The Posing Playbook for Photographing Kids: Strategies and Techniques for Creating Engaging, Expressive Images [Illustrated] 1681985535, 9781681985534

Table of contents :
Title
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Organic Directive Posing
Chapter 2: The Psychology Behind Photographing Children
Reading Your Subjects Quickly
Working with Various Personality Types
Recognizing Authenticity
Chapter 3: Gear and Accessories
Camera Bodies
Lensing Options
Perspective Management
Chapter 4: Framing, Lighting & Settings
Framing and Composition
Five-Point Portrait Lighting
Studio Lighting Techniques
On-Location Lighting Techniques
Setting Up the Shot: Technical Settings
Chapter 5: What to Keep in Mind When Finalizing a Shot
In Theory: A Step-by-Step Checklist
Chapter 6: In Studio
Chapter 7: Urban Settings
Chapter 8: Commercial & Fashion Shoots
Chapter 9: Outdoor Natural Settings
Chapter 10: Posing Children Together
Conclusion
Acknowledgments

Citation preview

THE

Posing Playbook FOR

Photographing Kids

TAMARA LACKEY

The Posing Playbook for Photographing Kids Strategies and Techniques for Creating Engaging, Expressive Images Tamara Lackey Editor: Jocelyn Howell Project Manager: Lisa Brazieal Marketing Coordinator: Mercedes Murray Interior Design: Malea Clark-Nicholson Layout and Type: WolfsonDesign Cover Design: Aren Straiger Author Photograph (page iv): Sara Harris ISBN: 978-1-68198-553-4 1st Edition (1st printing, April 2020) © 2020 Tamara Lackey All images © Tamara Lackey unless otherwise noted Rocky Nook Inc. 1010 B Street, Suite 350 San Rafael, CA 94901 USA www.rockynook.com Distributed in the UK and Europe by Publishers Group UK Distributed in the U.S. and all other territories by Ingram Publisher Services Library of Congress Control Number: 2019950737 All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher. Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in Turkey

This book is dedicated to my beautiful children Sophie, Caleb, and Ana Elisa And to my beloved children in Ethiopia Gabriel, Endrias, Wassei, and Tinsae

TAMARA LACKEY is a renowned professional photographer, speaker, author, and television show host. Her authentic photography, from portraits to humanitarian photography, is featured in a myriad of major media outlets, from popular magazines to entertainment sites and talk shows. Tamara is a Nikon USA Ambassador, as well as the cofounder of Beautiful Together, a non-profit organization focused on supporting children waiting for families. She is also the show host and director of Chasing Frames, an adventurephotography show airing on PBS. Tamara has spoken at a variety of programs, from presenting at Nikon’s mirrorless global launch in Tokyo to delivering inspirational talks at Google and Disney. She has delivered dozens of live-cast productions, led mentor treks, and conducted workshops around the world. She also has the distinction of being recognized as a Legend of Light by Profoto, an ON1 Guru, an Imagely Ambassador, and is part of the Think Tank Pro Team. She and her husband, their three children, and their active cadre of pets all live together in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

CONTENTS Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: Organic Directive Posing Chapter 2: The Psychology Behind Photographing Children Reading Your Subjects Quickly Working with Various Personality Types Recognizing Authenticity

Chapter 3: Gear and Accessories Camera Bodies Lensing Options Perspective Management

Chapter 4: Framing, Lighting & Settings Framing and Composition Five-Point Portrait Lighting Studio Lighting Techniques On-Location Lighting Techniques Setting Up the Shot: Technical Settings

Chapter 5: What to Keep in Mind When Finalizing a Shot

In Theory: A Step-by-Step Checklist

Chapter 6: In Studio Chapter 7: Urban Settings Chapter 8: Commercial & Fashion Shoots Chapter 9: Outdoor Natural Settings Chapter 10: Posing Children Together Conclusion Acknowledgments

Foreword Tamara Lackey, throughout her remarkable career as a visual communicator, has proven time and again to possess a wonderful sensitivity for portraiture. Making effective, story-telling portraits, whether of adults or kids, is all about the relationship the photographer develops from behind the camera with the subject, and Tamara has a unique and open heart, and cares for her subjects deeply. You can see it in her pictures, always, the underlying humanity, the care and respect she displays for her subjects, and her generosity of spirit, which the subject in front of her lens obviously feels. All of these people skills combine with wonderful technical prowess, and the results are vibrant and lovely. Moreover, Tamara is a kid at heart herself, and is fun-loving. You can tell the children here are enjoying being photographed, which is not an easy thing to make happen! Follow Tamara through this wonderful book and learn how to make marvelous kids’ portraits with grace, humor, playfulness, and excellent camera skills. – Joe McNally

Introduction I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY. I LOVE THE WORK I DO, the way I am able to do it, and the people I get to spend time with while I stay focused on consistently getting better at my job. And the reason all of that is true is because I’ve been able to stop and confidently define my style. Not right away, though. Initially, I defined it mostly by what it was not, a pretty common approach to defining one’s photographic style. I’ve also failed at enough approaches to be able to rule out quite a bit! Over time, though, I have come to recognize what I most naturally bring to the table, how that has always been reflected in my style of shooting, and how to better incorporate it into my photo shoots going forward. I know what fundamentals are required in order for me to succeed—and I have practiced them all again and again. At the root of my style of shooting is a combination of traditional posing that morphs into something quite natural and beautiful through spirited engagement, lighthearted adjustments, and a concerted effort to find the authentic. I want to share much of that with you throughout this book. In 2003, when I first started shooting professionally, I mostly saw traditional poses in the work that was being produced around me. Generally speaking, these portraits struck me as stiff, unnatural, and sometimes even boring. The poses were often elegant, no doubt. The backdrop could be quite lovely, and the lighting techniques were often well-executed. I admired those aspects a great deal—even more so over time, actually. But these assets were often just repeated in portrait after portrait, so much so that it looked like the only thing swapped from image to image was the actual subject. Thus, from my perspective, the subject appeared to be a rather insignificant part of a repeated portrait. More apparent than all of that, though, was the lack of emphasis on expression. I was struck by that most because it is something that is more significant to me than anything else in a portrait. In contrast, I was excited to pursue a fresh and unique approach to traditional portraiture, which included more dramatic black-and-white tones, vibrant color, and a major emphasis on storytelling, emotion, and authenticity. This genre of photography was soon referred to as contemporary photography, or later, lifestyle photography. The concept was not just to photograph someone’s likeness, but to try to capture their spirit as well—their personality, their emotion, and many of the inherent characteristics they possessed that felt real and true.

As I progressed with my portraiture, though, I realized that although I wanted to capture the spirit of my subject, I also cared about showcasing them in as flattering a way as possible. Simply put, I wanted to bring out the natural beauty of my subjects. I used my intuition to anticipate the most striking moments to capture during a shoot. Those moments were ones that I’d discovered more through feel and intuition than through technique and the technical aspects of photography. But I started to recognize that without strong lighting, exposure, composition, and framing, the impact of expression would be lessened notably. I wanted to photograph what my subjects were all about, but I also wanted to incorporate some of those tried and true posing methods that truly elevate the look and feel of the subject, as well as the overall impact of the portrait. From my perspective, if one relies heavily on focused observation as a style of capture, it actually becomes even more critical that he or she learns the techniques associated with traditional photography. Since there is less one can control, being able to implement some level of management over fluid situations creates more opportunity for artful capture. Photographing something differently just for the sake of being different doesn’t always mean you are creating something compelling or visually striking. But photographing something in a way that draws the viewer in, in a way that is innovative or memorable or truly original, means you are also likely harnessing some of those traditional philosophies—just with your own personal view, a potentially modern twist, and your unique sense of perception.

CHAPTER 1

Organic Directive Posing

WHAT IS ORGANIC DIRECTIVE POSING? I have slowly morphed my style of shooting into one that is based around what I call Organic Directive Posing, a term I coined to define my personal method for creating a look and feel with portraits. To utilize Organic Directive Posing means to actually pose a subject in a more traditional way, one that conveys elegance or a more thoughtful composition, but to engage with him or her in an exceptionally lighthearted manner while doing so, leaving a wide margin for natural adjustments. I engage with my subjects in an authentic way, with great enthusiasm or great restraint. Sometimes I bring a significant amount of energy to a shoot. Other times I am purposely slowing things down, actively calming the energy during a session. Most of the time, though, it’s a mix of both extremes with a whole lot in between. It’s a consistently conscious effort to engage with my subjects in a way that produces the results we are all hoping to get. I start with the pose I have in mind, I back up, and then I naturally let them settle into something that is more them, something that better suits their personality. I keep a strong focus on their expression, though, since that matters more to me than

anything else. I don’t ever want a more flatteringly posed portrait to come at the cost of authentic imagery. I want my subjects to look beautiful, well lit, and well positioned, yes—but I also want them to look real.

START WITH SOMETHING Because the entire concept of orchestrating a photo shoot is a bit odd, you really need to just jump in and start somewhere. Think about it, a typical scenario is often two sets of strangers agreeing to meet at a studio or in a field or at a house, or wherever, so that one can photograph the other. I mean, all things considered, that’s pretty weird. To combat that inherent awkwardness, I have created a rhythm to pace how shoots will go. I meet up with a client, I chat with them for a little while, we pick an area to shoot—or a backdrop in front of which to shoot—and then I just have my subjects plop down. There’s absolutely no effort to put them through any posing steps at first. I am purposely not focused on it at all. I am building rapport while checking on my lighting, selecting gear options, and dialing in my settings. All of this is happening while they are just starting to settle down. Once all the basics are in place, and we’ve all become a bit more comfortable, I just start shooting. The whole point is to dive right in, ensure everyone is feeling more relaxed, and then shift to make things look (and, of course, feel) better.

By the time everything is going more smoothly, I suggest a pose by showing them one or guiding them through it, whichever is easier. I start with something I think would fit them well, but I know that they will settle into the pose and make something different of it—something that is more them, more authentic, and often better. And if it’s not better? I let them know everything is great, I click a few frames, and I continue to shift things a bit more. I keep things light-hearted while I keep going, always in search of better.

CONSISTENTLY ADJUST AS NEEDED If I were conducting a photo shoot and everything was going amazingly well—and my subject looked perfect and the lighting looked perfect and my settings were lined up perfectly—I would still not want to stick with that. Because there is only a small window of time where that will look fresh and authentic. After a surprisingly short amount of time, holding a pose becomes work. To hold one’s hand this way and keep a smile that way while facing the other way requires effort. It works “perfectly” only for a short while. After that, it all starts to look and feel strained. I find myself consistently adjusting a multitude of things as needed. Perhaps it’s asking the subject to drop her shoulders, or it’s me dropping the exposure a stop, or it’s a change in framing, or it’s waiting for a smile to calm down a bit. There really

are so many little factors that can be shifted. (I can go on about this for a while. And, unfortunately for some around me, I often have.) The bottom line is that it’s the constant adjustments, the energy that keeps moving as we keep moving, that carry us through a portrait session as seamlessly and successfully as possible.

CHAPTER 2

The Psychology Behind Photographing Children

PHOTOGRAPHING CHILDREN IS, MOSTLY, an exercise in energy. Not just the energy you need to keep up with them, but the energy they put out, or hold back, for you to hopefully notice. One of the most impactful things you can do to improve your work as a portrait photographer is to take the time to learn how to read your subjects quickly. When it comes to children, you often don’t have that much time with them before their mood changes. They become hungry, tired, cold, hot, itchy, or are simply finished with the shoot altogether. So the sooner you can get a read on who you will be photographing, the more authentic your portraits will be.

READING YOUR SUBJECTS QUICKLY There are two solid methods to use when preparing to photograph a child. The first is the simplest, but not always the most accurate. The second requires more effort, but if practiced frequently enough, it is by far the most effective. To make this simpler, though, if you’ve never practiced the art of reading a child’s personality before, it’s easier to start with the first method until you become fluent in the second. Method One: Ask the parents about the child’s personality. I have a number

of questions I ask of the parents, and their answers tell me a great deal about what to expect when I photograph their child or children. Method Two: Tune in strongly to your innate intuition and read the personalities of the children you meet. Utilizing some of the feedback you get from their parents helps you do to this quickly, and you will only become more attuned over time, especially after putting method one into practice. I feel like I can do this in under sixty seconds at this point. I can actually be quite annoying by sharing this learned skill with others. I have to learn to do that less. Let’s start with method one. Sometime before the shoot occurs, during a pre-meeting, phone call, or even via email, if need be, ask some basic questions that will help you get started. Keep in mind that these questions are taken from either side of a wide spectrum. No person is all this or all that, regardless of age, personality, genetics, or life experiences. But getting a feel for where children tend to fall on these spectrums can help you jumpstart a shoot in a rather well-prepared way. Most of the questions I ask have to do with a few key areas of interest: The child’s comfort level in new situations Their general energy levels Their readiness to embark on new activities or adventures Their typical manner of receiving attention Yes, there are about a million other areas I could find out about before I meet my newest little subject, but getting some clarity in just these areas goes a long way.

Comfort Level in New Situations How comfortable is the child in new settings? Does she need some time to warm up to strangers? Is he excited to meet most people right away? How does he typically respond to new people? Does she need some time to study a new environment, or is she likely to just dive right in, regardless of her surroundings? Is she usually inquisitive about new situations, or does she not tend to warm up in short periods of time?

General Energy Levels Does he daydream often, or space out easily? Or does he tend to be more directly focused on interaction, conversation, give and take? Is she calm and steady, quiet and pensive, or boisterous and full of energy? Is he a more physically active child, or does he prefer to extend less physical effort, gravitating toward more sedentary activities? Are there any physical, mood, or emotional challenges or to be aware of?

Readiness to Embark on New Activities or Adventures How alert is she first thing in the morning or after waking from a nap? Is she typically more engaged in the early mornings or late afternoons? Is he immediately excited about new adventures, people, or places? Or does he like to take it slowly, or maybe even resist most new things altogether? Does she get excited about playing games or does she tend to pass when offered the opportunity to play? Does he like surprises? How does she respond to a quick change in plans? When we first meet up for our shoot, how long do you think we will have? Would he be at his best right away, or is he more likely to gather steam and be up for more interaction later in the shoot?

Receiving Attention Does he like to be the center of attention, welcoming interactions and focus, or does he prefer to just blend into the background? Is she affectionate, likely to hug easily, demonstrative of her feelings? Or does she prefer to remain independent, is more sensitive to physical touch or simply prefers less physical contact? If he notices people looking at him or taking notice of him, does he care much? Does he find it uncomfortable or frustrating? The questions could clearly go on and on, and if you don’t ask them in a certain manner, they absolutely will! And I certainly don’t ask all of them, ever. But based on initial responses, I know what to follow up with, and I can often get a good idea of how to plan for a shoot as well as possible based on responses. Parents love to talk about their kids, mostly because kids are awesome, but if you

want to limit this pre-shoot conversation, lead with direct questions and avoid openended ones. Starting a conversation with “So, tell me about your child . . .” may make for a great discussion, but it won’t necessarily be a helpful one in terms of getting to the point of shooting this portrait session. And it can go on for a while! The answers to these general questions tells you a lot, generally speaking, about what the child likes and dislikes, what fascinates them, and what can set them off. Know what you’re walking into, and you’ve already won half the battle.

WORKING WITH VARIOUS PERSONALITY TYPES By the time you walk into a shoot, you may already have a wealth of information at your fingertips—some of which you’ve researched, some of which was offered, and some of which you perceived on your own throughout the course of your interactions with your subject. The next question, though, is what do you do with all that information? I have been a fan of “personality typing” for quite some time. Personality typing is a way of categorizing people by their preference of general attitude as it relates to multiple factors. There are many different methods for typing individuals, but one of the most widely recognized and accepted methods is the Myers-Briggs method, originally created by Carl Jung (and expanded on greatly by Katherine Myers Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers). Although no one person is all this or all that, many people tend to work on a more specific type of operating system, utilizing preferred methods for how they process and engage in the world around them. The main categories are Extraversion— Introversion, Sensing—Intuition, Thinking—Feeling, and Judging—Perceiving. The scale between Extraversion and Introversion signifies the source and direction of a person’s energy expression. The spectrum of how one may become energized ranges from in the external world to the internal world, or pulling energy in from others versus needing to be alone to re-energize. While a more extraverted person might gain energy by being around people, an introverted person might lose energy by being around other people too long. To put it in very modern terms, it comes down to how different people recharge their brain, like one would recharge their batteries. Some charge up from being around other people and others charge up from being alone. This brings us back to my original comment—that no one is all this or all that. Something I repeat a lot because I think it’s so important to note this when you are “typing” people. A great many people are “ambiverts,” pretty strongly in the middle of those personality spectrums. This is something important to keep in mind when it comes to working with various personality types. The second criterion, Sensing—Intuition, represents the method by which someone perceives information, or how they naturally notice and remember things. When one is more on the Sensing end of the spectrum, that means they mainly believe information that they receive directly from the external world. Those on the Intuition end of the spectrum believe mainly information they receive from the internal world, or their own intuition. They naturally take in a great deal of

information that isn’t said or shown, even if they are too young to know why they know things. They just naturally do. The third criterion, Thinking—Feeling, represents how a person processes information, or how they make decisions. Someone on the Thinking side of the scale makes decisions through logic-based thought. They tend to focus on tangible things, and they appreciate clear and logical rules. Someone on the Feeling edge, however, makes decisions based on emotion, on what they feel they should do. They value harmony and tend to base decisions on their personal values rather that what the rules say is right. The last criterion, Judging—Perceiving, reflects how a person implements the information he or she has processed. It’s basically how they organize the world around them. Someone who is on the Judging side of the scale is a person who organizes all of his or her life events, generally sticking to a set, structured plan. An individual who experiences the Perceiving side of the spectrum is one who is inclined to improvise and explore alternative options over time, shifting routes and mindsets with new information and experiences. They approach life in a more flexible way. The Myers-Briggs method of personality typing recognizes all the possibilities of these four dichotomies, which yields sixteen different combinations, or sixteen different personality types. There are so many ways to research this personality typing method, and there are quite a number of other methods as well. But for the purposes of quickly “reading” my subjects, I am utilizing a combination of these types to get an understanding of how to best interact with them, at least for the length of our time together during a photo shoot. The more I studied personality typing while I photographed kids, the more I started tuning into what I was learning before I went into a shoot (the answers to “How does he respond in new situations, does she like to be hugged quickly, how does she react to a quick change in plans?”). Combining that information with my own perceptions helped me to very quickly determine what type of personality I might be spending time with for the rest of the portrait shoot. After thousands of professional shoots, I’ve listed the six general personality types that I tend to see again and again when it comes to photographing children— and the one demonstration of a personality type that any child could experience.

