Adding a Spark of Personality to Your Portraits
You can spend hours researching camera settings. You can spend thousands of dollars on THE fanciest camera gear. The fact is, with all the expensive gear and all the knowledge in the world, you won't get the photos that give people the warm and fuzzies unless you put some LOVE into them.
My best pictures are not the ones where everyone is looking and smiling. My favorite shot is one that is full of personality. When I say a picture has personality, I mean that you feel something when you look at it. You feel an emotion. It makes you remember the feeling you had at that time the picture was taken. It captures specific traits about the subject.
I have pictures of my oldest son, Luca, on his first day of kindergarten where he is smiling and standing alone. Sure it's cute...but when I see this one I feel something.
I remember the story of this day when I look at this one. Luca was excited for his first day, but also a little nervous. He tried to hide his nerves in front of his little brother and sister, but when they all saw the bus coming around the corner it became reality. My daughter, Lyla, and Luca did everything together until this moment. Even though they were only 4 and 5 years old they were hit with the big realization that they would be apart. Also, I laugh when I see the baby, Nico, hanging onto the back, not understanding what was going on but just doing what his siblings were doing- like always.
Follow these three tips to add personality or emotion to your pictures!
1) Get on Down
Go ahead, get on down. I imagine I look like a crazy person when I am taking pictures of kids. I take every picture on the level of my subjects (usually my kids)- even if that means laying on the ground in he middle of a park. Kids see the world totally different than how you see it. Check it out. Get on their level when you take pictures of kids, animals, or anyone!
You will get an entirely different shot if you get down to their level. You will get a picture of their face square on, not looking down at them like you usually do. You also get to see from their perspective.
Here are some examples:
2) Don't Stress over Smiles
"If you smile for this picture you can have candy..." Do you ever find yourself saying that? Don't be ashamed. That was me too. Until I realized that sometimes the best pictures are kids showing ALL emotions, deep in play, or interacting with other people.
If your kid is always happy, GOOD FOR YOU- consider yourself lucky. You are the minority. It is better to capture other honest emotions, than fake and forced smiles. Or sometimes the best pictures is when your subjects aren't even looking at all. I love the ones when they are interacting with each other.
I love this one of them not even looking. I just remembered how they looked like a tiny married couple brushing their teeth this day. Tiny babies, yet gaining independence.
3) Capture those Personalities and Moments
I am not going to pretend like my 5 year old daughter is a calm, happy-go-lucky sweetheart. She is a strong, powerful force who knows what she wants and she gets it. And I love her for that- maybe not 10 minutes before the bus gets here and she is demanding to wear shorts when it is 40 degrees out, but I still respect her for it. I love capturing her sometimes terrifying, dictator-like personality in pictures.
I mean come on... she is a tough girl in a tutu, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
My curious son had a dinosaur obsession starting at age 2. He talked about them constantly and knew the names of about a hundred dinos. When we brought him to see the dinosaur bones at the local museum for the first time his little his mind was literally blown seeing how big the dino-bones were. This picture and those big eyes bring me RIGHT back to that day.
Capture kids being kids. Getting dirty. Running around. Making messes. Before you know it there will be no more messes, and you will miss it.
Summary
You will start to develop your own photography styles, but following these three tips will guarantee that your personality and the subjects personality will shine through in your pictures. THOSE are the photographs that you will remember for a lifetime.
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These pictures are amazing! Great article too, I am sure many people will find this very inspiring. 🙂
My husband is going to be amazing at capturing some shots of our future son. He's a wonderful photographer. I will be the one to catch the silly shots on my iPhone - because well, that's what mom is for, right?! LOL!
Thank you so much for sharing these amazing tips ❤
You are an amazing photographer! I agree with your thoughts on capturing the moment and the emotion instead of having them smile. Makes for a much better photo!
Wonderful sharing! Thank you very much for this amazing article. What a good post and I love your good written!
I love the tip about not stressing over smiles. Some of my favorite pictures of Olivia are when she is not smiling.
I love these tips. Photos tell such a story and capture the moment. You children are beautiful! Great post!
Cuteness overloaded :* I would like to do the same 🙂
I don't have children yet, but I am definitely going to remember some of these tips for when that day comes.
And you have beautiful children, by the way. Thanks for sharing.
Definitely going to do this with my future children! 😀 Thank you for the tips.
Your pictures are great! I love the one with Lyla in a tutu - there is so much character and energy. I imagine this little woman keeps you on your tiptoes 🙂 Myself, am more into landscape photography, but I think the rule of taking pictures with love applies to both... or pretty much anything you do. Thank you for sharing your insights!
i definitely will do this when i have a child! such precious memories! thanks for sharing your great tips
Loving tips! I will definitely do this for my future children. I really love photography!!
Photos are so important to remember and enjoy the past! Thank you for the tips!
I super relate to this one. As a part time photographer and a full time teacher, I want to keep as mucv memories with my daughter. Of course photos are the best way to do it. Thanks so much for sharing.
These pictures are beautiful. I feel like when kids grow up its so fun to look back at pictures of your life and experiences. And parents always have a unique perceptive as well which adds to the story.
So cute! They grow so quick you can never have too many pics!
Capturing personality in childhood photographs is so important. Thanks for this awesome article.
Great pics and great tips!
Excellent tips, and you make a great point, kids see the world differently from their perspective, and the pictures just won't have the same effect if they are taken at our level, or if we go down to the level of a child or an animal, it gives a different perspective, and the pictures have more power because of it. Thank you for sharing this, I will be sure to incorporate them for my future children.