If your child doesn’t like sitting still or posing for the camera, have no worries. We can still get some great photos of them, the little rascal. When children don’t want to cooperate, we, as photographers, jump to plan B. It is our job to create situations where your child can relax and candidly bring out their personalities. About 97% of the time, I prefer candid shots instead of posed ones.
How to get natural, genuine smiles from your kids.
Suggested Post Title: How to eliminate fake smiles during your session
Kids are entirely unpredictable. They can be so adorable and easy-going and laughing uncontrollably one minute, and the next minute, turn that charm off it all entirely off completely. They will typically smile for you all day long until you put them in front of a camera, then they freeze up like a deer in headlights. So we want to avoid the gritted teeth, and bug-eyed forced smiles during our session.
Here are some things you can do:
- Make a list of things your child thinks are funny and send it to us before the session. This way, we can be prepared and add these things into our bag of tricks.
- Also, give us a list of icebreakers for your child –. T tells us the kinds of shows they watch, their music, friends’ names, favorite stories, etc. This will give us something to talk to them about and help them forget that there are in front of the camera.
- Practice phrases at home to see which ones will evoke the best smiles from your child. (Please, oh please, avoid “Say cheese!” unless that really works for your child.)
- Try out a couple of jokes with them. We can ask them to tell us a joke during the session, which will typically loosen them up as they tell it to us.
- If there is a song that your child loves, load it up to your phone and bring it along with you, or be prepared to sing it for them during the session.
- Bring along and prepare a bribe (such as a toy, a trip to the zoo, etc.), try and show it to them, or remind them of it during the session.
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