The Superstar, or The Entertainer This child is more on the extraverted side, shows up ready to go, and is excited to meet you and whomever else might be there. They are typically high-energy, or at least highly interested, and appear to be so much fun to photograph. Their parents often describe them as “up for anything,” or comment that “they love meeting new people.” The best part about photographing a Superstar is that they are a lot of fun on the shoot, they are ready to jump in right away, and they often have great ideas for what you could do on a shoot. You often hear “Watch this!” or “Take my picture doing this!” The challenging part is that there is often a performance factor involved—you get a lot of pre-rehearsed smiles or poses that seem overdone or over-practiced. Because of this, capturing something authentic can often be more of a challenge. The other aspect to notice is that they often request to see the images you just shot. From my perspective, stopping to show them what you photographed can really slow down the momentum of a shoot that is otherwise going well. So I may show an image as we close out one setup for a shoot and move into another, or I’ll just say that they will get to see them all on a BIG screen soon. The goal: Go after those big moments and fun experiences, no doubt. But then find those natural smiles and authentic expressions, which often appear just after the

BIG SMILE they throw your way, right when they are coming down a bit and relaxing. And keep your camera out and ready, as you’ll get some “dreamier,” more soulful expressions as they tend to tire out a bit.

The Interactive One This child thrives on give and take. They tend to process things from a Sensing perspective, gathering their information from the external world by noticing the things they see and hear. As long as you keep them interested in the topic or exchange, they can be amazing subjects because they often look focused—and they can be entertained quite easily. They are inquisitive, interested, and tend to know a lot of fascinating facts about various topics. So the best techniques to use here are ones that relate to “Did you know . . .” or “Have you heard?” Sometimes this is exchanging facts about dinosaurs, superhero series, solar systems, a favorite show or app, or whatever you learn that they are into right now. Contests and game playing work quite well too. I will often ask them if they can race somewhere and back, or I will challenge them to a contest with me, something as simple as who can name all the colors in a rainbow as quickly as possible. Another type of game might be to have them try a different pose for a set number of seconds and then jump into a new one. The challenge here is that you will lose your subject’s attention rather rapidly if you turn your attention elsewhere, like if you spend too much time on your lighting

setup or on your camera settings. This is another reason I like to move the camera away from my face often while engaging with my subjects, so that we can better connect. This technique is a great way to ensure that they don’t “lose” my attention while I am tucked behind the black box that is a camera.

The Shy One This child may never warm all the way up during a shoot, unless, perhaps, you live with the subject and their family for a while! This is the truly shy child who does not come fully out of their shell for the abbreviated time of a photo shoot—even one that goes on for hours. And when I know that I will be photographing a very shy child, I definitely allot more time for that shoot, as I know I will need it. The upside to photographing this child is that it’s so easy to get vulnerable, sweet imagery of them. Those soulful looks and that quiet reserve can be incredibly striking. And when you do capture a spontaneous giggle or authentic smile, the effect can be absolutely transformative.

Photographing this child is also a wonderful opportunity to shoot more candids— to find times when they are in their element, truly at their most comfortable, and capture more of those moments. The challenge here is to not forget to treat your subject gingerly, bringing a consciously soft energy to the shoot. Specifically, moderating the energy and volume

in your voice can really make a difference in terms of calming their nerves and winning their trust. But jumping in like it’s any sort of photo shoot, similar to how you might interact with the Superstar, will quite likely backfire.

The Spirited Child This subject is often referred to as strong-willed. Impressively, they know exactly what they want. Less easy to manage, they can demonstrate a level stubbornness that is striking in its intensity. If they do not want to do something, they will not do it. And if they want something, they really want something and will stay hyperfocused on that. In the course of our time together on a photo shoot, I think of them as simply “more”—more intense, more emotional, more perceptive, more sensitive, more focused, more persistent. There is a great book by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka entitled Raising Your Spirited Child, and my favorite takeaway from it is that for far too long spirited children have been labeled as difficult when they are simply just processing the world in a different way. Understand how they are processing their world, and you are about 100% ahead of where you would have been otherwise in terms of tackling this photo shoot. This child tends to be on the Introverted end of the spectrum, needing more time to gain the energy they need to move from one thing to another. That doesn’t mean they won’t be all over the place. It just means that if you want to quickly shift activities, like move the shoot from one location to another one, they will need a good heads up that this will be happening so that they can process the information internally before they are ready to move. And if you want to do an outfit change and they do not wear the clothing that is being offered, well, it’s best to stick with what they are wearing and avoid a meltdown. Or at least wait until the end of the shoot to try for that.

The upside to photographing this child is that they are rarely dispassionate. You get to see and capture a lot of emotion and, as a portrait photographer focused on expression, that is a joy to photograph. The challenge is to not fall into the easy trap of dismissing their frustrations as unreasonable or as an annoyance to the flow of the shoot you’d planned. Because that mindset isn’t going to help you capture amazing images of this child, and it certainly won’t let you achieve the rare opportunity to offer Mom and Dad the comfort that it is possible to get amazing photographs of this child. Parents with spirited children are often more appreciative than most when you show them great images of their child because often they, and many others, may have failed to do so. The fact that you took the time and effort required will make a world of difference to them.

The One Who Just Needs to Warm Up The one who just needs to warm up is one of my favorite subjects to photograph because you can capture a great collection of expressions across the emotional spectrum quite easily. This child will let you see their most authentic self, in time. You just need to wait a while to get there. In the meantime, you are often dealing with either a shy child or a seemingly disinterested one. Either way, you can capture those expressions, which can be quite lovely, whether they appear vulnerable or aloof. The challenge here is to wait for your subject to be fully warmed up. That doesn’t mean you have to wait to photograph them, just step much farther back, shoot with a long lens, and photograph them in more of a pure documentary style. If you just casually interact with them for long enough, they eventually become more interested in you, the shoot, and the experience. At that point, you can switch to either a portrait or even closer-range lens and capture their fully warmed-up, beautiful selves.

The “Too Cool For School” One This subject tends to be on the Judging end of the Judging – Perceiving scale. They have a set expectation of how the shoot will go, and usually feel that it is so “not cool,” or it is embarrassing. The descriptions can go on and on. They are often older children, preteens or teens, and they will let you know, with little uncertainty, that they do not want to be here and the whole thing is pretty cheesy. Or they will not tell

you, but you can tell something is a bit off in terms of how much they want to be the center of attention. Trying to pose this child is an excellent way to make sure that you fail at taking great photographs of them. With this subject, the technique that tends to work quite well is to just go with it, to acknowledge that yes, this is pretty lame. Or embarrassing. I feel their pain. I barely wanted to be here myself but what can you do? I will often give a countdown until we are done, “You are doing exceedingly well at this, given how very much you didn’t even want to be here. . . . You’ll be out of here in 20 minutes, let’s just knock a few more out, so you can finally be free.” I’ll ask them what they plan to do next and then I join them in getting excited to go do that instead of, ugh, this. In the meantime, I am asking them to basically just hang out while I tweak a few things. Largely unbeknownst to them, I am building a pose of sorts through very small requested adjustments. I am also consistently getting myself to shoot at an angle that is most flattering for them, versus asking them to shift or move. The less direction I give, the better the shoot goes. This overall technique allows me to photograph a beautiful portrait of them—they just don’t always know exactly how that is coming together. And more often than not, you would think that the subject has been posed just so.

The challenge here is to resist the urge to talk them into how great this really is, how much fun it can be if they just get into it. Most of the time, that can come across as even more annoying, thereby shutting down the type of connection you can have with them by simply accepting their take on the situation and getting creative about how you get your shots. I genuinely feel lucky to have gotten their interest or attention, in whatever capacity it is communicated, and I try to show that in my portraits of them.

The One Who is Sick, Overly Tired, or Already Mid-Tantrum Cancel the shoot. No, seriously, just completely cancel the shoot—or, rather, reschedule it—especially if the child is sick. I’ve had a number of families who don’t mention that their child is ill until they are standing in front of me, and it is readily apparent. Even though we just spoke the day before. I get it, it takes a while to book a shoot and there is a lot of effort that goes into preparing one’s family for a shoot, no doubt. But even the most resilient child can have great difficulties “powering through” an illness, and that misery shows up on camera. In addition, sickness spreads. And, lastly, clients often feel worse later, when they see how sick their child looks in portraits. Even when you did the very best

you could with what you had! If a child is overly tired—I mean, wanting to just curl up and sleep for the whole shoot kind of tired—the same advice applies: reschedule the shoot. And that outright, full-scale tantrum that they are experiencing as they walk into the shoot? You may be able to outlast that and get to the point where you are getting great images. Or you may not, and the entire experience ends up being a wash. In addition to confirming that we are booking the shoot at a time that works well for the subject’s personality (“not a morning person” is definitely a thing), I have added the following questions to my pre-shoot discussion with the parents: Is everyone feeling good for the shoot? Is anybody sick or maybe worn down? The challenge here is to avoid thinking you can overcome all of these issues because you are good. I am sure you are good. No doubt. But if you can cancel or reschedule when these issues surface, do it. Try to reschedule quickly and work to make that next shoot you are booking with them sound even more enticing than what would have happened with this one. Because if you are good now, you’ll be amazing then.

RECOGNIZING AUTHENTICITY I once taught a multi-day course that was broadcast live to an international audience (and a notably large audience at that) and I followed a brilliant photographer who had showcased stunning images that encompassed mountains and valleys and rivers and giant skies. He stepped through the entirety of those landscapes in beautiful detail. It was fantastic. Then I stepped up and started out by showing an image that was nothing more than a full-frame photograph of a small human face. The program had gone from the giant expanse of Earth to the tiny landscape of a child’s face. But what I wanted to speak to is the enormity of complexity that exists simply in the expression on a human being’s face. The difference between joyful and apprehensive and angry and content can be like the difference between mountains and valleys and rivers and sky. So I walked through it—how this one face displays an effort to show what is requested, how this other face shows an unconscious transition in progress, and how this other face displays authentic feeling, fully unmasked. The demonstration worked. Quite well. The human face is spectacular enough. You add in all the layers of non-verbal body language, then actual voiced communication, and then all the subtle distinctions between the words? Wow. There is so very much there. Human beings contain

multiverses of nuance. The small details in expression, in interaction, in framing and relationship, can completely shift the experience of how one views a portrait. Small details make a big difference because the human being is an extraordinary experience. Learning to recognize authenticity has everything to do with recognizing selfconsciousness in each subject you photograph—seeing their insecurity, their selfdoubt, their lack of sure-footedness as they demonstrate it to you, voluntarily or through tells that aren’t as tightly guarded as they might believe. Even the most selfconfident person you know isn’t self-confident in every aspect of their life. And standing before a camera, knowing all that it may show, can make many people a bit nervous. Recognizing small tells that demonstrate these natural, human traits of vulnerability will go a long way toward helping you to put people at ease and, even better, show the version of them they want others to see. Some simple tells that showcase a lack of authenticity include clenched fists or high shoulders held in a tense manner. Sometimes the person’s lips are trembling slightly, or their jaw is tight. An exceptionally common one is smiling without any of that positive emotion reaching their eyes. Of course, an obviously fake smile gives a whole lot away. For others, there is a lot of swallowing or rubbing their hands together. Yet others express frustration easily or ask to see all the images that were shot so they can decide what is working. There are endless ways to recognize authenticity, or a lack of it, which is a wonderful place to start when you’re trying to help a subject feel more fully at ease. Train yourself to better recognize authenticity, and you will use this skill to great effect for the rest of your life, whether you happen to be taking a photograph or not.

CHAPTER 3

Gear and Accessories

IT’S BEEN SAID THAT great photography is not about the gear. In so many ways, that is true. The vast majority of this book is focused on showcasing the wide variety of considerations that come into play when shooting a strong portrait. That said, it’s still critical to ensure that you actually have the equipment that best fits the varying nature of your shoots. And often the best gear is simply that which best fits your needs.

CAMERA BODIES I shoot every session with at least two cameras on hand. And on longer or more complex shoots, I will have a third, just as an additional backup. I like to shoot with more than one camera for a couple of reasons. The first is basic security. I have had multiple cameras lock up on me, often blinking unknown error messages. It may only be a random temporary issue, but it’s a significant one if it happens during a shoot. Another reason I always bring at least two cameras to a shoot is to enjoy the ease of shooting with separate lens options affixed to each camera body. I can get different views and angles without slowing down to change lenses. This is also a near requirement when shooting in a wet, windy, or sandy location—like at the beach on a blustery day, during a rainstorm, or when shooting portraits in dustier environments.

At those times, I don’t risk opening up my camera sensor even one time. Here are a few things to consider when shooting with two camera bodies at the same time: Set the two cameras to the same date/time stamp. Trying to sort through images from two different cameras in a chronological way post-shoot can become an hours-long project, depending on how many images you shot. Ensure that both cameras are set to the same color profile, which will dictate similar levels of sharpening or contrast, or any of the other many ways you can customize your shooting style. Confirm that both cameras are set to the same white balance setting to save you valuable time in post-processing. Set a similar image quality for each camera. If you’re dialed into RAW for one camera and low-quality JPEG on another, you’re setting yourself up for a wide variety in output. Review any other aspects of shooting with two cameras that may have an effect on your particular shooting style. When it comes to choosing which camera to use, consider the image quality and color tones of your camera of choice, the dynamic range capabilities and what type of highresolution you require. I would strongly suggest you select a camera with high-ISO capabilities. The benefits of being able to shoot at a higher ISO (without notable loss in image quality) are more significant than simply being able to shoot in lower light. It also helps when shooting fast action, giving you the ability to let more light into your camera when you might not be able to add artificial light. What kind of action will your camera need to be able to capture? I shoot a lot of fast-moving subjects, so shooting with a camera that has a frame rate of anywhere from 9–12 frames per second is very useful. I also appreciate a tilt-and-touch LCD screen that allows me to step away from the camera. I can pull the LCD away from the camera and tilt it so that I can hold the camera on the ground and still see the shot while just crouching. I can hold it above my subject without having to stand over them and still see the shot. I use this charming and useful feature often. It’s also incredibly handy to be able to touch the screen to focus. Lastly, consider how the camera actually feels in your hands, the basic ergonomics of shooting with one camera over another. Sometimes it’s not about which camera body has all the bells and whistles; sometimes it’s simply about how it feels in your hands while you’re shooting and how intuitively you use its controls.

LENSING OPTIONS One question I am asked rather often is where one should put their money when budgeting for camera gear. My answer is always the same: purchase a good-quality camera with solid ISO capabilities and one top-quality lens. I would always go with a pretty good camera and one amazing lens over the best camera on the market and several average lenses. First of all, new camera models come out pretty regularly, and all the new ones seem cooler than the previous ones, even though the previous models are still very good cameras. Secondly, a pretty good camera can do a lot for you, especially when you can shoot at higher ISOs with no discernible noise issues. But an amazing lens can make a huge difference. Lenses can last forever, as long as they are well maintained. Even though new lenses are produced rather regularly, and some features are improved—like a new vibration reduction option on your alltime favorite lens, for instance—it is still a better choice to invest in a lens that can improve the sharpness and quality of your work right out of the gate. I have stood side by side with photographers at my portrait workshops where we were both shooting the same subject with the same settings in the same lighting with the same camera— and the quality of our images was notably far apart. The only difference was the lens we were using. It can be that powerful of a factor when shooting.

Portrait Lens A strong portrait lens, especially when utilized at a distance from your subjects, is ideal for photographing individuals or small groups in a very flattering way. One of the key attributes of a strong portrait lens is that you can isolate your subjects from the background when shooting with a shallow depth of field. A good rule of thumb, generally speaking, is to shoot at least 12–15 feet away from your subject in order to achieve an undistorted portrait. Perspective compression can have a big impact on how flattering a portrait is, so the distance between the lens and your subject matters. The closer you are to your subjects when you are photographing them, the more likely you are to distort their facial features (think bigger noses, warped facial structure, smaller ears). The farther away you are from your subjects, the more you can “flatten” their features. Think of every unflattering image you’ve seen of celebrities when they have clearly been photographed from a significant distance away. Not good. The portrait lenses I use most often are the Nikon 105mm f/1.4 lens and the 85mm f/1.4 lens. The shallow depth-of-field capability allows for buttery, soft, beautiful backgrounds (and foregrounds) with sharp focus on subjects and easier lowlight shooting. You can also use it to show off some great movement and expression.

I love great-quality portrait lenses.

