Today on The Slanted Lens we are photographing children for a commercial project at Prestige Preschool Academy. I will share some of the tips that I have learned over the years when it comes to photographing children. We will discuss how to get into their world quickly and produce the best images with the most efficient set ups. We will also look at how to quickly create the look of window light when shooting on the run. I want to move quick so we set a Dynalite power pack attached to a stand with a travel head. The pack was plugged into the new LP800 battery pack that we tied to the stand as the sand bag. Everything is now on one stand. It's fast and quick to move around. My assistant will power it up and down as we move around the room.
1. Here is our shot with just the room light. It's boring and lacks punch. We are exposing for the room light. I want a full exposure with the ambient light from the room.
2. Now we add the strobe light from camera left and slightly behind the subject and it changes everything. I love the look of the 72 inch shoot through umbrella by Photoflex. It works perfectly with the Dynalite MH2050 head because the throw is so broad on that head that it fills the 72 inch umbrella up and gives you a soft beautiful light. Great combination. We will shoot on Auto white balance because the color mixture is going to be all over the place with florescent, strobe and tungsten light sources in the same shot.
3. Here is a portrait with ambient light only.
4. With two people together simply turn one of them into the light and it creates a nice butterfly on their face and the person looking at the camera is in a nice rembrandt. You are looking into the shadow side of both their faces. The darker side in this instance.
5. Finally, we used a lightbox for x-rays to shoot several images of children. I love that light. Always look for interesting opportunities where the light is motivated by a source – open window, door, etc. It was a great shoot. Keep those cameras rolling and keep on clickin'.