A friend of my sisters has seen some of the photos I have taken and has asked if I wouldn't mind taking some photos for her whilst I am down visiting my sister. I have told her that I am not a professional, and that it will be very hit and miss as I am still very much learning and she is fine with that. I have no objection to having a go so long as she understands that I may not get anything but what does stress me out is what do you do with the people!!!! From what I understand its to be pictures of the womans mum and her son, so a nan and grandson dynamic, and we are going to be outside near a very small stream/brook/trickle of water. I have explained that I tend to grab my pictures whilst the kids are playing and do very few posed shots... Do any of you lovely people have any ideas as to what I can do with these lovely peeps to try and get some pictures? I have seen the grandparent poses online, and some of those are nice, but they seem very similar and would account for possibly 2 pictures..
Many thanks for any help... the boy is 13 by the way, but is apparently a cuddler :D
I haven't done posed shots much either, but from what I've learned, just keep talking to them about anything. Hopefully something funny so they would smile to you! :) expecially if they are not exactly comfortable being infront of the camera talking to them is important! but for the poses.. Sorry. I've been browsing in Pinterest lately to get some inspiration.
@tande Thanks Tanja, I am much more of a "grab sneaky shots whilst you can" sort of person, so the thought of having to pose people scares the life out of me.. other than sit here in front of this tree lol.. that I can do
I hate this kind of shooting... Y in laws are all about formal posed shots and I suck at that... The best one I have is of my mother on law w my husband and his brother, and my oldest kid snuck up behind them photo bombing the shot w the craziest look on his face ;)
Is there a prop they can use? Is she active enough to do something like play frisbee? Or even work in the garden w the boy? This would create opportunities for the more candid shots... Also you could get them engaged in conversation... Have the boy explain something about school or a tv show or a sport - anything he is really into that she can engage with...
@tori_shaw i hear you! :D but once you get into the flow, it'll get easier.. For me it's hard to tell them what I want, even when I would have a pose in mind.
@northy loving the idea of playing a sport. She is pretty active by all accounts....perhaps I can get her down dam building like the rest of the kids :/ Like the idea of getting them chatting too. Your pic sounds fabby btw :D
@tande tbh I am just enjoying my hobby. I have no problem trying to grab a few candid shots so long as they are doing something to shoot! Lol
You could pose them for a couple of shots but I think if you stand back your best photos will come from the interaction of the two. One nice thing would be to have the walk down (or up) the stream and catch them in mid action or ask them to stop in motion before you snap. You can take the photo from above the waist or with all in, but I think with cropping you can get some very nice photos. You could also look for a log or stump for them to sit on. I hope once you get to the stream the ideas will flow, go with the moment and don't stress. Good luck, would love to see what you get.
If you have an iPhone or iPad there is an app called "Posing App" that has drawings of lots of portrait posing ideas, grouped into categories - couples, kids etc.
Tell them to ignore you, to behave as though you were not there. Then just shoot away, I'd keep away from the formal stuff too. I think if you all have fun that will come across in the shot. Good luck
One other thing to think about is the light.. Of you're outside by a stream, it is likely a wooded area, and the light may be dappled which is very pretty in real life, but a pain to deal w when trying to shoot portraits... I'm not sure of the "correct" approach - fill light from a flash maybe?
@kerristephens@chapjohn@friend2303@sansjuan@tomtom@claireuk@northy well, thank you all for your wonderfully helpful comments. I was supposed to be meeting her at 11am which I wasn't thrilled about as it might make for some harsh shadows and I only have the flash on my camera, but it wasn't too bad as it was pretty overcast so I could have dealt. She decided it looked like rain however and so called it off. It has yet to rain.
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Is there a prop they can use? Is she active enough to do something like play frisbee? Or even work in the garden w the boy? This would create opportunities for the more candid shots... Also you could get them engaged in conversation... Have the boy explain something about school or a tv show or a sport - anything he is really into that she can engage with...
@tande tbh I am just enjoying my hobby. I have no problem trying to grab a few candid shots so long as they are doing something to shoot! Lol