Telephoto Lens A telephoto lens can be used to cover considerable distance when photographing your subjects from afar, while delivering the strongest emphasis on perspective compression. It is also capable of capturing a shallow depth of field with a noticeably strong separation of subject from background. One of the main jobs of a telephoto lens is to visually compress distance, so subjects don’t appear as far away. This is why you get a more striking image of a full moon, for instance, when you shoot with a telephoto lens rather than a standard lens. Telephoto lenses can offer a definite advantage when it comes to portrait photography. You are able to maximize the lovely bokeh, which often enhances the focus on your individual subject. You can also enhance the dreamy quality of a family portrait through this distinct narrow angle of view, allowing you to be more selective about what you to choose to include in the frame. The potential downside of a telephoto lens is that you may be shooting farther away from your subjects than you would choose to at times. This may limit your ability to interact comfortably with them. Interestingly enough, though, I often find

that to be a perk of shooting with a telephoto lens. There are plenty of times when you want to distance yourself from your subject. You may want to step back and get more candid, documentary-style shots, or you may want to simply give your subject “space,” an energy break from when you were shooting closer. Sometimes you may even need a bit of space too. For all those reasons, and more, this is a good lens to have at the ready for portrait shoots. My lens of choice is the 70–200mm f/2.8 lens. It is very fast to focus and is an excellent choice when photographing fast-moving subjects or sports. It has some strong vibration reduction capabilities, which means that it can help you to control camera shake. Vibration reduction can be incredibly useful, especially in low-light situations.

Macro Lens A solid macro lens that also has portrait capabilities is a great investment to make due to its versatility and ability to capture a whole world that you don’t often see otherwise. A macro lens is fantastic for showing off details. With babies and children, this can provide a great opportunity to showcase eyelashes, little fingers and toes, and all the other things that parents are enamored with when it comes to their new little ones. It’s also a great way to show off details surrounding an environmental portrait. You can shoot the portrait session and then add in little details from the environment that pair together beautifully with the main portraits in portrait albums or when framed together. And, of course, there is all the joy that macro shooting provides. You’re invited into this secret magical world where everything tiny is shown in great detail. All that being said, I prefer a macro lens that also functions as a great portrait lens. For that reason, my lens of choice is the 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.

Wide-Angle Lens

When photographing families, a wide-angle lens can be quite useful, and never more so than when you are shooting in a relatively tight space. These lenses are typically defined (on a full-frame 35mm camera) as any lens that is less than or equal to the 35mm focal length—most commonly the 35mm and the 24mm. Anything under 24mm starts dropping into the ultra-wide-angle lens category, all the way down to the 10mm and fisheye lenses. These produce distorted views that can often be used to great creative effect. Wide-angle lenses allow you to include quite a lot in your frame, which is great for environmental portraits. A note of caution when shooting portraits with wideangle lenses, though: you need to keep the distortion tendencies of the lens in mind when considering how attractively you want to photograph your subjects. If you shoot too closely, you can create significant distortion—noses look larger, ears appear to be teeny tiny, and hands or feet that are closer to the lens seem strikingly out of proportion with the rest of the body. Similarly, when shooting a group, pay attention to who is in the middle of the frame and who is on the edges of the frame—and, even more significantly, how close they are to the edges of the frame—as those in the middle can look “normal” while those on the edge will look “wider” or even “much wider.” I always suggest that photographers frame responsibly, for the love of all things kind and fair! My two lenses of choice for wide-angle shooting are the 35mm f/1.4 lens and the 24–70mm f/2.8 lens, at the wider side, of course. Let’s start with the 35mm f/1.4 lens. I find this to be a fantastic lens choice when I am photographing sibling groups because it’s a fixed focal length that is considered wide-angle but is also quite close to providing a natural angle of view, similar to the perception of the human eye. But since it’s kind of in the middle, it can give you a bit of a quirky view of things, which I think is brilliant because it can be visually compelling in a way that makes images stand out. The image quality is superior to what you might find with a zoom lens dialed into 35mm, and the f/1.4 allows you to achieve vibrant captures in lower-light situations. My favorite of the two lenses, though, is the 24–70mm f/2.8 lens. I could write an entire chapter about this one on its own. This is my workhorse lens, the one I take to every single shoot I do. Whether it is a portrait shoot or an editorial shoot or a commercial shoot or a humanitarian shoot or a landscape shoot or all of the hundreds of weddings I shot for seven years: THIS LENS IS ALWAYS IN THE BAG. It’s what I grab when I don’t know what I’m walking into and, given the way I shoot, that’s pretty much everything I do. I guess if I knew every single thing that could unfold during a portrait session, I probably wouldn’t shoot as many because it

wouldn’t be as interesting to me. So that’s a good thing. This lens is beautifully versatile. It’s a wide-angle lens, a standard lens, and a portrait lens all rolled up into one because of its zoom capabilities. So the advantage of using this lens is that it allows you to immediately shift from an up-close wideangle view to a from-a-distance portrait view to a remain-where-you-are-standing view, all with relatively little effort. The disadvantage, if there is one to name, is that it does not produce image quality that is as crisp and clean as I would get with my prime lenses with fixed focal lengths. If I shoot a scene at 35mm on my 24–70mm f/2.8 and hold the image up against an photograph shot with my 35mm f/1.4, the latter shot is a stronger capture—but not so much that I would want to keep swapping out lenses in quick-moving situations. The other major benefit of this lens is that it is quite fast to focus. For that reason alone, it is incredible. I will literally run with my subjects, just to capture different looks, feels, and expressions, and it will click away as instantly as I am grabbing focus. And it will do so again and again. It’s a constant performer. The images are shot with edge-to-edge sharpness across the frame too. And if I am photographing subjects moving toward me, I can get off quite a number of shots at rather close range without missing a beat.

Standard Lens The standard, or “normal,” lens provides the most undistorted, natural angle of view of the subject matter because it is pretty much the same angle of view as the human eye. So what you see is what you get when you capture a photograph with this lens, which some might find reassuring and others may find disappointing. I actually find the standard lens to be a more challenging one to use when I am focused on capturing artistic, compelling, and creative images. It’s not my favorite focal length at all. That said, I know plenty of amazing portrait photographers who absolutely love their standard lens and use it more than any other. Basically, a standard lens is one in that 50mm range. But it can go down to 40mm or so, and up to the 60mm range as well. I have shot with both the 50mm f/1.4 lens and the 58mm f/1.4 lens, but I don’t do so often. It probably bears repeating here that others favor these lenses. I just don’t, and I rarely shoot with them.

PERSPECTIVE MANAGEMENT In addition to choosing the best lens to flatter your subject, you also want to manage the perspective from which you are shooting. When photographing your subjects consider what you want to show off, and what you might want to show less of. Consider how close various parts of your subject are to the lens and move your subject around accordingly. For instance, if you’re shooting from a lower angle and your subject’s legs are closer to the lens, they will appear larger. If they are sitting down, perhaps you want to take a minute to have them tuck their legs back a bit. By the same logic, if you want to emphasize a gorgeous smile, have your subject lean in toward the camera, showcasing that megawatt smile first. This is a particularly useful technique when photographing a subject’s eyes. Simply by positioning your subject and shooting from a higher angle so that the eyes are closer to the lens, you enhance their impact.

CHAPTER 4

Framing, Lighting & Settings

FRAMING AND COMPOSITION I once heard composition referred to as a form of organization, and that made a lot of sense to me. Composition is the act of arranging shape, negative space, contrast, color, lines, and points of interest in a way that is as eye-catching, compelling, or as meaningful as possible. And as the photographer, you get to determine what viewers of your portrait may experience when they look at the image you’ve created. Carefully considering the way you wish to frame your subject, and the rest of the key elements in your image, is essential to creating a great portrait. Visually speaking, the most striking photographs contain elements that allow your eye to be led through the image and naturally move from one object to the next.

Rule of Thirds

If you’ve practiced the art of photography, or read anything about composition, you already know about the rule of thirds. Imagine the frame of your image being divided by two horizontal lines and two vertical lines, creating nine equal boxes and four

distinct axis points. The school of thought, as it relates to this popular composition style, is that our eyes instinctively go to one of those axis points. By placing your subject in the upper-right thirds, the lower-right thirds, the upper-left thirds, or the lower-left thirds, you bring more balance into the frame, and the viewer will better see your intended point of interest.

Center Composition One of the first pieces of advice a professional photographer will offer a budding new shooter is to ditch the act of placing their subject in the middle of the frame in favor of more visually compelling composition techniques. Given that the most common way of composing a photograph is to simply stick your subject in the middle and click the shutter, this isn’t a bad tip overall. But every so often, intentionally centercomposing your subject can add impact to a portrait.

So, to recap: avoid center composition and use it to great effect. Composition, like life, can be a maddening series of contradictions. If you wish to create a center-composed portrait, consider whether something about your subject is striking enough to showcase in this manner—or is the clear focal point in an otherwise visually compelling frame.

Triangular Composition The “rule of odds” suggests that an odd number of points of interest in the focus are far more interesting than an even number of them. Similarly, the placing of your subjects in a triangular formation of sorts is meant to convey a more pleasing shape to the eye. This type of composition is particularly popular when it comes to photographing families or groups. But it can also be a captivating shape to create with just two people—and you can even pull it off with one subject as well.

Little Subject, Big World Capturing your subject as just a smaller part of a larger environment can be an intriguing way to mix up a collection of portraits. It is not dissimilar to photographing a landscape. You just happen to include some people, or pets, in there as well! This is a great method to use when shooting environmental portraits too.

Leading Lines If one of the purposes of strong composition is to lead the viewer’s eye into the frame, utilizing leading lines is one of the most powerful ways to do this. Whether they are

horizontal or vertical or straight lines, or gentling curving elements, position them— or yourself, in relation to them—as leading up to your subject.

Bird’s Eye View Shooting from above your subjects is a fun way to break with how people would traditionally view a portrait. Sometimes this means literally standing over your subject, or subjects. Other times it means stepping up on a ladder, leaning off of a tree, or shooting from the top of a set of stairs—or whatever works for you where you are. And with today’s newer cameras, you can now shoot in Live View with a swivel LCD. This feature is remarkably helpful for shooting from more dramatic angles such as this. Remember to shoot with a wide- or even ultra-wide-angle lens and set your aperture to a rather extended field of focus to ensure that all is in focus.

Natural Framing Incorporating natural framing into a portrait can help to isolate your intended point of interest from its surroundings in a more striking manner. Natural framing is any

element that, well, naturally frames your subject, such as trees and branches, doorways and archways, and curved objects of many sorts. Thoughtfully choosing to bring these elements into your frame can often enhance the overall look of the portrait, as well as position your subject in a more interesting way.

Diagonal Lines Diagonal lines can add a rather dynamic element to your compositions. They can add tension, depth, or even movement to a portrait. And sometimes they can do so all at once. Sometimes you find or seek out these lines and compose your portrait around them. Other times you can create a diagonal simply by how you tilt your camera.

Fill the Frame Going close is appealing for many reasons. With portraits of individuals, it can be intriguing to fill a frame with just a subject’s face. But it is also a useful practice when you’re battling a busy background or just want to eliminate elements around your subject that don’t contribute to the portrait.

FIVE-POINT PORTRAIT LIGHTING Light is a powerful thing. It’s a concept, a verb, a measurement, an adjective, a tool, and a whole school of thought. Photography was even named after light, as it literally means to paint with light. There’s really no way around it: light is the primary instrument that photographers use when practicing their craft. From my perspective, I can achieve the most amazing capture, the most endearing expression, the sweetest interaction in the world, but if it’s not well lit, I’ve lost the opportunity to do that moment justice. If the photograph is overexposed (detail in the highlights are lost), underexposed (details in the shadows are lost), or even lit in an unflattering way (creates or exaggerates unattractive qualities), it is on me because I didn’t light it well. Learn the basics of lighting. Unless you desire to focus heavily on lighting, keep your lighting as simple as possible, practice often, and know what to look for when lighting portraits. And why practice often? Because you are photographing subjects who breathe, move, and change position—and who will also move outside the

boundaries of your carefully created, very controlled lighting setup. Practice allows you to better know how to quickly adjust lighting on the spot, be able to mindfully shift what you need to shift, and be able to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances. If you don’t know how to do those tasks, you will undoubtedly lose the opportunity to fluidly light a shoot in motion. Speaking just for my work, most of my favorite images were captured while my subjects were very much in some sort of motion.

Light Sources There are typically five light sources that I consider when photographing portraits: Main, or Key, Light: The main light usually does most of the actual lighting in the scene. This is the biggest, or strongest, light. It is the primary light in your portrait. Common examples of main light include the sun (direct or diffused), a constant light, a strobe light, a flash, or even ambient light. Fill Light: The fill light doesn’t actually have to be a light. Its purpose is to “fill” in the shadows that have been created by the main light, or ones that weren’t actually reached by the main light. If it is a light, it’s typically the secondary one. If it bounces light, it can take the shape of a reflector, a panel, a fill card, a concrete sidewalk, even just a white sheet. It’s really any source that can bounce light back onto your subject to fill in, or soften, the shadows. Hair, or Rim, Light: This light separates your subject from the background. It’s particularly important to use this light when you are photographing a dark-haired person, for instance, against a dark background. Use of this light adds dimension to your portraits and, when positioned well, can be very flattering to your subjects. Catch Light: These are the specular lights in your subject’s eyes that can be created by either main or fill lights. I try to include catch light in nearly all of my portraits, as I think these tiny lights showcase a great deal of my subject’s spirit. Ambient Light: This can add a moody feel to your imagery. It is also a source of light that you may be forced to contend with while managing multiple light sources. Think of a small lamp in the corner of the room with an incandescent bulb adding just a small amount of very warm light to a scene that is otherwise a bit cooler. Photographers can sometimes find this a challenging distraction, but sometimes managing ambient light is as simple

as shutting off the light source, or simply shooting father away from it.

Lighting with Profoto B2 strobes

How do you “see the light” quickly when stepping into a new portrait situation? This is my simplest method for doing so: Start by determining the origin of the main light you see. Keep in mind that light moves in a straight line. See how that main light is reaching your subject. Notice what it adds to your subject and what issues it may be causing. If the main light is the sun, and it illuminates your subject well, that is a good place to start. What issues can the sun cause? Well, it can also cause shadows. This is where fill light is useful. Note the necessity of fill light. Its purpose is to fill in the shadows caused by the main light. If you need to add fill light, what is the best method to utilize? Do you need just a slight bump of light, or do you need a stronger fill light? Might you need multiple sources of fill light across a larger scene? After that, consider how well lit your subject is from all angles. Consider hair light, or a rim light. How can you better separate your subject from the background? How can you better define your subject by using this light? The next thing to consider is the color of the light. Is every light coming in as one color, or are there multiple light sources with varying colors? Is there any ambient lighting you should be considering as it relates to

lighting your subject in the most striking way possible? If you can do this simple walkthrough each time you are in a new shooting situation, you are solidly on your way to capturing consistently well-lit portraits.

Shot with strobes and color gels

STUDIO LIGHTING TECHNIQUES When I first started shooting professionally, I used my light meter to check everything, brushing it up against many a cheek. After a while, though, I started using it less and less because I realized that it truly didn’t jibe with the way I was shooting, which was free-form, a combination of setting up poses as well as rapidly reacting to my subjects’ spontaneous actions. As it turned out, hardly any of my subjects seemed to stay still. And they most certainly wouldn’t stay put in the spot I’d just lit so beautifully for them. The reason for this made perfect sense—my entire style of shooting was responsive, high-energy, and multi-faceted. I hardly ever placed someone in a chair and left them there for the entirety of a shoot. I didn’t even leave them there for a full

minute. So my studio lighting techniques shifted to fit my style, which ended up being a very good thing. I no longer struggled with lighting precisely and instead lit in a way that allowed me to adjust quickly, as needed. I simply focused on my subject, their expression, and their interactions with others. My lighting setup in the studio can vary quite a bit, but I generally shoot with either constant (continuous) lights, or strobe lighting. Continuous lighting is just that, lighting that is very much what you see is what you get. The way the scene (and the individuals in the scene) is lit and how it looks before you click the shutter is how it will look in the photograph. Strobe lighting, on the other hand, is just like flash. The strobes light up when you trigger them, and they need a bit of time to recycle so that they can be fully powered for the next shot.

There are a wide variety of lighting setups I will use in the studio, based on the look and feel I am going for during the shoot. But the simplest set up is this: One main light: a constant light and diffuser. I use the 2' × 2' Westcott Flex Light with a diffuser scrim. I use the main light to ensure I am capturing

catch lights, as well. One fill light. I use the 2' × 1' Westcott Flex Light with a diffuser scrim. One hair light. I use the 1' × 1' Westcott Flex Light with a diffuser scrim. Two “skim” lights, as needed, to fill in shadows, brighten up backgrounds, and highlight areas in the shoot or aspects of my subject. Everything I am shooting with is daylight balanced, so the color of light isn’t an issue if there is daylight coming into my studio. I also have daylight-balanced lights installed as overheads. This allows me the opportunity to choose to add ambient light as well, if I prefer.

Lighting setup with Westcott Flex constant lights

ON-LOCATION LIGHTING TECHNIQUES When I am shooting on location, I am still looking for the same five points of light that I would be utilizing in my studio. Main Light: When on location the main light is the sun in every shoot in which I do not use an artificial light source instead. When I choose to use an artificial light, it is often a strobe, like the Profoto B2 strobe kit, or a flash, like the Nikon SB-5000 flash. Fill Light: This can be a reflector, a flash, the bounce of light from a grey sidewalk, a beach, water—really, anything that bounces light back up to fill

in the shadows created by the main light. Hair or Rim Light: Shooting backlit portraits is a simple way to create a beautiful hair light when photographing your subject. But you can also create the same effect by creating a visual space behind your subject, especially when there is good contrast between your subject’s hair, or outline, and the background. You can also place a second flash behind your subject, triggering it with your main flash. And you can use a separate strobe light, too. There are a number of ways to ensure you incorporate great hair, or rim, light when shooting portraits on location. Catch Lights: I nearly always use a reflector, reflecting source, or add-on flash to ensure I am getting great catch lights in my subjects’ eyes.

