How to capture the perfect photos of your children

The children of today are having their lives documented on camera like no generation before them. We are photographing every moment of their little journey and while some lucky people have the knack for taking photos, some of us struggle to figure out which way around the camera goes. To make sure you have ‘like worthy’ photos of your wee ones, The Baby Show has teamed up with Amy Cope, who specialises in new born photography, to give you some tips on capturing those special moments. Amy will be at the Baby Show, taking place at ASB Show Grounds from 19 – 21 August.

1) Capture everyday life - Not all photos have to be posed.  The best memories you can give your child are moments in time, capturing what they were playing with, eating, how they dressed etc.  It also allows your kids to feel more relaxed around the camera as taking photos of them becomes normal, even fun, rather than a stressful event.



2) Phone cameras are just as useful as an expensive camera - I use my phone for photos both at home and when we’re out, because it’s often at hand and the lens on a phone is wide (35mm usually) so it captures everything that’s happening without me having to move away from my kids to take photos.

3) Try changing the settings on your phone camera - A lot of phones/cameras these days have options to manually control the exposure.  The great thing with this is that you don’t need to be technically minded, you can just play until what you see on screen looks good. And some even have the option to take the photo in RAW format so if you like editing you can correct the photo later.  This is especially important if you have a window behind as the light from behind will result in the faces being quite dark, the camera gets confused.  If you increase the ISO or lower the shutter speed you will allow more light in so the face becomes visible.


 
4) Be in the photos  - With that advent of selfies you can now be in the photos with your kids. Believe me I know this problem all too well and the selfie is one way I can ensure my kids will have photos of me in years to come.  Also my kids LOVE taking photos on my phone or even my big camera, so I let them and they are always proud to have taken some photos (and kids have a great eye for creative angles).
 
5) The sitting up stage  - Around 7-8 months is by far the cutest age with a baby. Most babies are sitting up, but not moving too far and have   a lot of personality shining through. If you want to capture this moment in time find a plain wall near a window for natural light and get down at your babies level. 


 
6) If your camera can change focus points -Always try to focus on the eye closest to the camera.  Especially if you are using a low aperture (eg f2.5) as the rest will blur out of focus and the image will be centred on those stunning eyes, which for babies are usually huge and gorgeous.
 
7) Newborn photographs - If you are wanting to photograph your newborn, take really natural shots, capture the interaction between parents and baby.  The posed shots require a lot of practice and can be extremely difficult when you are exhausted.  Newborns are also super sensitive to the smell of mum’s milk so can often wake when mum is nearby.   I was unable to take posed newborn photos of my own babies.  My third to last baby was photographed by another photograph (Nykie Grove-Eades) and my last baby was photographed by me with much help from Nykie to settle and pose my daughter.  I certainly was unable to take photographs of my own babies anywhere near what I capture for my clients.