CAPTURING SUMMER WITH PHOTOS
BY KELLY WILLETTE
The longer days, the lack of schedules and the warmer weather of summer work together to create the perfect combination for catching up on photos of your kids. Photographing is a daily activity in our home during these long, lazy days. I’d love to share some summer photo tips to help you document your summer days.
1. GET DOWN LOWSometimes with a photo, it is all about the angle. By lowering your body position, your photo can tell an entirely new story. Getting down low is especially beneficial when photographing at a pool…by squatting down and being on the same level as your subject, you are able to block out any unwanted subjects from your photo.
For stopping the action during summer sports and moving kids, be sure to keep your camera’s shutter speed up. Also, make sure your camera is in burst or continuous shooting mode. This will enable you to capture every move and not miss the pivotal shot.
2. ZOOM OUT TO CAPTURE THE ENTIRE SCENE
Use your zoom lens or a wide angled lens to capture the entire scene around you. This will truly capture the scale of the world around your child and will help preserve the memory of where you were. So I encourage you to vary your lens length. Take some wide angle (zoomed out) shots and some up close (zoomed in) shots.
I recommend using your camera’s matrix or evaluative metering mode when capture skies. Matrix or evaluative metering mode meters for the entire scene your camera captures, which ensures that both your subject AND the sky are properly exposed. Perfect for capturing those beautiful summer skies.
And if you find that by capturing the entire scene that the background is too busy (full of color that detracts from your child), there is no shame in converting your photo to black and white. Sometimes a black and white will change the entire look and mood of your photo.
3. LIGHTING
The extra light summer brings creates a few photography challenges. One of which is the harsh shadows you can get with full sun when the sun is high in the sky. You can tackle this problem a couple of different ways. One, you can move your subject into full shade. Or, if this isn’t an option (due to a sporting event, being at the beach, etc.), you can use what is called fill flash. I usually preach to my students NOT to use the flash, but this is an instance when you’ll be glad that you did use it. Fill flash lessens the harsh shadows and evens out the lighting on your subject’s face.
Be sure to take advantage of the longer days and glorious sunsets of summer by attempting to capture a silhouette of your child against the sunset. To do this, wait until the sun is really low in the sky, usually about an hour or half hour before sunset is ideal), then have you child just play, dance, or jump. You need to have your camera in manual mode for this to work. Meter (spot or partial meter) off of your child. My settings for this photo were: aperture 2.8 (I wanted the background to be a bit blurry for my shot), shutter speed of 1/4000 (a fast shutter speed enabled me to blacken out my child but still allowed the sky to be properly exposed), and an ISO of 100.
4. RAINY DAYS
Rainy days and lazy days in the house are some of the best moments to capture your child in his or her glory. I like to swoop in and snag a shot while my son is playing independently. With him not knowing that I’m photographing him, the photos are natural and real. Be sure to catch your children deep in play on the next rainy day – without them being aware of the camera.
When photographing indoors, I recommend turning OFF your flash. In order to compensate for the lack of flash light, you may need to increase your camera’s ISO or decrease your aperture/f-stop to allow as much light as you can into the lens.
5. DETAILS
Don’t forget the small details. Get in close to capture summer. Some of the best summer shots are ones which are tightly framed and creatively cropped.
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