SETTING UP THE SHOT: TECHNICAL SETTINGS One of the most powerful things we can do as photographers is choose what the story is by choosing how the story will be told. We decide what to leave in, what to leave out, how fast or slowly we want to portray individuals and scenarios, how much they will stand apart from their background versus blend in, what matters and what doesn’t. If that sounds like a whole lot to control, well, it can be. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to creatively control a shoot is to take the camera off an auto setting and shoot in manual mode. Your camera has numerous settings, custom functions, options, and modes. It comes with a lot of power, no doubt. But can you make your camera do what the shoot requires and

capture a frame just like you see it in your mind’s eye, or with the vision you have for the shot? The trick is to better understand aperture, shutter speed, ISO, metering, white balance, and all the other power that is literally at your fingertips. And then successfully use your grasp of this power for good! Let’s start with the exposure trifecta: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Aperture A shallow depth of field Setting your aperture correctly is a remarkably significant component of nailing your exposure properly. Aperture comes from the original Latin word aperture, which means “an opening.” In photography, aperture references the adjustable opening in the camera that limits the quantity of light that can enter the camera, and it’s measured in f-stops. Each f-stop has half the light-entering area of the previous f-stop, and the actual aperture will depend on the focal length of the lens. The higher the fstop selected (f/11, f/16), the smaller the opening is. The lower the f-stop selected (f/1.4, f/2.8, f/3.5), the larger the opening is.

The size of the aperture controls the depth of field in the image. This is the zone of the sharpest focus in front of, behind, and around the designated focal point of the image, the spot on which you choose to focus when you click the shutter. Shooting with a large aperture, or a smaller f-stop number, produces a shallow depth of field. The zone of the sharpest focus will be a smaller part of the image, and much of the remaining elements in that image will be out of focus. Shooting with a narrow aperture, or a higher f-stop, produces an extended field of sharpness, where much of the image will be in focus. A more extended depth of field

Shutter Speed Shutter speed refers to the length of time that the camera’s shutter remains open. That length of time is measured in fractions of seconds. A slower shutter speed, like 1/20, means that your shutter remains open for a longer amount of time, so it is bringing more light into your sensor, which will likely result in a softer, more blurred image of a subject in motion. A faster shutter speed, like 1/2000, means the shutter remains open for a much shorter amount of time, bringing in less light and capturing a more precise, sharper image of your subject.

A slower shutter speed blurs motion

Determining which shutter speed to use is often a combination of determining how much additional light you need and what kind of subject movement you might want to capture. If your goal is to freeze a moving subject, you most likely need a faster shutter speed, which is a greater fraction (1/2000 versus 1/20). If you wish to show intentional blur, a sense of movement, you will want to select a slower shutter speed, or a smaller fraction (1/20 versus 1/2000). Choosing how to utilize shutter speed can have everything to do with how you wish to position the mood of your imagery. Crisp, sharp, powerful? Soft, dreamy, fleeting? You get to choose, and shutter speed is a significant aspect of doing so. A faster shutter speed stops motion

ISO When photographers choose to shoot with a film camera, they have to choose the film ISO, or the sensitivity of the film to light. They purchase ISO 400 film, for instance, and that is that. Every one of the 24 images shot is shot with an ISO of 400. And there is a pretty straightforward rule of thumb when it comes to ISO and film. Use ISO 100 for the best-quality photographs, the best color saturation, the least amount of grain (or noise), and pretty much always when shooting in bright sun. You can select higher ISO options as needed for shooting in different types of light, or when capturing different moods and looks and feels, but the tradeoff is that at higher ISOs, you are simply losing “the best quality.” There is more grain, worse color saturation, and less quality in image capture overall. That isn’t to say that you are taking worse photographs. It’s just that most film photographers know to stick to the lower ISOs for better-quality output. When digital cameras first emerged, the rule of thumb, as it related to ISO, pretty much stayed the same. Lower was always better. What did change, though—and this was a massive shift in photography—was that you could now adjust your ISO for each frame you shot, not just for the entire collection of photographs you shot. That meant you could shoot at ISO 100 when outside on a bright day for the first few shots, but then switch to ISO 400 when you stepped inside. You could increase your

camera sensor’s sensitivity to light within seconds and just keep shooting in a different lighting scenario and still keep a relatively similar-looking exposure. That advantage alone was the reason so many photographers switched to digital cameras when they first became available. Currently, ISO refers to the sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor. The higher the ISO, the more reactive the camera is to light. Generally speaking, the higher the ISO you select when shooting, the grainier the images will look. And the higher you go up in ISO, the less color saturation and image detail you will retain. However (spoiler: this part is pretty amazing), in the last few years, there has been an extraordinary improvement in ISO sensitivity. Whereas only a few short years ago, you might see some real grain while shooting at ISO 3200, today you might see very little discernible noise at that same ISO. The newest camera models have ISO capabilities in the millions. And with these increased ISO capabilities, photographers have even more ability to shoot more creatively, while less encumbered, than ever before.

Metering The other major improvement in camera technology today, versus film cameras, is the addition of an integrated light meter. The most common metering modes in the camera are Matrix/Evaluative, Center-Weighted, and Spot Metering. Some cameras also have Partial Metering and Highlight-Weighted Metering. This built-in meter can be seen through the viewfinder, with bars to the left and right of a zero in the middle. When shooting in manual mode, you’ll see the bars go to the plus side when you point your camera at a bright spot. The plus sign (+) signifies that you are overexposing. When underexposing, you see the bars go to the minus (−) side. The goal is to be in that zero (0) area, which is considered the ideal exposure. The meter is a guide. But it’s just a guide. In some cases, it can be quite useful, letting you know when you are over- or underexposing a shot. In other cases, you may be making a creative choice and will choose to ignore the reading because you already know that you are capturing exactly what you want. Different shooting styles require different metering options. Matrix/Evaluative Metering With this metering option, the camera measures the light intensity, all the light and dark tones, across a variety of zones in the frame. And when I say zones, I mean it ranges up to the thousands because with today’s cameras you are basically shooting with a computer. It then uses some complicated algorithm to determine the best

average exposure for the scene, given all readings across those zones. This is a great metering option to choose when there are no dramatic lighting differences in the scene. Center-Weighted Metering With this option, exposure is focused toward the central part of the viewfinder. You know how in post-processing you may choose to “feather” an effect? That’s basically how center-weighted metering works. It feathers out the remaining balance of exposure to the edges of the frame. This is a good option to use when you want the camera to put exposure priority on the middle of the frame. Spot Metering With this option, your camera accurately exposes for only a small portion of the frame. It only looks at where your focus point tells it to and exposes correctly for just that spot. This is a fantastic option to use for backlit subjects, when you want accurate exposure on your focus area only. Partial Metering As I mentioned earlier, this option is available only on some cameras. It operates similarly to spot metering, but the evaluated area is a bit larger. Highlight-Weighted Metering With this option, the metering focuses on the highlights in an image to ensure that they are not overexposed. This is a great option to use when photographing a bright subject whose background is much darker, such as a theater performer or a dancer spotlit on a dark stage.

White Balance Consider white balance as the evaluation of all the colors of light in a scene. The right setting on your camera can help to balance out what you see as white with your eyes so that it shows up as white in an image. There’s quite a lot to proper white balance. But, basically, the point of shooting with the correct white balance is so you can capture the color in an image as accurately as possible. That said, it is not uncommon to play with white balance as a means of artistic expression, purposely warming up or cooling off a scene. For the purposes of this section, let’s just speak to properly managing the color of light. Not only do different light sources have different color temperatures, but the same light source can have a different color temperature based on multiple factors.

Choosing to balance the color of light can sometimes be as simple as selecting Auto White Balance on your camera. And it can be as difficult as determining how to properly balance multiple lights when shooting in a spot with blinking fluorescents overhead, natural daylight coming in through a window, and a tungsten lamp in the corner. That’s a whole lot of different colors to try to balance in a visually pleasing way. The color of light is measured on a Kelvin scale, and it’s worth taking the time to understand how this scale works. Basically, the lower the number on the Kelvin scale, the warmer the light—those yellows and oranges. The higher the number on the Kelvin scale, the cooler the light—think of blues and purples. Of course, the type of light source itself can also change color temperature, especially when it comes to natural light sources. The earliest rays of the sun, for instance, start out as a cool light and then quickly advance to a brighter yellow as they warm up during the day. The same light source can peak in warmth around sunset and then drop to a cooler light again in the evening. Correctly setting your white balance helps to render your subject and the surrounding environment closer to what your eyes see. Our eyes already adjust white balance automatically. Unfortunately, we have to help our cameras to do the same. And even though editing software can be used to color-correct images, that can add up to a huge pile of work in post-processing when you return from a shoot with 500 images, all shot in different colors of light—especially when you are shooting several sessions a week! Try to not ignore the significance of achieving consistent white balance on a shoot, so you can spend less time editing and more time photographing portraits.

CHAPTER 5

What to Keep in Mind When Finalizing a Shot

IN THEORY: A STEP-BY-STEP CHECKLIST When I get to the point in a portrait where I am finalizing shot, there is a theoretical method I have followed, step by step, to ensure I’m in the best possible position to shoot the best possible portrait I can, all things considered. Here is a list of ten steps to walk through before finalizing the shot.

1. Set Expectations Expectations are an incredibly powerful thing. They can inform nearly every aspect of our experience, often without us realizing quite how much. If you walk into the movie theater expecting the best movie of all time, and you watch anything less, even a moderately good movie, your expectations have set you up to feel disappointed. When people ask you what you thought of it, your feedback will most likely be more measured and less enthusiastic. Conversely, if you heard that the movie is pretty bad but watchable, and you personally find it to be charming or laugh-out-loud funny, then it massively exceeded your expectations. And thus, your experience ended up being a great one. Same movie. Same you. Just an entirely different set of expectations. I keep this in mind every time I kick off a new portrait shoot. I let people know what to expect, from start to finish. This includes how the typical process of a portrait shoot works, how I like to interact on a shoot, roughly how long I think it will take, and why I think we should take breaks and when. I include as much information as I might possibly be able to convey. By setting up our shoot with great expectations that I still expect to exceed, I am setting the mood for a positive experience before we even start.

2. Determine Clothing We discuss clothing well before the shoot. What your subject wears during the shoot can matter a great deal. I didn’t used to think so, though. I used to just suggest that people dress comfortably. But over time, after reviewing thousands of my own images, doing repeated portfolio reviews, teaching workshops, and judging international print competitions for years, I see just how significantly a person’s attire

can impact a portrait. Even in the simplest of portraits, just a single subject on a plain background, there are still four notable subjects in play: the individual, the background, the clothing, and the expression. We’ll get to that last one soon enough. But clothing can add so much to a portrait: depth, dimension, style, humor, color, formality, whimsy, drama, and beauty. And the “wrong” clothing can detract far more than you’d guess.

To that end, I not only speak in detail about clothing before we even get to the portrait session, but I also ask them to bring three additional changes of clothes with them, just in case.

3. Decide on Location The look of a portrait will vary greatly based on where it is shot. But there are additional considerations to keep in mind when selecting a location to photograph a child. Some questions you may want to consider before you choose a destination include: What kind of lighting will you find? How close will you be to a restroom, and how much might that matter? Think about the ages and concerns of your subjects. Will you have to work around other people in your shot, and might that be more distracting than necessary? Does the family naturally gravitate toward a more rural look, a more urban setting, or a clean and simple background?

Will they bring pets? Will they be up for a small hike, if necessary? Is there a location that may be significantly more meaningful to your subjects? How will weather—or a change in weather—affect the shoot? Do you need permits or permissions? Step through these questions before deciding on a location, and you may set yourself up for not just a more picturesque background, but also an environment that is far more conducive to eliciting great expressions from your subjects.

4. Practice Consistent Mood Management After you have spent good time preparing for the shoot, it comes time to face the actual individual. You have also hopefully come armed with great information about your subject, so be sure to use it. Start your interactions as positively as possible before even lifting any gear. I have watched photographers at work, setting up their lighting, working on a pose, dialing in their settings—and only then looking up at their subject, right before clicking the shutter, to say “okay, smile.” That is way too late in the game for most subjects. Start interacting in a way that best fits the subject and keep the momentum going throughout the entire session.

5. Light the Subject I spoke to my pretty simple, but quite effective, five-point lighting system earlier. This is the point during the shoot where I put into place whatever lighting methods I’m using, so that I am in good shape from this point forward.

6. Dial In Your Camera Settings I shoot everything in RAW, in manual mode. That means I dial in the exact settings that I prefer for each portrait I shoot, including my metering option. That also means I am changing my settings quite often.

7. Compose Your Portrait Take the time to step back and determine how to compose your subject, how to arrange them, within a frame. Composition can impact the entire portrait rather decidedly. Thoughtful composition showcases the difference between snapping a picture and crafting an image that expresses something emotional, authentic, or arresting about your subject.

8. Frame Your Image Framing is the act of determining your angle and vantage point when capturing the image. There are some who believe you frame your image first and then compose your subject within that frame, and others believe it should be done the other way around. I just make sure to consciously consider framing and composition as separate tasks, so that I can be sure I don’t miss an opportunity to maximize the creative aspect of this.

When your surroundings aren’t ideal, change your perspective—and ask your subject to change theirs as well!

9. Check All Those Last Details! By the time I am about to click the shutter, I am in a really good place to get the best shot possible, or at least to not lose a great portrait because I forgot one of the steps that successfully led me here. But there is a lot of movement and activity and often silliness and energy involved in getting to this second-to-last step, so I need to double-check a few things at this point: Is my subject still “with me?” Have they zoned out or lost interest? Are they smiling back at me, but their eyes have gone dim? Do I need to do something to bring back the spirit in my subject’s expression? What’s going on with their hands? Hands do a lot during portrait sessions. They clench up, they stick out, they lift into the sky, they hold themselves very, very tightly. There’s a lot going on with hands, and I always check to make sure they looks soft and natural, assuming that’s the right authentic look for the portrait. How about their hair? Hair goes all over the place. It gets in eyes, it sticks to faces, it is swallowed up by mouths. Hair also sticks straight up, flies haphazardly, and can part in super weird ways. Take a minute to check hair, fix it as needed, move back to see a face, whatever makes the most sense

here. But skipping over this part can dilute the impact of a lot of portraits. How about “face liquids?” Children emit so very many face liquids. Spotcheck all the liquids coming out of eyes, noses, and mouths. Hopefully you don’t have to look further than that. Notice the subject’s mouth and teeth. Is your subject chewing gum? It’s a nightmare to edit gum out of smiles, so check that now. Is there food in their teeth? Are they sticking their tongue out for fifteenth portrait in a row? Look for things sticking out of heads. It’s so easy for someone to lean over a bit while you’re shooting and for you to not notice there is now a telephone pole sticking out of their head. You just took the best portrait you’ve ever shot, and it’s been ruined by a giant tree coming out of the subject’s head. Get in the practice of scanning around your subjects as you shoot to avoid this common pitfall. Background? Foreground? Anything to clean up or straighten? Be sure that there isn’t an element in your portrait that is distracting from your subject.

10. Take the Actual Photograph with a Full Focus on That Final Expression! This last step, taking the actual photograph, should go hand in hand with maximizing the most authentic expression you can when clicking that shutter. If you have kept the energy humming and you are connecting with your subject, hopefully this is a natural moment to get a great expression. How do you ensure that you get the best expression from your subject at the time you click the shutter? Here are a few simple tips: Silence all those societal norms that tell you to not embarrass yourself in front of others. Embarrassing yourself in front of children is one of the best ways to get fantastic expressions from them. Be patient. Be very patient. Be absolutely, ridiculously patient. It usually pays off so well. Don’t stay married to any specific shot, series, or theme. Staying heavily focused on trying to achieve a look you had in mind before the shoot began is one surefire way to miss out on something even better that ends up naturally unfolding.

There are few tools that offer you more control over your portraits than the ability to simply practice the right combination of patience, persistence, open-mindedness, and light-heartedness. For some people, this comes so naturally, the ability to simply wait out the rough parts until the gold shows up, or to step in and create gold. For others, this is the most difficult part of photographing people—how long it can take to get a great combination of portraits from a session. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, try this simple exercise. And keep trying it until that whole patience thing kicks in: Don’t lift the camera until an actual exchange has occurred between you and the subjects. If you just walk in clicking, it’s highly unlikely that they will ever get a chance to just trust you. There are some shoots where I have kept the camera down for far longer than I would have preferred, but I knew that act of restraint would award me significantly better interaction later, and I have not been wrong about that yet. In 17 years, I have not been wrong about that once. It’s pretty tough for any subject of any age to build a rapport with a big black box. They should interact with you first. Eradicate any unnecessary tension associated with being photographed first. Then you can bring in the camera.

CHAPTER 6

In Studio

Shoot 1 I photographed this ridiculously sweet girl in my studio, shooting on a seamless modern gray background. I lit the frame with a set of Profoto B2 strobes, using the beauty dish as the main lighting modifier. As I showed her how to position her hands, I had to take a photograph that showed how cute it was that she was paying so much attention to me. I asked her to rock side to side while I adjusted the lighting, mostly focused on managing the spillover of light on her cheek. I already liked the shot, but I pulled in a simple fan to add some movement to her hair. We purposely added way too much wind to the scene, just because I knew it would make her laugh. Once I settled down the fan, she was still beaming a fantastic smile, and we had all of our elements in place.

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Shoot 2 Ansel Adams, who knew a thing or two (or so much more) about photography, said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” This is extraordinarily true. Where you stand in relation to your subject can either enhance your subject’s natural beauty or distort it in an unflattering manner—and that’s the case whether your subject is a mountain, a fashion model, or a baby. We dressed up this adorable six-month old in a fancy dress her mom had picked out when she was pregnant and still daydreaming of a girl. It’s still too big here, but that works for the fun feel of the shot. We tried to sit her up, but she was too little to look up at me without flopping back, and the pillows and blanket that we’d initially pulled out didn’t really contribute anything to the image in their current state. We let her lay back down, which was better, but I was shooting from in front of her, which did nothing to flatter her. And I was still too far away from her face for her to genuinely engage with me. I changed my angle to shoot directly over her, ensuring that the camera strap was firmly around my neck, to be safe. I held the lens away from my face, so she could see me smiling at her. As soon as she could really see me, rather than the big black box in front of my face, she smiled back beautifully. This happens often with babies, they instinctively smile back at you. It’s awesome. I took a few more shots and tilted my camera, creating a far more interesting diagonal composition. I adjusted the pillow a bit and cropped the shot in-camera, which also brought in the fun feel of the blanket and pillows to more artistic effect. She was photographed on a day bed, which was positioned across from a large window. We held the reflector directly over her, with the silver side tilted slightly down. This bounced some fill light from the window back into her eyes. I photographed her with the 35mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.8. This width of lens allowed me to include her entire body in the shot and get a crisp capture from the prime lens optics.

