1. Don't put people in direct sunlight. It is too bright and people will be squinting. Some people cannot even handle ANY sunlight, even if it's backlighting them. You can try to tell them to close their eyes and then open them when you shoot, but for some people that doesn't even work, especially if they have narrow or sensitive eyes. In any session I would recommend taking at least some photos in the shade and if possible using flash strobes to augment your shot.
2. Avoid shooting in weird shadows, like the ones produced by tree leaves. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time in photoshop trying to fix it and often still having weird results. If you have too, use an off camera flash to even out the light on face.
2. Avoid shooting in weird shadows, like the ones produced by tree leaves. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time in photoshop trying to fix it and often still having weird results. If you have too, use an off camera flash to even out the light on face.
2. Shoot in different apertures. That way you'll have different options for the final edit. For example, I just shot this man and the eyes and hair were in focus but the nose was slightly out of focus. Luckily I could easily paste a nose for other photos while still retaining a nicely blurred background.
3. Small children tend to like putting their fingers in their mouth during photo sessions. To avoid that, ask the parents to bring a toy, a doll, a ball or anything that they would like to hold and be cute in the photo.
4. Most children do NOT have a long attention span. If possible, set your camera to high frame rate mode and take as many photos possible at the start of any group photo that includes kids.
5. When shooting more than one person, always switch sides and relative positions. That will help you immensely in editing in case someone accidently casts a shadow on the other person or if the light quality looks different for some reason.
6. When shooting in forests, have people wear colors that stand out. I would especially recommend avoiding greys, greens, browns and blacks. Any red, purple or blue will stand out in that situation and probably in any location.
7. Ask people to smile and then not to smile. If you do this a few times you might get a more genuine smile, just from them having to switch rapidly.
8. Ask families to sing. It loosens them up sometimes, choose a main person in the family and have them sing to that person. If they don't know any songs, pick the "A B C" song.
9. A lot of people tend to automatically put their hands in their pockets. Kids tend to put their hands in their mouth or worse, nose. One way of dealing with this is to ask people to clap before the shot is taken. This will sometimes also help with stiffness of body.
10. A lot of kids have oral fixations, which means that they put their hands or other objects in their mouth and do not want to pull them out. I've seen many parents pull their kids' fingers out violently. While that might work, the kids seem to be in a bad mood once that happens. Other parents start negotiating with their kids, even bribing. That also works sometimes but takes a lot of precious time out of the photoshoot time and other members of the family might lose interest at that time. One trick that I've used is to tell a posed family clap their hands. Hrd mentality seem to make kids magically pull their fingers out of their mouth and put down the stick they picked up that just doesn't fit in the photo. You don't necessarily have to take the photo where the family is clapping. With a bit of practice, tell the family to stop clapping and then take the photo.
3. Small children tend to like putting their fingers in their mouth during photo sessions. To avoid that, ask the parents to bring a toy, a doll, a ball or anything that they would like to hold and be cute in the photo.
4. Most children do NOT have a long attention span. If possible, set your camera to high frame rate mode and take as many photos possible at the start of any group photo that includes kids.
5. When shooting more than one person, always switch sides and relative positions. That will help you immensely in editing in case someone accidently casts a shadow on the other person or if the light quality looks different for some reason.
6. When shooting in forests, have people wear colors that stand out. I would especially recommend avoiding greys, greens, browns and blacks. Any red, purple or blue will stand out in that situation and probably in any location.
7. Ask people to smile and then not to smile. If you do this a few times you might get a more genuine smile, just from them having to switch rapidly.
8. Ask families to sing. It loosens them up sometimes, choose a main person in the family and have them sing to that person. If they don't know any songs, pick the "A B C" song.
9. A lot of people tend to automatically put their hands in their pockets. Kids tend to put their hands in their mouth or worse, nose. One way of dealing with this is to ask people to clap before the shot is taken. This will sometimes also help with stiffness of body.
10. A lot of kids have oral fixations, which means that they put their hands or other objects in their mouth and do not want to pull them out. I've seen many parents pull their kids' fingers out violently. While that might work, the kids seem to be in a bad mood once that happens. Other parents start negotiating with their kids, even bribing. That also works sometimes but takes a lot of precious time out of the photoshoot time and other members of the family might lose interest at that time. One trick that I've used is to tell a posed family clap their hands. Hrd mentality seem to make kids magically pull their fingers out of their mouth and put down the stick they picked up that just doesn't fit in the photo. You don't necessarily have to take the photo where the family is clapping. With a bit of practice, tell the family to stop clapping and then take the photo.
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