what kind of work the father does, so you can set up props like fireman’ s hat, hunter with plastic rifle etc.
I could go on and on but this should help on photographing children. One more point; sometimes you have to tell the parents to sit outside of the camera room, they will say“ smile” to the child or laugh harder than the child drawing their attention, while you are trying to have the child look at the camera. _____________________________________ March’ s Topic for the print competition is: A C T I O N!!! – How to show action or motion in a still photograph. Do you stop the action or let it blur? If you feel the need to use PhotoShop to simulate motion, let the judges know. Also – first quarterly contest – Head and shoulder portraits.
Photographing children, the first thing to remember is to photograph them at their level. You can work at floor level, but it is much harder. I use a platform, 3 feet x 5 feet by roughly 2 feet high. This serves two purposes, shooting at their level and hiding the background lite for even light projected on the background.
So the mother( in most cases) has told the child that he / she has to smile for the photographer, Guess what – that child( most of the time) is not going to even look up or smile! What I normally do is to use my own Reverse psychology and I will tell the child“ don’ t smile”, maybe show a toy or throw a ball, most of the time this breaks the ice.
I explain to the mother that a two year old will do better in a three – quarter pose. I advise to save the full length standing poses until the child is at least four, because they will understand better. But if a full length is what the mother wants, the younger child will not stay in the middle of the platform. To keep the child in the middle I will use a small flat object or a penny and tell the child“ don’ t put your foot on the penny,” most of the time this works.
Besides all kind of props, one of my favorites is a plastic ball. I can give it to the child to throw back, pop the ball with my thumb, attempt to give the ball to the child and suddenly pop the ball and make the ball disappear-‐ always getting a smile. I
Focal Point at the Hammonton Arts Center
219 Bellevue Avenue Hammonton, NJ 08037
UPCOMING CLASSES
These particular classes may be of some interest to Focal Point members:
Digital Photography for Beginners – Taught by Sam Moffa( 609) 864-6490 this popular class is a must for the beginning digital photographer. 6 weeks.