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Shoot 3 I opened the door to my studio and photographed this beautiful girl in the shade of an overhang on a clear and sunny day, and I noticed several issues right away. The most pressing concern was that the glare in her glasses distracted me from seeing her striking green-hazel eyes. The second issue was that the reflection of the light on the window behind her made the background look more like a golden tan. That took away from the portrait, making her skin tone look bland, rather than emphasizing just how lovely it was. Instead of adding to the overall portrait, the background actually washed out the impact of my subject. The third issue was the bright spot of reflected light just behind her jaw. If your eye goes to the point of most contrast, that was a glaring spot of distraction in an otherwise simple portrait. And, lastly, I didn’t like how her shirt folded up around her shoulder. That last one might seem like I’m nitpicking, I know, but I started to really notice little things like that after printing images in large format. What seems like a little thing on a small digital image can suddenly seem a lot more glaring on a 30×40-inch print. One of the simplest ways to manage glass glare, especially on eyeglasses, is to simply change the angle at which the light is hitting the glass. Sometimes that means moving the light, sometimes it means moving your subject, and sometimes it’s as simple as changing your angle to your subject, which shifts how the lens “sees” the light hitting your subject. In this case, since I wanted to change the background anyway, I simply had my subject turn away from the light. This shifted the background quite a bit for the better. The green of the bistro table and chairs had been contributing to the glare in her eyeglasses, as they caught the light pretty sharply. Now that they were behind her, though, they made for a rather lovely background, especially as I shot this at f/2.2, and they fell entirely out of focus. Changing the composition corrected the concern about her shirt twisting out, and it also helped to better emphasize her eyes, as did bringing in a reflector to better light them.

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Shoot 4 When this shy little boy stepped into my studio, he seemed rather unsure of what was about to happen. That’s not an odd occurrence for a young child stepping into a space with lights and backdrops and photography gear and a person you’ve never met before suddenly looking back at you with more intensity than you’d been warned about before you walked in the door! We photographers can certainly be a bit much. So I started the session as simply as possible, something I strongly suggest for anyone photographing a shy child. I used a plain black background and a simple white stool, complimenting his black and white look. I asked him if he needed help getting on the stool and then sat down next to him and proceeded to sit like he was sitting. Then I just spoke towards him, a whole stream of consciousness about what camera and lens I was using, the settings I was dialed in, how I planned to shift the lighting a bit. When I say I was speaking “towards him,” that’s exactly what I mean. I told him he could just stare straight forward as I went over everything, to just ignore me completely. I spoke casually as if he might hear me, he might not, it didn’t really matter. But by simply keeping a steady dialogue going, even if none of it meant much to him at all, he slowly started relaxing. Basically, I sucked up all the awkwardness in the room by being so awkward myself.

I used constant lighting for this portrait, a main light, with an emphasis on creating catch lights in his eyes, a fill light to ease out the shadows, and a simple hair light, to help separate his dark hair from the dark background. The next thing I asked him to do was sit up as straight as possible—a common suggestion I offer is to pretend that a string was pulling him up from the bottom of his bottom all the way up through the top of his top. I watched that boy sit up a good foot taller, which is saying a whole lot for a boy who was about three feet tall in total! Since I wanted to keep him feeling comfortable, to keep that expression relaxing, I asked him not to change anything at all, at all—except to turn his shoulder like I was turning my shoulder, mirroring for him to open his torso up towards the camera. By that point, we had the pose I wanted and had gotten to the expression I wanted as well. After lining everything up, I jokingly asked him to mimic the common male model pose of scratching a bit behind one’s head. He looked pretty adorable trying it. That one small move made for a simple shift but resulted in a pretty different pose. It was a fun way to see him look more confident.

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When photographing children in a studio, I like to use the option of letting my little subject sprawl out on my seamless white background while I play at photographing them from various angles. In this case, a top-down shot captured her reserved but whimsical expression quite well.

Shoot 5 Just as often as I am bringing out a great expression by the time I click the shutter, I can also start with a great expression, and then I quickly work to get the rest of the image to catch up! In this case, our subject had warmed up over time and was smiling quite sweetly, so I needed to make some rapid-fire adjustments to keep him engaged. I was shooting with the 24–70 f/2.8 lens at about a 35mm focal length, which allowed me to stand closer to him than if I were shooting with a longer portrait lens. I asked him to stuff one of his hands in his pocket and showed him how I would put my left leg far out in front of my right one, asking him to do the same. As he did so, his expression shifted from a loose, fun one to a more “listening,” blank one. I told him he was doing great, and I held the camera away from my body, mirroring back to him what I saw, complete with an overly-dramatic bored face. He laughed at that, the entire look fell into place, and I pulled the camera back and clicked the shutter.

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Shoot 6 This little guy was cool with creating slick looks, although he could only contain his laughter for so long. While we helped to pull up his sweater over his shoulders and set up the lighting, I sat down on the ground with him to help him shift into a new pose. I set up my Westcott Flex daylight-balanced constant lights, which are easy to use because you can dial the lighting strength up or down as needed, to either boost or dim lighting. They are also constant lights, so what you see is what you get in terms of how a scene looks. As long as you are shooting with proper settings, the photograph you take should match the scene you are viewing with your own eyes. In this case, we had a main fill light, the 2×2 flex light with a simple diffuser panel over the front, and an additional 2×1 flex light with another diffuser panel acting as fill light. Two additional 1×2 lights were placed behind him to help separate him from the background. As we were moving the lights around, I asked him to go into a “zen space,” to shift into a different type of look. He took this direction seriously and hummed in a rather exaggerated fashion for a while until we were ready to shoot again. For our final shot, all I did was ask him to pull his left leg over his right, grabbing his ankle with his right hand and letting his left hand drop in his lap. I showed him what I was asking for every step of the way. I asked my assistant to fix his hair a bit and straighten out his hoodie and then I asked him to slowly look toward me. The last thing I needed to do was move the fill light just a bit closer to him, to get some light into his left eye. Then we got our final shot.

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Shoot 7 We started out taking this image in a very simple setting. These two sat with their backs to a large window. I asked them to hold hands and just relax, relax, relax. One of them took me very seriously. The other thought this sounded funny. Without any other preparations made, there are a couple of glaring issues with this shot: the distracting background, the cars, and the unsightly smudge in the glass. The grate in the hardwood floor is also problematic as an eye-catching distraction. Although the girls are together, they are not as connected as they could be. One of the first shifts I made was to change the orientation of the portrait to a horizontal one and simply step in closer to compose the shot differently. I was shooting with the 105mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.8. I could keep that same aperture dialed in but still drop more of the background out of focus by shooting closer to my subjects. I also decided to wake up our little sleeper, and she reacted in a delightful way. Finally, I changed nothing else but asked them to look at each other’s . . . teeth. And FAST. This is a ridiculous request, and that is why it is more effective in terms of inviting adorable expressiveness. If I’d simply said, “now look at each other,” it would have more than likely been a more average response. In this case, they both have fantastic smiles, are connected in a very sweet way, and we even have some lovely movement in their hair because of how quickly they turned toward each other.

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Shoot 8 Feet can be incredibly useful in so very many scenarios. The list is nearly endless. But when it comes to posing, they can just as often be an element that requires a surprising amount of attention. In this case, I was photographing this adorable subject while we were both lying down on the hardwood floor, facing each other. I was holding the camera away from my face, taking turns shooting from each side so that she was looking at me each way, testing out the best look. There are a lot of advantages to shooting this way, but in this case it made it seem like she was smiling at someone off camera, a look that I’ve always liked. Even though this is a clean and simple shot, there is a big problem: a foot is growing out of her head. Or at least that’s what it looks like. So I asked her to drop her feet to the side. She complied. I zoomed out so it wouldn’t look like there were now legs sticking out of her side, but the feet still looked awkward in an otherwise lovely portrait. What we wanted was the feel of movement, as if I’d caught her in the midst of a moment. So I asked her to just mimic me, as I moved one foot up and down and across a little bit. She played along beautifully and in her inattention to where her feet were, she naturally placed them in an elegant position. They weren’t in any sort of strong focus, as I was photographing her at f/2.2. But the soft shape of them had a notable effect on the overall composition—they balanced out the frame. This shift in placement made the entire shot come together beautifully.

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Shoot 9 We had created a backdrop for this commercial campaign, adhering two 4×8 plywood boards together and painting them as one piece—in this case, a giant sunflower against a bold blue background. We shot this in a large, open space with a wide bank of windows, using Westcott Flex Lights with diffuser panels to light the subject and the background. I’d initially had my subject sit down, but we were losing the impact of that giant sunflower with this composition. I also had to compete with the metal posts affixed to the backdrop to hold it up. I’d planned to remove those later in post-production, but if I didn’t have to deal with them, I preferred not to. I also found it tough to get the young girl’s energy up while she was in that pose. We asked her to physically jump up and move around for a while and then stay in a standing pose near the sunflower. I positioned her to stand in almost exactly the upper third of the frame I was composing with my 24–70 f/2.8 lens, basically ensuring that her head met the rule of thirds axis point quite closely. I really like the photo we got, but I knew we could get a more dynamic look in her eyes. I zoomed back and readjusted my composition, bringing much more of the sunflower into view, while still having her stand in the upper third of the frame. By lifting her hand to the top of her hat, she naturally turned her body a bit toward the sunflower, and I shot the final image at an f/3.5.

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Having your subject physically move to help get their energy up is often most successful with children. In this case, having him use his whole body to “stick” to the wall (while I joked at trying to get him closer to it) prompted this gorgeous response.

Shoot 10 This nine-month-old was on the move, so he wasn’t particularly interested in staying in his mom’s lap. Trying to capture an image of a wiggly baby, toddler, or child along with a parent means striking a compromise between orchestrating a pose that looks appealing and interactive and shooting quickly enough that the expression is still authentic. This was shot in the studio with one Westcott TD6 constant light, with a soft box as a main light, two Westcott TD5s set up as hair lights (positioned on either side behind them; placed to skim light across the white background behind them, specifically), and a 4×8-foot white foam board set up as a V-flat to bounce fill light back onto the subjects. The little guy kept twisting to get out of Mommy’s lap, and she tried to keep him in place by blocking him with her leg. What I asked her to do instead was to position his and her legs identically, like “crisscross applesauce,” and nuzzle his cheeks at the same time. By doing so, she limited his ability to immediately use his legs to get away, while the soft kisses on his cheek made him reflexively smile. I called to him at the exact same time she did her part, in order to get his attention. He only stayed for a few seconds, but with photography, that’s really all you need. I chose to shoot this image with the 24–70 f/2.8 lens because I can adjust it so quickly. Whether I need a wider shot or a closeup, I can grab a clear shot while the subject is zooming by because it’s so fast to focus. This image was shot at a 38mm focal length.

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Shoot 11 We start this portrait out with a fairly straightforward but boring image: my subject is looking at the camera with a vague smile, hands in his pockets, and the entire frame is lit by simple, continuous lighting. I could have simply coaxed out a broader smile and been done with the shot, but since I knew that my subject was a bit bored, I thought it’d be interesting to further enhance that as opposed to try to fix it. I asked him to look away toward the wall, creating a composition that is “off,” breaking the standard rule of positioning the subject’s head on the axis point of the rule of thirds and having them look into the frame. I did this in an effort to bring more visual interest into the shot. The second image is better. Next I asked him to keep looking away but also dramatically lean over on one foot, as far as he could without falling over. The composition shifted a bit. I stepped back more to widen the frame and include the balancing element of the flower tips painted onto the background. As I adjusted my settings, he glanced up at me with this near-perfect look on his face. And the whole shot came together—the composition, the mood, the expression, the balancing out of elements. If the beginning shot was blah, the ending shot was suddenly so intriguing to me. His perfectly bored but focused expression combined with that dramatic lean and head tilt, now in balance with the yellow petals of a giant sunflower—it all makes for a rather different portrait of a beautiful young child. I love this final shot.

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Shoot 12 This adorable child was a bit zoned out as we started the shoot, a common phenomenon with very young children. When I first started shooting professionally 16 years ago, I found that this was the case because young children had little context for looking toward a big black box naturally. Over time, kids at a younger and younger age have become very used to mobile phone cameras and are more apt to respond to them. But shooting with a DSLR, or even a mirrorless camera, is still relatively different for a child. That is why my approach is often to just get them interested in responding to me first, and then I slowly add the camera in, almost like an appendage. That is usually when I will get the most engagement from an otherwise disinterested subject (or at least a subject who is not interested in being photographed —they are often quite interested in many other things besides being photographed!). I was photographing my subject on a hardwood floor near a large bank of windows, in front of some glass doors. So the natural light was already beautiful. I just had to add a flash to help balance out the diffused side lighting from the windows. When she first responded to me, it was because I was trying hard to get her attention. I find that having no self-consciousness myself helps to pull many subjects out of their own self-consciousness or shyness. We shifted the pose, and she delivered some amazing expressions, including shaking her head in response to me doing the same. The last three images hang beautifully together as a gallery series.

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Shoot 13 I was so happy to find this extremely photogenic area in my client’s home. And since they also happened to have an extremely photogenic child and dog, I knew we’d get some great portraits. I set up the shoot by centering the couch between the windows and adding the blanket to the side, just to offset the perfect symmetry a bit. I lit this image with flash, angling the flash to bounce up against the ceiling, turned slightly toward them. It provided a lovely fall-off of light that really complemented the scene. Before we even started shooting, it was obvious that the dog wanted to be photographed. We could barely get him out of the set up but finally did. Later, as I was photographing the father and daughter, the dog showed up again. This time, more prominently—and hilariously (note the second image). We got the child and the dog up on the couch together, and it looked great. That said, I thought that more interaction would bring more feeling into the shot. So we physically turned the dog toward his girl and we gave her some cheerios to feed him. She thought it was awesome that he was softly nibbling on her fingers, and she laughed out loud while he did so. I pulled the shot back a bit to have that gray ottoman lead the viewer into the frame, as it helped to better balance out the shot. We pulled her skirt out a bit more and pulled his tail out. The whole shot came together in a rather delightful way.

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Reference Pose Gallery

CHAPTER 7

Urban Settings

Shoot 1 We were shooting in an urban location for this session, so we had a few extra things to keep in mind. Whenever we are photographing sessions in an open area where there are bystanders, traffic, and multiple other factors, it’s helpful to begin the session by going over a few ground rules as it relates to basic safety.

In this case, we were shooting in front of a sidewalk that was next to a street with some pretty steady traffic, so my subject’s mom stayed nearby for the entire shoot, which I requested. We found this bright, colorful ornamental ball outside of the offices for a children’s magazine, and we lifted her up on top of it. I set up this loose pose, having her hold both hands out to support herself and then crossing her legs. Because she had just been running around, I asked her mom to calm her hair back down and have fun with her while doing so. This is a pretty significant additional step, taking care of simple little issues that can become quite problematic later. I have done a whole lot of editing in post-production simply managing hair issues! I will ask for help any time I have the opportunity to manage that issue before I click the shutter. By reminding parents that we want to keep the energy up on a shoot, I get the added benefit of some fun interactions to help lift my subjects’ moods.

Once my little subject was ready to go, she did something that so many children and adults will do—she unconsciously lifted her shoulders. Sometimes this is just done as a silly gesture; sometimes it is something they are used to doing when taking photographs or because they think I am asking it of them. Other times it is just nerves or stress, and they are tensing up. Most of the time, it’s simply something that people do not even know they are doing. So I always scan the arms and shoulders before I take a photograph. They are lifted more often than they are not. With adults I can just say, “Okay, take a deep breath and drop your shoulders when you breathe out.” For younger children, though, I often just mimic having my shoulders up as high as possible and then tell them they look the same and to now do what I do. Then I dramatically drop my shoulders. As she copied me, her shoulders dropped about six inches down, to a more natural pose, and I got the final shot. I photographed this image with the 105mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.6, which isolated my subject from a busy background and ensured that she was the main point of focus. A bounce of fill light from the reflector helped to round out the light from a combination of sunshine and additional fill light bouncing up from a light grey sidewalk.

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I’m usually asking my subjects to drop their shoulders, but sometimes they will naturally do something where a lifted shoulder works beautifully with the rest of their positioning. In this case, it worked adorably, especially with her sweet expression.

Shoot 2 For this particular image, I positioned my subject for a portrait and started out by shooting at a lower angle. Since I had given her some direction on posing, she was doing her best to “get it right” but was putting more effort in than necessary. Whenever I am photographing children who are older than about eight years old or so, I let them know that I will do the work, they can relax and go with it. In this case, though, she wanted to pose “just right” and the resulting look was stiff and tense, which also meant her expression was more strained. I also noticed that the background was a bit distracting. I took the shot without comment and then put the camera down and just interacted with her until she was comfortable again. I also shifted my angle to shoot from a higher angle than before, which helped to manage the distractions in the background. I took a quick shot, told her how lovely her smile was, and then quickly reminded her of that pose we were going for. Since we were interacting, she was able to slip back to it while still smiling naturally. I zoomed back out again, and we got to the shot I wanted. I photographed this image with the 105mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.2 and manually adjusted my SB-5000 flash to fill in the shadows on her face and achieve those catch lights in her eyes.

