Having all adorable kids on the wedding day make me learn to know about how to shoot kids portraits naturally back in few years when I just begin my photographer career. Kids are amazing even if you join a competition like ISPWP or AGWPJA so there is also a category called “Kids is Just Like A Kids. On this part you gonna compete with all photographer from the entire planet to shoot portrait of a children that represent their expression, feeling, and also their childhood experience.
Shooting for kids during your wedding photoshoot really need a sense cause your eyes should be open, you must hold a camera on your hand no matter where you go, and the most important thing is how to shoot the kids expression without make them scare and run away from you.
Why Shooting for Kids Portraits Will Complete Your Couple Albums
Wedding is an important moment for everyone so if there are few kids on that event than they must be super important person like daughter and nieces. Some newbie photographer used to not put a kids portraits on the album and just concern about the bride and groom, which is fine, and you don’t need to feel bad about it generally.
But…
If you are a photographer who want to create a better story in the album and put your heart or senses than put some cuteness on this glorious moments than having a kids portrait is really matters.
Now look at this cute girl who wearing a nice dark blue dress beautifully. This is a moment when she saw her mom dancing on the wedding reception from my Italian couple, Danilo and Eka in Indonesia. Look into her eyes, it was so adorable and she seems to look something out there and I know that she feel that this wedding seems to be boring, cause she must wait till 10pm to get back to her room and watch her favourite cartoon movie.
Now take a look at this second picture…
I saw her mom is come to her and ask her to dance, look into her eyes and she got so beautiful smile on her face. Music is on and she start to dance than I saw that she start to enjoy the moment. I shoot so fast without feeling worry about the result on my Canon 5D Mark III LCD, generally I don’t care cause what I concern with is I must capture this the one and only moment on this wedding.
4 Steps to Shoot Kids Portrait Naturally with a Ninja’s Style
What I called as a Ninja’s style is shooting so fast and precisely, some people also called as journalism style and the point of this style is capturing the moment which is mean ‘Killing the Enemy’ if you belongs to real Ninja. In my honest opinion shooting fast in wedding photography is really matter cause you can’t repeat the moment it self so when you shoot as fast as you can than you will get all the perfect moment for sure and this is what your couple want to appear in the album.
If you ever stumble upon my works on portfolio than want to learn more about how I shoot kids portraits or wedding naturally than let me share something matter on this post today, it’s very easy even you just begin your photographer career from scratch:
1 – Hold the Camera on Your Hands
Don’t ever put your camera down when the moment is running, it is your weapon during 10 to 16 hours wedding. If you ever watch sniper box office movie than you never see Tom Berenger put his gun while keep his eyes on the target.
It’s not that different with you, so if you are in party moment that keep your eyes open to see the moment around and always hold the camera on your hands and NEVER PUT IT DOWN even just a second!
I’m a big gun shooter actually, I mean rather than using mirrorless camera than I prefer to hold my Canon EOS 5D Mark III or the best called Nikon D810
2 – Set Your Camera for Ready to Shoot Mode
If I shoot a wedding no matter where I am especially at the indoor area like wedding hall or bedroom than I always set my f number in 2.8 so I want sharp images for sure, ISO….I don’t really care cause even it produce grainy or noise than in my opinion that natural camera effect is sexy at all.
If you shoot your camera in “ready to shoot mode” than there is no excuse when you gonna shoot, I mean whenever you see the golden moment than pick it up and shoot fast.
Now see this little fellas photo above, I shoot inside the family room in the Sanctus Uluwatu, when I just sightseeing around this room to shoot groom preparation than my eyes just stop at the adorable boy who slept on this big sofa. He is soooo cute and how stupid I am if not shoot this moment naturally than I pick up my camera and shoot it….and Boom!!! he gonna love this portrait for sure when he grows up!
3 – Lens with 2.8 Aperture will be Better
To support my style on ready to shoot mode than I always use f2.8 lenses no matter what kind of brand it is. When I have Danilo and Eka’s wedding I hold a Canon EOS 5D Mark III together with 24-70mm f2.8 L series lens.
This kind of lenses is insane! you gonna have sharp images and truly the fast focus on shooting wedding. If you consider about the budget and still using Canon brand than you can check all the review about several lenses that I also ever use such as:
4 – Don’t Check Your LCD So Often
Ninja never check their shuriken while he right in the front of the enemy, they check it BEFORE the war. So when you hold your camera during the wedding that all you need to do is just SHOOT….SHOOT….and SHOOT, but do not check your LCD so often cause you gonna lose the moment for sure.
I know that being in digital era without checking the LCD is seems weird but trust me if you check your LCD over and over than you only focus on how good your pictures is but what you must be so concern is how to shoot kids portraits and wedding moment naturally.
Just shoot and forget the others!
Last,
Now you know that shooting fast and being concern about the moment will affect your final result, you must keep practising over and over again. Get close to your camera and get a trial error with your shooting style.
I hope you got an inspiration again from me about how to shoot kids portraits and even wedding naturally. Whenever you want to ask more than you can reply on the comment form below. Thank you so much for stumble upon at my blog and hope you enjoy for what I always share here.
Cheers!