Of Kids Photography and Extremely Bad Coughing

I've been coughing all week, I'm sick of it!

Not only that, it came in a complete package of sneezing, wheezing, chest rattling in discomfort, ringing ears, runny nose euwww :p.I relied on clinic prescription cough syrup, but seems I didn't recover much and the coughing became even worse with vomiting and gasping for air.

Feel way much better today Alhamdulillah!

Alololo Amera tak teh tak teh!

DH's nephews and nieces oh they are all cute and adorable! And they are super duper active too. They simply move fast. But I noticed they tend to run in circle, for eg they run from Point A to Point B, then will repeat to Point A then back to Point B, non stop! hahaha

It was a big challenge for me ~~to freeze~~ to take photo of them. Chocolate or candy sometimes can help hahaha

I guess the only tip is be patient. Kids have moods, sometimes they are happy, sometimes sad, sometimes playful and sometimes just wanna cry. Another thing I have learned is that kids have their own pace. Put the camera aside. Play a little. Let them relax. Once they have opened up, take an experimental shot. Show them themselves on the LCD, it is a great icebreaker. If after a while the kid stays in bad mood, let it go. Have a break, do something else, you can always come back to it.

As for the camera setting, I like to refer you to HERE

Aperture Priority Mode- switching your camera into Aperture Priority mode. This will let you have some creative control over depth of field which can be an important factor in portraits. If your camera doesn’t have aperture priority mode – it might have a ‘portrait’ mode which can be worth shooting in to get those nice fuzzy backgrounds.

Aperture – set my aperture at f5.6 to start with (you can adjust it up and down as you start shooting). This will throw the background out of focus (unless your kids are right up against a wall) but will give you enough depth of field that their whole face will be in focus.

ISO – Depending where you are shooting (inside or out) and what the light is like – set your ISO to 200 (lower is better if you have lots of light). If it is too dark and this makes your shutter speeds too long you can pump it up – but try to keep it under 800 or you’ll start getting lots of pixelation).

Shutter Speed – Keep an eye on the shutter speed that your camera is choosing. Try to keep it 1/200th of a second or faster if you can (if your kids are running around – to up to 1/500th or more). Like I say – if it’s too dark you can increase your ISO or even push your Aperture up a little. If you’re not confident with shutter speeds and your photos are coming out blurry because your children are moving too fast – you might try setting your camera to ‘sports mode’.

Focus Mode – Set your Auto focus to single point focussing. You could leave it on the multipoint focusing mode but I find with kids that move around a lot that you want to know exactly where your camera is focusing quite precisely (this could just be me though).

RAW – If you have time (and the ability) to do some post production work on your images later try shooting in RAW. This will give you more license to edit your shots later. If you’re under the pump for time and/or don’t have the ability to edit your work – JPEG will do.