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Shoot 3 One of the many joys of portrait photography is that you can photograph people pretty much anywhere. You can walk down nearly any street and see portrait opportunities in every direction, from left to right and from top to bottom. In this case, we went with bottom. I sat down on the sidewalk and my subject leaned against a brick wall that was painted white. Because I was shooting against the light behind her, I set my camera to a spot metering mode and added a flash for fill light to help manage the exposure. I chose to shoot with the 105mm f/1.4 lens and initially selected an aperture of f/3.2. Once I was all set with lighting and settings, I told her to hug her knees. This is often a simple enough place to start because it’s easy to make adjustments that work for each individual. In this case, though, because of her longer legs, the entire configuration looked boxy as opposed to triangular in composition, which is often a more appealing look. To bring back that triangular pose, I asked her to drop her left leg all the way so it was flat on the ground and just cross her right foot over her left knee. By naturally dropping her arms, she could more comfortably turn her head toward me, which also opened up the rest of the pose. The shift took about seven seconds, but the visual change was dramatically more appealing. I also wanted to drop more of the background out of focus, so I adjusted my aperture to an f/2.8, and I got my final shot.

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Shoot 4 A closeup shot of someone smiling outside in bright lighting isn’t all that difficult. Unless you want to capture a genuine smile . . . in flattering light . . . that looks natural . . . and with an appealing composition. Then it all gets a bit dodgier. For this closeup, the light had already started dropping outside, so it was more reasonable to try for a shot where my subject was facing the late afternoon summer sun. But just barely. So I positioned her against a wall and pulled her hair forward a bit, so it didn’t just flatten up against the wall. We tried to get a good shot, but she couldn’t look up in the direction of the sun without straining her eyes.

I have tried various tactics in these scenarios. The option of having your subject close their eyes and open them at the last minute is a tried and true one, but a common issue with that technique is that people always look slightly surprised when they open

their eyes quickly. I wanted this portrait to look natural and comfortable, pretty much the opposite of when someone pops their eyes open quickly. So instead we practiced putting a reflector in front of her face, letting her eyes get comfortable with the diffused light, and then pulling it away. When I showed her the image of what she looked like from behind the reflector, we all laughed, which was great. Laugher loosens up subjects well. I waited for the laugh to settle into a bit more of a natural smile, shifted my angle slightly higher, and asked her to move her chin down “exactly one hundredth of a millimeter,” and we locked in a rather flattering composition.

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Shoot 5 I shot this portrait against a mural downtown, in the middle of a rather bright day. I knew when I saw the dramatic diagonal in this part of the mural that I’d want to create a more dramatic portrait with it. I also knew that I’d want the final image to be black and white. I was photographing a girl who luckily loved the idea of working toward a shot, which is not always the case with children. So I told her we were going to try for something, and she said she was up for it. It would be very difficult to get a shot like this as an absolutely candid snap. That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, just that some of the specifics I was going for here required a bit more finesse. Because the sunlight was so sharp when I photographed this, I asked her to lean slightly forward to help diffuse the light. I then adjusted my angle to keep the framing consistent, naturally creating a bit of an illusion that this was shot from a more straight-on perspective, composing the image so that her head would tilt down right at the mid point of that sharp line. Although I loved the composition and the way her hair fell forward, I felt like the shot might be more impactful if her eyes were closed. She happily obliged. At this point, we were almost there. I needed just a couple more shifts, even if they were tiny shifts. First, I wanted her eyes to rest closed for a bit longer, which would erase that hint of tension you could still see on her face, that “I am closing my eyes on purpose” look. Second, I wanted to clean up a bit of the flyaway hairs that were on her face. I asked her to ignore us completely while my assistant delicately moved a few strays off of her face (this is often something I will ask a parent to do, since children are used to their parents “grooming” them anyway). Once her eyes were rested and her hair was smoothed, I took another image and got the shot I wanted to get. For this image, I used a combination of flash and reflector to create fill light and to act as a hair light. Positioning the subject a bit away from the wall helped to enhance the rim light that I could create. It was subtle but rather notable to me. I selected the 105mm f/1.4 lens and captured this at f/3.2.

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Shoot 6 For this shoot, I positioned our lovely model in front of the same brick wall with the striking diagonal line as was in the previous shoot. I made a point of tucking her in as close to the wall as possible to avoid the splotchy light breaking through the trees on this sunny day, and the associated shadow issues I would have. I did not want her to actually lean up against the wall, though, as a gap between her and the wall helped her to pop a bit more, and it allowed there to be light moving a bit behind her. We lit this with a combination of the diffused light and a bounce of fill light from the reflector. Because she was tucked out of the sunlight a bit, the light reaching her was more subdued, as we noticed in the first two images. I also noticed that although there was a more flattering s-curve in in the second image, a bit more of a lean and a shift in arms and hands offered more elegance to the pose, as seen in the third image. From there, she shifted into an even more dramatic scurve on her own; we moved the pop of light from the reflector closer to her to power back some more of that contrasty light on her; and we ended up with a fun final shot.

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Shoot 7 There are plenty of times when I am setting up a shot and I have no idea what I am trying to get to, exactly. I just know that I want to change what I see in front of me, but I want to do so in as positive a manner as possible. “Be Positive” can be such an overused term; it barely holds the meaning it used to convey. To be more specific, I care that I transition my subject from one look to another in as positive a manner as possible because I know how it feels to stand in front of the camera. I actually advise photographers to experience the act of having your portrait taken as often as possible. When there is a lens facing you and, for whatever reason, you are just not feeling it, any sort of feedback that sounds remotely negative can shut you down. For that reason, when I see something that isn’t working for me, I choose to explain a shift to a better shot as simply “something else I want to try, now that we already got that great shot.”

In this case, I was sure to tell my subject that she did a great job with the first shot. I knew I wanted to stay with the structure of the pose, but I wanted more life,

spirit, and fluidity to be conveyed. Instead of “improving” the shot, I said we should try something totally different now. I asked her to clear as much ground underneath her as possible, which meant jumping quite a few times in a row, going higher and higher. This abrupt move radically changed her expression, bringing in all that spirit I wanted to see. Now I just needed to morph back to where we’d been, taking that with us. I asked her if she remembered how and where she had just been standing, turning it into more of a memory game than an exercise in posing. As she jumped back into position, I added fill flash from my SB-5000 to add more spark to the shot. She naturally swung back and forth, and I asked her to gently hold back some of the hair that was flying into her face while she did so. Looking at the image in front of me, I hesitated. I was going to try to move her away from the dirt and back into a patch of pure grass underneath her feet, but it simply wasn’t worth the risk of interrupting the moment. So often trying to perfect something can grind out those intangible elements that are luckily working, like the magical way a subject’s eyes have just lit up. Instead, I made a mental note to do more editing in post than I would have preferred and just had her “freeze” in the middle of that swing. It was the right call because we ended up with an image that is so much better than the one we’d started with. Through a few simple steps, together we created an image that is full of life, vibrant color, motion, and an elegant pose that comes together in a natural-looking way.

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One of the best parts of meandering around an urban area with a subject is finding a backdrop that only enhances the portrait you want to shoot. In this case, we found a metal door painted a solid yellow that just happened to perfectly match my subject’s shirt. The colors worked especially well because he had a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath to better separate him from the background. This photograph wouldn’t have nearly the same impact with any other background.

Shoot 8 This shoot started in a pretty ROUGH place. I like knowing that, after literally thousands and thousands of photo shoots, I feel confident that I can make a great portrait out of any situation. I do not say that for any other reason than to extoll the power of practice. Time and time again, I get to figure out how to make it work, and this was no exception. For this session, we found a weathered wall, pulled over an average-looking case (that held cables), and used a combination of diffusing and filling light to make a portrait in harsh sunlight. The first thing I did was use the diffuser part of a 5-in-1 reflector to block the sharp light hitting my subject’s face, as he was squinting and his rather pale skin was already overexposed. Testing out the lighting, it was clear that the diffuser could have been bigger (or, let’s be fair, he could have been smaller!). Specifically, his hands were still overexposed. So we shifted the diffuser to more evenly calm down the light, which helped spread the shading. I also had him shift his hands outside of the bright light to better protect them. Lastly, we tilted the reflector so that its shadow looked more interesting in the background, something I often try to do with varying light patterns. All I needed to do was re-engage him while adjusting the manual exposure on my flash a bit to better fill the light on his face. I shot this image with the 105mm f/1.4 lens at f/2.4, which helped to soften the background behind him so he stood out even more. While I had my subject already well positioned in the light, I had him open his body up a bit more toward me and cropped the shot in-camera so as not to include parts of his body that were now not exposed as well. I straightened out his shirt, stepped back, and squinted my eyes at him, exaggeratedly “inspecting” him. He mirrored that back at me perfectly.

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Shoot 9 Shifting the angle from which you shoot can change the look of the portrait. More importantly, though, it can really change the impact of your subject’s expression. In this case, I was already photographing this boy from a very high angle, getting him to look up at the camera I was holding over him as we were both standing. I wasn’t unhappy with the cute expression I was getting; it’s just that there wasn’t much more to the shot than that, and I wanted more impact from the portrait than I had captured. I knew I’d keep the high angle because he was engaged with that style of shooting, and his nature was more interactive—if he was interested in the game, he opened up more. If the game changed, though, he lost interest completely, or at least he did until I could win it back again. This is a common attribute of interactive children: they are with you as long as you keep them engaged. And then they can easily be off to the next thing. I was shooting with the 105mm f/1.4 lens. That’s a rather long focal length to shoot with when holding a camera over a subject. So photographing my subject from that high of an angle meant that I was using the tilt and touch LCD to view the shot I was getting. He had incredibly light eyes that were full of light no matter which way he faced, so I did not need to add any fill light to this shot. I shifted the orientation of the shot from vertical to horizontal, choosing to tilt the camera so that the background was now completely lighter-colored ground. That helped to ensure that the subject would pop more. Then I asked him to look at me and then the lens, and then me, and then the lens, and then me . . . and the game worked. He was laughing at me and when his eyes traveled back to the lens, I clicked the shutter. I am much happier with the final shot.

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Shoot 10 I photographed this little girl on a red bench positioned against a window just as the sun started setting. The golden light reflected back in the window was beautiful, she was beautiful, and I knew that the pose was going to be beautiful. The only thing I needed to do was reignite her interest in the shoot. I asked her to curl up on the bench and then helped her adjust her jacket and skirt, tucking them both around her a bit tighter. I asked her to twist back and forth while keeping her knees and feet in the same place as a way to keep her engaged while I determined the best angle from which to shoot. This also gave me the opportunity to test the lighting, whether I’d want to add a flash or simply stick with the reflector. In this situation, I liked the look of the reflector best. And the more shallow my depth of field, the glossier that golden light in the window would appear. We brought the reflector in closer for better catch lights in her eyes. I also didn’t see any value in keeping her feet in the shot. The way they were positioned was great from a posing perspective because they added a curve to the top part of her, but the shot looked more flattering cropped just above her feet. As she twisted, I told her to go faster, and as she laughed while trying to keep up, I shot two frames at f/2.2.

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Shoot 11 With my little subject lying belly-down on the bench, I crossed one of her arms over the other, and the effect was immediately charming. She tilted her chin back while laughing, and although I loved the fun expression, I lost the effect of her sparkling eyes with her head tilted that far back. I also noticed that shooting from this angle, even at the extremely shallow depth of field provided by an f/2 aperture, showed too much clutter in the background, which distracted me even more from my subject’s expression. I changed my angle dramatically, shooting from much higher and interacting with her while I shifted. She continued to look toward me, still with a playful smirk, and now her eyes instantly looked much larger than they had previously. This was because whatever is closest to the camera appears larger. Shifting my position to shoot from an angle that was closer to her eyes made them suddenly appeared larger. I not only dropped the clutter out of the background by shifting my angle, but I was also able to drop my aperture even further, down to an f/1.8. Because I was shooting at such a wide aperture from that angle, any parts of the image that might be distracting had fallen completely out of focus. As my subject was facing away from the dropping light, I added the SB-5000 flash and manually adjusted the exposure so that she was well lit, and there was some spillover in front of her to offset the brightness behind her.

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Shoot 12 I had been photographing this high-energy girl for a while by the time we got to this setup. I photographed straight on and then from a top-down perspective throughout the entire portrait session, and I was happy with the results. But I wanted to mix things up in an effort to offer a variety of images from the shoot. So we propped her up on an old newspaper bin, and I adjusted my angle to photograph her from below. Since this was toward the end of the session, she was quite easily distracted, which is pretty normal. I laid down on my back, primarily to get her attention, even though I could have gotten the same shot by crouching down. The good news was that the dramatic shooting position worked. The bad news was that the backlighting was so sharp from that angle that the majority of her hair was completely overexposed. I don’t mind some bright highlights when shooting a backlit subject; it can often add to an image. But too many overblown highlights are not only technically troubling, they can also wildly distract from the point of interest—in this case, my subject’s face and expression. So I asked her to lean forward at the waist, and her dad held her head at the point where she could still lean forward without falling. We told her that was her stopping point. I set my focus at the most shallow depth-of-field I could achieve while still keeping a tack-sharp focus on her eyes. In this case, I chose an aperture of f/2.8. This move not only shifted her pose to a more engaged one, but it also put her more in the shade, which helped to manage the overwhelming amount of overexposed rim lighting. My assistant used a reflector to bounce that backlighting into her face and eyes, and I asked her to stick her chin out a bit, mirroring to her what I was asking for at the same time. Since I looked pretty ridiculous lying on my back and jutting my chin out, she laughed at me, and I got the final shot as her smile settled down a bit. I love the combinations of golds in this image. We used a gold reflector, there is golden light behind her, the highlights in her hair look gold, there are gold stars on her skirt, her jacket is gold, and there are gold highlights in her brown eyes. It all comes together so well.

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Reference Pose Gallery

CHAPTER 8

Commercial & Fashion Shoots

Shoot 1 I photographed this young model as part of a workshop I was teaching, while also capturing a new portrait for the Nikon D850 image gallery on Nikon’s website. I wanted to create a dramatic black and white of her to showcase the camera’s dynamic range capabilities. But saying that whole statement to her would mean pretty much nothing, of course. Instead I positioned her on a window seat in the lobby of a hotel and asked her to just look out the window at the squirrels. There were no squirrels, but I was able to at least set up the shot in the amount of time she figured that out. What I liked about my first test shot was threefold: The light coming through the window was already nicely softened, diffused by the large awning over the window outside. I had a reflector on the other side of the window, bouncing a soft light back at her as well. I liked the patterns in the pillow behind her and how that looked with the mix of textures in her clothing. I loved the addition of the window blinds in the shot as foreground, although the individual blinds were too “clumped together” to be of interest. I asked her to turn back toward me and smooth out her hair, over-dramatically showing her how I would smooth out my own hair. As she turned away from the window, I lost some catch lights in the eye farthest from the window, so I added some additional fill light by using a flash and dialing up the manual exposure on it.

I positioned her, and myself, so that I created the composition I wanted: the blinds in the foreground, to the left; my subject sharp and in focus to the right, the middle

layer in the frame; and the pillow and seat behind her, soft and out of focus, to the left. Her expression still wasn’t there, but I would get to that after finalizing lighting and posing. She was still a bit flatly-lit, so I dialed my flash down a little and turned my flash head more to the left, and I asked my assistant to step back with the reflector, which would dim the brightness of that fill light. The combination of these two adjustments would create more depth in the lighting, keeping the catch lights in her eyes while better flattering the shape of her face and increasing the drama in the shot. Next I wanted to position the blinds a little bit apart so they’d be more visually interesting. We smoothed her hair down some more. I then showed her how I would pull my chin out away from my neck and dip it down slightly, and I simply asked her to copy me while watching me “very, very closely.” The result was not just a better pose but also a better expression, as her watching me “very, very closely” also meant she naturally had a more focused expression.

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Shoot 2 We chose this bright green chair as a backdrop because our little subject popped against it. With her dark hair, bright-blue eyes, and sea foam shirt, all of the colors in this image came together quite beautifully. She plopped down in the chair, and I asked her to pull her knee up while we readjusted her fauxfur vest. I tilted the angle of the camera to bring in a lively diagonal composition to what otherwise might have been a more boring shot. I used the 105mm f/1.4 lens and photographed her at f/2.5, so her knee and the chair were both in soft focus but her eyes were sharp. She was facing window light, and we amplified it by bouncing it against the silver side of a reflector. We were joking around and I was holding the camera away from my face while we did so. She was laughing and already sliding down in the chair by the time I clicked the shutter. When I start with a great expression and pose but I lose the framing somewhere in the moment, I nearly always shift my angle to fix things before I take another photograph. I would much rather change the angle or framing of my shot, or even recreate a composition, than stop any positive momentum or miss out on a wonderful expression. In this case, I lowered myself to keep the same angle I’d started with and leaned forward so that I could crop the shot in-camera, as I was shooting with a prime lens. She remained exactly where she was previously, but I could now capture the pose and perspective I’d wanted in the beginning without disrupting her great expression. The only thing I had to do next was ensure she was looking directly at the lens instead of at me, off a bit to the side, so that the impact of her brilliant smile was even stronger. That was a simple enough fix—I just slipped behind the camera while she was looking at me, and we got our final shot.

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Shoot 3 I wanted to add some movement to this shoot in order to show more emotion through action. My subject had pretty great hair, so we started with just having her hold her hair up while I locked down my lighting. I set up the Profoto B2 strobe kit, which uses TTL technology to automatically read the exposure necessary for the shot. I am also able to manually adjust the exposure via the included remote TTL, as needed, if I want to go a bit brighter or darker. Sometimes the “right” exposure isn’t the one that conveys the most impactful feel to a shot. I photographed her with the most shallow depth of field possible with the 105mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4, dialing in my settings so that my shutter speed would be fast, shooting at 1/1250th of a second. I asked her to just flop her hair around, showing her how I flopped mine in a rather expressive manner. My goal was to capture her eyes as sharply as possible while showing the rest of her hair and movement out of focus, all to contribute to a dreamy movement in the portrait. She was game for it, but my first few shots did not land sharply, as either one or the other of her eyes was out of focus. I loved the soft and dreamy feel of shooting this movement at a fast shutter speed combined with an extremely shallow depth of field, but I didn’t want everything soft. I still wanted to show her eyes sharp. I also wanted the shot to be captured a bit more brightly. So I stepped backwards, which put more of my subject in focus, and I manually increased the output of the strobes. This allowed me to lock in focus on her eye while still keeping most of the image soft, and happily grabbing a great smile along the way.

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Shoot 4 It’s not unusual to set up a shot that has all the components in place, but they are all just a bit off, resulting in a shot that doesn’t work . . . at least at the time. In this case, I was shooting on a small pathway in a public garden and working to create a combination of drama and energy that would pull two final images together into one scene. I used the Profoto B2 strobes with the white umbrella lighting modifier, and I dialed in the correct exposure for this shot via TTL technology. While dialing in my settings, my subject curled her hands up in a way that didn’t flatter her, so I had her take a deep breath and asked her to super relax her arms when she breathed out. The good news was it helped a bit. The not as good news was that her expression shifted to one of trying to give me a good smile, but it was clearly not her genuine smile. I mimicked pulling my chin out while lifting my head a bit higher, and she automatically reciprocated. This is something I have always loved: how subjects will intuitively just copy you before you ask for anything. Moving her chin up just a bit let the light from the strobes light up her eyes. I really liked the look of this shot but decided to compliment it with a freer feeling one. Since the lighting was all set, I just asked her to drop her arms completely, hold on to her hat, and move her head to the left and right, like she was bobbing it back and forth. Her body naturally opened up in a new pose, and I caught her as her face turned toward the main light.

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I ask my subjects to bring accessories to a shoot just to see what might work. A hat is a common one and can definitely add a distinctive personality to the feel of a portrait. In this case, a bright red hat and scarf enhanced the feel of a holiday season in the snow to beautiful effect.

Shoot 5 For this commercial shoot, the point of the campaign was to show off the capabilities of the D850 camera, and one aspect of that was to show how clean and clear the files were. I photographed this girl near a window, and I used only one reflector to bounce back diffused daylight. Before we set up the reflector, though, I worked with her to slip into a pose that looked natural and elegant while also being very simple. I wanted her fingertips to brush just under her neck, but in order for that to look comfortable, she had to start with crossing her arm across her waist to balance out her other arm.

My next move was to shift my angle in relation to her to frame from a more topdown view, which was more flattering, and then tilt my camera to create more visual interest in the composition. I also stepped in closer so that my aperture of f/1.8 would

capture an even shallower field of focus, and I experimented with how closely I could position the reflector to maximize the catch lights in her eyes. I moved the reflector in as close as possible, which created an even more flattering light, and I dialed my aperture down to f/1.6 to soften the image even more. Lastly, I engaged with her to get that smile to reach her eyes. If you look closely at the second developmental image compared to the final image on the next page, you can see a world of difference in those tiny shifts in her expression. In the developmental shot it looks like she’s delivering a smile. In the final one it looks like she’s experiencing one.

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Positioning a subject’s hands near their face can often yield flattering results. In this case, though, I had started to position her similarly to the pose of the last subject, but she naturally lifted her other hand as well. I found it intriguing, how she had placed it. I like this portrait because as a viewer I feel drawn to her luminous eyes, but then also to the curious placement of her hands. I find that the portrait stays with me longer because of that combination.

Shoot 6 I photographed this stylish boy for a commercial marketing campaign. He was terribly cute but also terribly quiet. We selected bright clothing so he’d really stand out in the imagery, and we chose to shoot this in the otherwise neutral-toned hallway of a building we’d rented for the shoot. I wanted a look from him that was elusive but relaxed, not always a natural combination with young boys. So I knew it’d take a few steps to get there. When I know things are going to take a while but will be worth it, I can lose myself in the process of getting there. I composed this shot so it’d feel like the viewer was visually stepping through each layer in the shot. But to do so, I had to be careful of elements that didn’t contribute to the shot, like artwork, outlets, and other distractions. That meant working to frame this shot in a way that eliminated as much distraction as possible while I made little decisions along the way—like choosing to keep a bright yellow sign in the background since it played off of the yellow jacket the boy was wearing quite well.

I lit this image with fill flash, fully bouncing the light off of the bright white ceiling. Because this shot was already backlit from the diffused daylight behind him,

it was all the light I needed to add. While shooting, I continued to increase the output from my flash to brighten up the scene a bit more as I shifted my angle in relation to the light behind him. When we got started, my little subject was initially a bit stiff, so I had him exchange ridiculous-looking faces with me, which naturally relaxed his face and arms. I also had him take turns putting his left and right foot out in front of him. Sometimes this helps me to better see what works better for my subject’s pose. Sometimes it’s just an activity that keeps my subject engaged while I am dialing in my settings. In this case, it was both. After a number of little tweaks, I finally found the composition I was trying for, framing my shot so that he was near-perfectly center composed between the walls and the windows in the doorframe behind him. I kept my aperture at f/1.6, stepping in a bit closer to him and asking him questions in a low voice after begging him not to move out of position. That prompted the intended effect of having him lift his eyes to show that he hadn’t quite heard me, which is exactly the look I was hoping for. The final image is a combination of clean lines, vibrant color, and an elusive but relaxed pose and expression. I was very proud to have succeeded in making this all come together.

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It’s rather easy to get into the habit of taking joyful images of children, and I can often find myself falling into that habit! That said, taking the time to engage with your subject in a more reflective way, designed to purposely change their expression, can yield impactful results. In this case, his direct expression makes for a rather striking portrait.

Shoot 7 Shooting for a new marketing campaign, my goal was to photograph a simple shot of a little girl with her balloon. We were shooting in late afternoon and my idea was to photograph her against the reflective window behind her. I had thought I would just remove the distracting lines behind her in post-production, but it proved too difficult to get a clean shot. We were shooting opposite a crowded parking lot and no matter which angle I chose, that background was going to take away from the impact of the image. Moving her to a new spot, I found a much cleaner background. I had some problems with the lighting behind her though. There were very strong, overexposed splashes of sunlight coming through the columns behind her. So I asked my assistant to hold up a reflector along the side of the columns to help diffuse the light. It didn’t stop the big splashes of light coming through, but it diffused the sharpness of it. I also found the string on the balloon to be an issue. Even if we turned the balloon around and moved it away from her face, that string was still distracting. Once again, sometimes the quickest solution to a problem is the simplest: we just cut the string off the balloon. We had started out by photographing her great smile, but I really loved her more relaxed expression for this image. We weren’t able to tame all that light coming in while shooting, but I could do it in post-production, and that made a big difference in keeping the focus on our subject and not on the background.

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Shoot 8 One of the most reliable ways to shake things up during a shoot is to introduce an activity element of some sort. For this photo shoot for a photography software company, we brought a bubble machine and one single bubble wand. I was going for a shot that had bubbles all over the frame—in the foreground, background, and on either side of my subject. I started the shoot in the middle of a field in early spring, while the grass was in the early stages of spring growth. I’d set up strobes so that I could have all the light I needed to capture fast action, shooting at a fast shutter speed. As soon as we started the bubble machine, though, it became evident that there was not nearly enough contrast between the lightness of the bubbles and the lightness of the scene. I shifted the entire setup to shoot in front of a notably dark tree and moved the lights closer to the scene. The background shift brought more contrast into the shot, and the stronger light output showcased the striking iridescence of the floating bubbles.

We shot in quick bursts. Literally. We’d rev up the bubble machine and rush out the bubbles for about 30 seconds while I’d shoot generously in burst mode, check what I’d gotten, let her regroup, and adjust what needed to be adjusted—and then

we’d go again. It was quite fun. After shooting vertically, horizontally, with short focus, dialing up and down lights at various angles, and enjoying her varying expressions, the final shot was a great mix of all of it.

We landed with a horizontal image with strong contrast, a mostly-dark background filling the frame, and brightly-colored bubbles. She made direct eye contact with the camera while continuing to create more bubbles with a fun and focused expression. I love this final image.

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As often as I am interacting with my subjects for shoots, sometimes just stepping away for a while is a fruitful move. In this case, I was speaking with the client about the direction of the shoot when we noticed our little model just zoning out. Fortunately, he also just so happened to be perfectly placed in this overall composition, which only enhanced this portrait.

Shoot 9 This series of images represent a series of impacts. I like them all very much, but the final one is the one that most resonates with me. My subject was positioned in front of a background that we’d created for a campaign. It was made with 4 × 8 boards, which were painted and then designed. In this case, we’d designed them with mandalas. I lit the entire scene with Westcott Flex lights, then we added a fan. We started out by just having her shake that gorgeous hair around, starting by leaning forward and then whooshing her hair back. Although the scene was already well lit, I shot at 1/800 second, to better capture the action. Because I wanted that background to be seen, I kept the aperture at f/4. Next we started to add a bit of drama. We affixed some painted butterflies to her hair. (Not live butterflies! My statement still stands: no creatures were harmed in the making of any of my photographs.) We also added a fan at top speed and started going for some more drama. She swung back and forth with me while holding her hair, and we got some great shots. After a few shots, we taped the butterflies back to the background, positioned to surround her. We then moved the fan underneath her and my assistant did her very best to evenly blow her hair up off her face. I showed her my saddest expression, and she mirrored it back better than anything I could have done. I love pretty much everything about this final shot.

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Shoot 10 What I have found over and over again is that no matter how sleek or dramatic or serious of an image you’re going for, when it comes to the act of photographing children, you are still always interacting with them. The final image from this set was created for a marketing campaign, and I love it—but we certainly didn’t start from there. In this case, we were photographing in a large open room that had an elaborate light-brass divider tucked away. We pulled that out and positioned it between two large windows. We’d styled our little model with a series of butterflies, and I placed her on the right half of the frame, in a 50/50 composition style. The image was lit with a series of Westcott Flex constant lights, all with diffusers attached, as I exposed for the background and added fill light as needed. This allowed me to keep an even exposure across the image, as opposed to having her exposed but the background overexposed, or “blown out.” Once I felt like everything was set, I selected an aperture of f/2.5 so she would be sharp and the background would present shapes but not distinct specifics. The entire time she was looking at me like she was waiting to start the game. I set up a pose where she would gently rest her face in her hand, with her fingers as relaxed as possible. I carefully spaced them apart while I kept up a steady stream of conversation, talking about how this next shot would be so serious. Side note: it’s amazing how much you can mold a subject as long as you keep them distracted. In many cases, I like a direct look, but it seemed like she was responding to my request more than sinking into the shot. So we took a deep breath, and I asked her to look off to her left, naming a random thing across the room for her to stare at. Rather quickly, she settled down a bit, as it was a boring thing to do. I then tightened up my shot and shifted the composition so she was looking out of the frame, which is counterintuitive to the normal framing, where she would lead the viewer back into the frame by looking into the frame. It seemed to create a more interesting perspective, and I was much happier with this final shot.

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Shoot 11 For this portrait, I started out by changing some of the momentum of the session we’d been shooting. We had just finished photographing a number of fun, high-energy shots in a row, and I wanted to shift the feel of the images for a couple of scenes—to move from upbeat shots to some that were more subdued and softer in expression. We were shooting these images in a wide-open studio space that we’d rented for a series of commercial shoots, creating a smaller studio set within the overall space. This hand-painted background was evenly lit by four Westcott Flex daylight-balanced constant lights. In addition, I used a pop of fill flash from my Nikon SB-5000. I sat down on the stool first, demonstrating for her the exact pose I wanted to start with, and she copied my look rather flawlessly. I initially thought I’d want to shoot this horizontally, to show off the design of the background. What I saw instead was that I seemed to lose her a bit in the frame once she’d shifted to a more neutral expression. Often the expression of your subject can pull in a great deal of focus, which can minimize competing elements. I stepped back and reassessed the pose. I didn’t mind that she was positioned between a split in the background because I could simply edit that out in postprocessing. What did throw me off was how her head and shoulders sort of “blocked together.” Part of why this was happening was that she wasn’t sitting up straight. Another issue, however, was that her chin was just a little too straight toward the camera. To resolve this, I asked her to turn her chin just a bit more to the right and sit up as tall as possible. I then switched to a vertical orientation and asked her to swing her leg back and forth a bit, with the sole intention of picking up her energy with that small movement. For the final shot, I increased the output of the lights for a bit more pop in the image, motioned to her to move her chin even more to the right, and then timed the click of the shutter with when her leg had dropped down. It’s sort of amazing to me how sometimes just a tiny shift in pose coupled with the smallest boost of energy can take an image from pretty good to great. Yet it often works just like that.

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Shoot 12 For this campaign, we were using flowers and butterflies throughout the shoot. This included a combination of painted-on flowers and butterflies, as well as real flowers to hold, and little fake flowers and butterflies to affix to backgrounds. One thing I often do in shoots is use some element in the foreground, to hold in or around the front of the lens. Sometimes I will use blades of grass or small crystals or small pieces of opaque fabric. In this case, I used the petals of a small pink flower to frame our little subject, holding two petals underneath the lens so they slightly bled into the frame. Doing this created a soft, pleasing foreground with a hint of warmth. I started by experimenting with how to use the flowers as foreground, ignoring her expression altogether. I like the look of the image, but I needed to shake my subject up a bit, move her from a friendly smile toward a more soft and focused expression. The simplest way to do that is to move the subject’s energy. Because we were in a contained space lit just for that scene, I asked her to shake out the smile, a goofy but effective prompt. She settled on an expression that was very close to what I was hoping for, assisted by some mirroring of my expression. I just had to shift a few things. First, I asked my assistant to pull the girl’s hair back a bit. I knew I could clean up stray hairs later in post, but I wanted to do as little of that clean up as possible later. Secondly, I signaled for her to raise her chin just a bit higher, for a more flattering look. And lastly, I shifted the flower petals I was holding in front of my lens so they would better frame her instead of creating a soft foreground across her face. These changes were quite effective, leaving us with our final shot.

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Reference Pose Gallery

CHAPTER 9

Outdoor Natural Settings

Shoot 1 There’s always something about a subject that stands out right away, and in this case, I was quite struck by my subject’s lovely red hair. I knew I wanted to position her against a contrasting color to make sure her hair was a key focal point of the shot. It was a hot and sunny day, so we found some shade to help diffuse the sharp sunlight and manage the heat. I tested my shot, pairing my Nikon Z7 camera with my 105mm f/1.4 portrait lens and SB-5000 flash, with my exposure set to 1/2000 sec at f/2 and ISO 160. My subject was kind of lost in the wide, horizontal shot, so I switched to a closeup, vertical shot, shut off the flash, added a reflector to bounce more light into the scene, and opened up my aperture even more to f/1.6. Since I take care of lighting and technical settings before I get to expression, I tested out my shot and noted a few needs for improvement. From just a posing perspective, I didn’t like the girl’s knee cutting through the bottom-middle of the shot, so I asked her to change her positioning so that she was crossing her arms at her elbows, leaning forward a bit more, and bringing one hand up to hold on to the end of her side braid. From a composition perspective, this one move shifted us away from that jarring break in the bottom-middle of the frame—the knee —to a more pleasing U-shape, with her arms now acting as a bottom vignette to the portrait, which you see in third image. Having her lean forward also fixed the issue of her eyes being too soft and slightly out of focus, which you see in the second image. Now the very shallow field of focus included her eyes, which are sharp. I also liked the softness of her hair falling in front of both ears, so we untucked her hair a bit as well.

Once we were in good shape from a posing, composition, and lighting perspective, I just needed to lighten up her expression by interacting with her. There are so many ways to lighten up someone’s expression, and I vary my interaction style wildly with different children. In her case, she was quite interactive, so I just asked her to mirror back to me the same smile I was giving her, which was over the top and incredibly goofy. Her laugh was the shot before the shot I wanted, when her smile got a bit softer. Just a couple seconds later, she slipped into that smile, I composed my shot a bit tighter to eliminate the distraction of her legs, and I got this final image.

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Sometimes you have to shoot in a location that is less than optimal, or at a time of day that is less than ideal. But that does not mean you cannot get great portraits. It’s what you choose to put in your frame, how you position your subject, how you manage light, and how you compose your shot that can make all the difference in the world.

Shoot 2 This photo shoot started in early morning light, but as the morning wore on, the sun became sharper and we finally needed to seek out a more shaded environment. The area we found was less than inspiring, but by utilizing a simple pose and maximizing the effects of a shallow depth of field, we were able to make this portrait work quite well. We started by simply standing the boy apart from various background elements and using a small bounce of fill light from the reflector. But I found the background, with all that wood-chipped ground covering, to be too bland of an element to dominate so much of this portrait. So I plopped myself on the ground and invited him to do the same. To combat the blandness of the previous image, I positioned his back against the lighter background of the backlighting and minimized more of that ground cover by simply shooting from a lower angle. I added some fill flash to the shot to brighten it up even more and overcome some shadowing caused by a brighter backlight. Although we’d automatically fixed a few issues with those simple changes, there was still some awkwardness in his pose, most specifically in his hands, and how engaged he seemed to be in the portrait. Both of his hands were dropping straight down in an unnatural fashion and they commanded too much attention. I asked him to hug each one of the fingers of one hand with the other hand. (Go ahead, try it! It works!) It created the look you see in our final image, and his body automatically leaned forward as he brought his hands together, creating a strong sense of engagement between the subject and the viewer.

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Shoot 3 I photographed this preteen girl on a cloudy day, and we stood right in the middle of a grassy field. The clouds offered a perfectly diffused light, which I took advantage of, and I used only one reflector, although I asked my assistant to alternate between it being a fill light and a wind creator/fan. We did not need much fill because of the naturally diffused lighting. I shot fairly straight on, and the 42” reflector was waved up and down to add some motion to the girl’s hair for the final image when it was not being used for fill. We started out with her looking at me naturally—a bit of “I am not really into this” mixed with “but I kind of want to look good.” I saw three things that needed to be improved upon. First, I wanted to show a bit more warmth in her expression. I don’t mind serious or even “attitude” looks, but I like to show the warmth that I know is there. Second, I wanted more light in her eyes. And finally, I wanted to cut out the background entirely and have her fill the entire frame. The background wasn’t helping the image in any way. Anytime I can remove something from an image without taking away from the image I prefer to do that. The last two parts were fairly simple. I had her tilt her chin up a bit to catch more light in her eyes while I stood a bit taller myself. This allowed me to keep a more flattering angle. Often it’s just small tweaks like this that change the catch lights on the fly. Next, I zoomed in a bit more to the full 70mm focal length, and I also cropped in a bit tighter after that in post-production. The first correction—her expression—was just fun to do. I don’t often like to say “smile,” unless I’m exaggerating something to silly effect. So instead, we brought it about naturally. I asked my assistant to go crazy with the fanning. I will ask parents or siblings to do this when I don’t have an assistant. Doing this made her hair go wild and created a surprised smile. I jumped in to fix her hair and asked her to immediately go back to “normal.” She did her best, but luckily the smile still stayed in her eyes. And on her lips.

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Shoot 4 Nearly everything becomes more fun when it’s wrapped up in a game. I photographed this little girl in a gorgeous, spring-like garden area. The beautiful pink buds were hanging from this tree and I wanted an image of her near them. Her mom held her up near the gorgeous pink blossoms, and my assistant used the silver side of the reflector to pop some of the backlighting back up onto her face. Everything was fairly set, but our little subject was clearly not into it. She wasn’t upset or anything; she just was SO not into it. So I asked her mom to put her down, and I worked on reframing the image. I asked the little girl if she wanted to hear the sound that the “magic flower” made when it was squeezed. I told her it was the weirdest sound ever, that she’d never heard anything like it. I asked her mom to lift her up as fast as possible so that she could squeeze the flower before the sound went away. She was immediately fully engaged, and when she squeezed the blossom, I not only got the image I wanted, but I made the weirdest flower-squeezing sound I could think of, all the while staring in wonder at the magical flower. (If you’re interested in trying this yourself, I’d describe it as a puppy squeal meets whoosh sound, but at the soft level of a flower.)

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Shoot 5 Again and again, I see “that” smile. “That” smile is the one that shows me that a subject really is trying, putting out a smile they think is requested of them, no doubt. But it is also nearly always opposed to the way they genuinely feel. And again and again I acknowledge that it is my job to put them at ease, to create scenarios that enable them to experience the feeling behind a genuine smile. With adults, we will often discuss things that are joyful to them. With children, there’s luckily silliness in all its forms. In this case, this lovely girl was giving me her “cheese” smile, so I took her photograph and then asked her to try something. I walked her through a seriously complicated set of steps that involved turning, twirling, jumping, and sticking a landing. Then I asked her to do all that back for me. Hilariously, she got really into it.

I photographed the spinning madness with my 105mm f/1.4 lens, selecting a fast shutter speed of 1/5000 sec to ensure I caught the action, and lighting it with the SB5000 flash. Sure enough, by the time she stumbled to a finish, she was already laughing and I caught these two adorable moments back to back.

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Shoot 6 This shoot was scheduled for early evening, as it was the only time we could all make it work. Since the light would be dropping fast, we had to move rather quickly. I positioned Mom and her two daughters in a small field in a community park and used one Profoto B2 with an umbrella, placed on a light stand, to light them. I used the Air TTL Remote and shot in TTL mode, so the strobes picked the right exposure based on their distance to subject. I arranged the three of them with Mom holding her youngest daughter while her oldest daughter hugged them from behind. I had to position the oldest daughter to lean over her sister’s knee so that she didn’t look like she was being stabbed in the chest with it. I did this by showing her myself how awkward it was to lean against her sister’s knee and how much smoother it looked to tuck in behind it. So often, showing your subjects exactly what you mean can make all the difference. Once they were all positioned well together, I took a couple of shots and realized the youngest daughter was a bit zoned out in her expression, Mom looked like she was still figuring out the pose (in all fairness, I was still suggesting tiny adjustments!), and the older daughter was trying not to smile but also looked like it. So I let them get a bit more comfortable and then asked Dad to jump in there and clap in his youngest daughter’s face, similar to striking a slate before a scene. She reacted by laughing, but only for a little bit, and we still needed some zip from her older sister. So I encouraged him to do it again, this time with more oomph, and he was even more dramatic in his clapping and also threw in a couple of tickles on the way out of the frame, which livened up both girls quite a bit.

While I was photographing them, I changed my angle and the background, and I had them move back and forth with me, adjusting the umbrella to face them a bit better here and there. Because the daylight was dropping so fast, the positioning of the light was crucial. If it was just a bit off, and it was not acting as fill light, we would lose the flattering nature of the light. You can see in the behind-the-scenes shot how the lighting placement was not working because it was no longer pointed directly at them but was positioned a bit too high. As a result, Mom’s eyes were completely in shadow, and we had dim lighting on both of the daughters’ eyes. Just small shifts, but with a fairly dramatic consequence. In the final image, we have all our elements in place. The lighting is soft and flattering; the pose is maintained, with a triangle composition around their heads and their overall positioning; and the expressions were enlivened and sweet. I love the feel of this final image.

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Quite often the best way to bring out a subject’s most authentic expression is to connect them with someone they love. In this case, we wanted the little girl to be the subject of the portrait, but she was holding back her natural smile. I asked her mom to pick her up—and she absolutely blossomed in her arms.

Shoot 7 Often a great “pose” is simply near-filling the frame with inviting expressiveness. In this case, I started out with a very cute boy who also happened to be completely disengaged. It was a bright, late afternoon in an open arboretum, and I pulled him away from some other commotion that was going on. I found a shady area between two shafts of light and set up the white side of a reflector to bounce light back into his face. I made sure my lighting looked good and my technical settings were in place before I even considered posing or expression. As I often do with toddlers who are simply not interested in having their photograph taken, I pulled the camera away from my face to interact with him and start to gain his attention. He looked up at me while I talked with him, and I kept the camera in place, simply working on building his interest in me before I thought about composing the shot. Once I had him somewhat interested, I switched to a horizontal framing and positioned him so that his legs were sticking straight out to the side but he was turning back toward me. Because he was only going to remain interested if I engaged him in a fun way, I told him I wanted to see how fast he could jump out and run toward me. I told him I would count out loud and we’d see if he could do it in less than five seconds. He was immediately into it, leaping up several times while I continued taking my shots. I kept asking him if he could go faster.

FINAL IMAGE Once I figured out the general area that he leaped up to, we positioned the reflector to light the area he would land in, which was not as difficult as it might have been. It was incredibly bright out, so we had a lot of latitude in terms of the size of the area we could brighten. He jumped up about a dozen times altogether, and I just kept shooting repeatedly in a burst mode. As much as I had dialed in, though, I still kept missing a focus on both of his eyes. I knew I was making it harder on myself, as I’d started shooting at an f/1.4. That is just an incredibly shallow depth of field to try for when shooting a subject in motion. So I backed up a bit more, moved my aperture to f/1.8, and we tried again. As he jumped toward me, I nailed only one out of the next six images that I shot in burst mode, but I only needed one to get my final image. I love how this turned out because he has such life in his eyes, he’s fully engaged, and he’s leaning toward the lens in a way that showcases a sparkle in his eyes. Everything else drops quickly out of focus.

Shoot 8 As much as I love the look of organic posing—a mix of natural expressiveness and ease mixed with elements that flatter the shot and the individual—there are times when candid shots already look amazing, and only the smallest of shifts can make a huge difference. In this case, we were in the woodsy area of an arboretum, just walking out, and we were laughing about something that had just happened. I had my camera set, as I always do when I’m on a shoot, leaving all my gear out and ready to go until the very end. I shot this candid moment with the 85mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.6 and was struck by how beautiful not just my subject was but also the soft foreground and the overall effect of the camera tilt.

FINAL IMAGE The next few shots happened in just a matter of seconds. I called to her to look back at me. I saw that her family was still in the background of the shot, but there was no way to move them out, so I rapid-fire laughingly shouted, “drop your hands, drop your hands, drop your hands!” The intended effect was to get her to a pose that would be more flattering while not disrupting the amazing expression and scene in any way. I took a quick step back to better hide her family, captured this now beautiful pose, and then delivered the image in black and white. I did so for a few reasons: I like the look of candid black and whites, in general; the soft foreground of grass looked particularly dreamy in black and white; and the contrasting shapes of her family behind her practically disappeared when I shifted my position slightly and removed any distracting color.

Reference Pose Gallery

CHAPTER 10

Posing Children Together

Shoot 1 My goal with these two brothers was to get a great closeup shot of them together, something that seems pretty simple but can actually be tough to do you when you want to get one closeup image of the two brothers authentically smiling together. We started by standing in a shady part of a woodsy area, and I lit this shot by just bouncing light back at them via the white side of a large reflector. Then I had them stand far closer to each other than they naturally would. Because it felt awkward, the brother on the right smiled but had a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes. The brother on the left was more going with it but laughing about how goofy it was. When I commented to the brother that it looked like he was slightly terrified, wildly exaggerating the face he was making as I said so, they both laughed. I loved that shot right there already. To make the portrait a bit more interesting, though, I made the small shift of changing my angle a bit, shooting a little lower and a bit off the side. They naturally turned toward me, and the angle flattered them both a bit more. Because the shift was made so quickly, we still retained those amazing smiles, and we got to our final shot.

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Shoot 2 The best way to photograph these two brothers together was to add their lovely mom into the mix. They were both very warm with her, and it made for an image that worked even better because of the way they formed a natural triangle when posed together. We were outside in a park, and we all sat down on a cobblestone path, purposely about five feet away from the greenery behind them. By separating them from that background, it helped them to stand out while still providing a fully-framing background. The late afternoon sun was coming in through the greenery behind them, so we only had to add a large reflector in front of them to light them up beautifully. There is a lot I love about the first shot, so I only wanted to shift a couple of small things. First, I wanted to bring back some of the laughter the younger brother shared quite frequently. That was easy enough to do: I just asked Mom to drop her hand back and tickle him a bit. That worked instantly and adorably. The other thing I wanted to do was better connect Mom with the older brother. I asked her to take his hand, which also opened her body up more to the camera. He then naturally crossed the other arm over his chest and his eyes lit up even more. This is one of those before and afters that isn’t notably “worse” and then “better.” These two images could easily be ones where the photographer likes image A better, whereas the client is more drawn to image B. I like the look, lighting, and composition of both of these images pretty comparably.

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Shoot 3 We started out in a pretty great place with these siblings. When we first started the session, it took a while to get them into the swing of things. By the end of the shoot, though, they were fully warmed up and easily smiling together. We lit this shot with only a large reflector, and I sat directly across from them, shooting at f/4. Even with great expressions, I wanted them all to comfortably be a bit closer. It’s not that they weren’t physically close—they’d complied easily enough with that—but that they didn’t feel like they were close. Sometimes those little details make all the difference in how someone else might view the image. So we shifted them a bit. They certainly seemed closer in this pose, but I still found the framing problematic. The sister’s foot was cut off at an awkward angle, as was the older brother’s. And in shifting them around, I had lost a bit of the life in the expression of the youngest. I changed the pose yet again and had the older brother literally shake the younger brother to wake him back up, emotionally speaking. I framed it so we could see the sister’s whole foot, and the older brother’s foot was cropped at a more natural point, which I liked better. Since I felt like we were still tweaking, I decided to change the whole look one more time. I repositioned myself to shoot on my belly and asked them to join me, reminding them that we had about three shots left and then we’d be done with it all and they would be FREE, FREE TO GO LIVE THEIR LIVES LIKE FREE PEOPLE. This is an enormous motivator for teens especially.

They quickly changed their position and I made sure I was ready to shoot immediately, as their best expressions would be right after they shifted because it would feel awkward—and a bit cheesy—and them laughing at that would be their

best look. I composed my shot so that I was holding the camera away from my body, directly on the ground, tilted up, with me looking through the tilt-and-touch screen to better navigate the framing. This enabled me to show the grass in the foreground, which made for a significantly more attractive composition than simply shooting them straight on. Since I’d repositioned my camera while they were still flopping down, all I had left to do was refocus and drop my eyes down to camera level so that they were still looking at me. As quickly as possible, I dramatically asked the older sister to lean toward her younger brother, fast. Her diagonal leaning turned this shot from a cheesy in-the-grass pose to a more elegant, inviting one.

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Shoot 4 I found this awesome tree in a park and talked these two sisters into sitting in it. Although it wasn’t that high off the ground, I still asked the parents to stand behind them just in case there was any toppling over. In order to get this image, I had to shoot through the leaves of the tree, into the open middle where they were posed. I initially shot this image with the 40mm focal length of the 24–70 f/2.8 lens. We used a soft bounce of light from a reflector. The image was framed too closely, though, cropping out some of the tree branches that contributed so much to the shot. And I clearly needed to adjust the angle from which I was shooting so that I could actually see my subjects’ faces! As I shifted my angle, I asked the older sister to lean with just the top of her body toward her sister. That created a more elegant angle, which mirrored the tree branches beautifully. I zoomed out to about 30mm and shifted my positioning as the older sister laughingly said she could barely hold on. For the sake of having my subjects survive the shoot (details, right?!), I asked her to hold on to the tree behind her back and stretch her leg out even further to lean on the branch below, and the shot came together beautifully.

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Reference Pose Gallery

Conclusion As is detailed in this book, significant effort is required to produce portraits that capture something genuine, expressive, soulful, and beautiful, and that are still shot technically well with respect to solid exposure, great lighting, and impactful composition. Since so very much needs to come together in the right instant, challenges abound in each shoot. And even more so when you’re photographing children! It’s work, no doubt. But it’s fun and light and joyful—and so very worth it. As you continue down your path in photography, you will be presented with a whole lot of change: new gear options, new exposure capabilities, new presentation options, new schools of thought, new trends, and new editing styles. Whew. What won’t ever change, though, is how a great portrait photographer can authentically connect with their subject, how they can be so drawn to the hope, love, and aliveness in another that they can’t help but photograph them beautifully. Keep remembering that, and what you learn from here on out will only better secure your talent for photographing children for some time to come. If you’d like to connect, see my website at www.tamaralackey.com. There you will find freshly shot images and consistently refreshed information about photography, business, products, books, and ongoing workshop options. You can also find me at: instagram.com/tamaralackey facebook.com/tamaralackeyphotography twitter.com/tamaralackey I am hopeful that you will reach out! I’d love to hear what you learned and where you go from here. Take care, Tamara

Acknowledgments First and foremost, thank you to my husband and best friend, Steve. Your incredible support of my career and the personal projects I care about has made all the difference when it comes to me doing the work I love in the way I choose to do it. We designed our lives around being hands-on parents while we each created unique businesses of our own. Stepping up for each other time and time again, in all the big and little ways, is why this works. And it’s definitely paid off in all the ways that matter to us. Not without plentiful challenges and some rather rough setbacks, no doubt. But, at the end of the day, it seems to be all about constantly restarting “from here,” regardless of where “here” is—or how many restarts it inevitably takes us. There’s so much love and beauty to be experienced in the sort of resilience we’ve built together. (Plus you’re also just great to look at, if I’m being honest!) Thank you for who you are to me and to our children. We are all so lucky to call you ours. Thank you to my beautiful children: Sophie, Caleb, and Ana Elisa. You were born on three different continents and are wildly different—and also so very much alike. You have made beautiful photography subjects for your mama many, many times. Look for your photographs throughout this book—you are all here. I love each of you immensely. You are my work and my play and my heart. To my children in Ethiopia: Gabriel, Endrias, Wassei, and Tinsae. As long as it takes, we will not stop trying to bring you home. Period. I hope each and every visit back shows you how much we love you and how deeply committed we are to you. Always. Thank you to Scott Cowlin for encouraging the creation of this book! You saw it before I did, and you were quite patient with me as we worked to finally make this happen. I thank you for that. Thank you to Ted Waitt for enabling much of the momentum behind this book to take off, and for your great ideas along the way. And major kudos to my editor, Jocelyn Howell! Your good humor, brilliant attention to detail, and proven editing skills were only rivaled by your patience and organizational prowess. Thank you so much. Thank you to Kim Pollard, Sarah Coppola, and Rhesa Versola, all of whom have

spent many hours managing our photography studio as our business grew and shifted. Thank you to all of my clients, friends, clients—it’s hard to tell the distinction anymore. I have loved photographing your beautiful babies and children, and I deeply appreciate you choosing me to photograph them time and again. There’s so much joy to be had in this life, and this profession is a wonderful way to experience a whole lot of it. To all my amazing friends at Nikon: It was an extraordinary honor to be invited to become a Nikon USA Ambassador, and it continues to be so year after year. Thank you to my friend Mike Corrado for championing this incredible Ambassador program and for molding it into the family it is to all of us. Thank you to Mark Soares for being not just the big idea guy, but also such a smart and funny person to know. Thank you Trudy, Brian, Diane, Kris, Angie, Melissa, Judy, Bob, Brien, Carissa, Marie, Michelle, Barbara, Nick, Steve, Jay, JC, Lindsay, Paul, Jeff, Geoff, Emily, and Mark. It’s been truly wonderful to work with all of you on such a wide variety of campaigns and projects. Thank you to ON1, to Patrick, Dan, Nate, and Craig. It’s been fantastic to partner with you over the last few years, and I am ridiculously grateful for your amazing support of the show. Thank you to Joe McNally (the man, the artist, the legend!) for your incredibly generous words in the foreword to this book. They mean so much to me. You continue to lead the way for so many of us photographers, and I am proud to call you my friend. For all my photographer friends throughout the industry and for all my, well, regular human friends: You are simply too many to count. What a blessing. I am grateful for each and every single one of you.

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