Having your family photos taken is exciting and I understand that you’re probably imagining all the things you are going to do with the beautiful images that you will have of your family. This is normal, and I encourage it! However, it’s important that you don’t arrive at the session with preconceived notions of how the session will go (especially with toddlers). It’s the job of an experienced photographer to set the children (and parents) at ease and have a good time. Sessions with little ones should be fun, enjoyable, and natural. Forcing kids to sit still for too long usually creates forced expressions and often makes children less cooperative. A good photographer will have you all moving around, being playful, and interacting as a family. Don’t put any pressure on your kids or yourself and everyone is more likely to have a good time.

Don’t Ask Them to Smile

My first tip is, don’t ask them to smile. In fact, don’t even talk about smiling ahead of time. If you have young children, tell them a day or two before your session that you’re going to a park with a friend and she’s bringing her camera. It’s going to be really fun, and you’re really excited. When our kids know that we’re excited about something, generally they’re more likely to get on board. Overly preparing them for how they should (or shouldn’t) smile or behave doesn’t always work. In fact, in my experience, it can often make it worse. They come into the session with pressure knowing they’re supposed to behave in a certain way, versus coming in and just having fun. No expectations, just fun.

Don’t Set Expectations

As important as quality and expertise are in finding a photographer, you will also want a professional who has a style that resonates with you and your life. Take time to consider the style of images you desire. Do you want classic in-studio portraits or do you prefer on-location with natural light, and if so, where?

It’s key to choose a photographer whose portfolio reflects what you are looking for. Check out photographers’ websites, blogs and social media channels. You should be able to get a feel for whether they maintain a style and have mastered it, or if they jump from trend to trend.

Regardless, make sure you really assess what you want your outcome to be for your finished products. Try not to be swayed by “what’s hot” as whatever is trendy today might not really make sense for your long-term keepsakes. You don’t want to invest in family portraits that will look dated on your walls and albums in a few years.

Once you have selected a few photographers that you believe meet your quality, expertise, style and vision goals, initiate a conversation with them to discuss planning your session, and your goals. You will want them to understand what you are looking for so they can let you know if it’s something they can accomplish.

Have Fun

Parents, this tip is for you! If your children see that you’re having fun, they’re bound to jump in and have fun too. Don’t be afraid to be yourself in front of the camera. Be goofy. Dance and sing with your children as you normally would at home. The more comfortable you are in front of the camera, the more comfortable your children will be too. This is when their true personalities will shine, and your photographer will be capturing it all.

Roll with the Punches

want you to know that photographers have seen it all. If it hasn’t happened with my own child, it has happened during a session. Trust me, nothing your child does during our session will surprise me. I’m not here to judge your parenting or your discipline skills. I’m here to have fun with you and document this stage in your lives. Sit back and relax. I promise that even if it seems like it’s going terribly, if you roll with it, you’ll be surprised by the beautiful photos we get.

Don’t ask them to say Cheese

Seriously. Just don’t. I have words for whoever came up with the brilliant idea to teach every child age 1-10 to “say cheeeeeeeeese. The only thing this does is produce super fake, super forced, painful smiles that parents sigh at when having photos taken of their gorgeous, beautiful-natural-smile, children. Don’t ask your kids to say cheese during your family photos. Please and thank you. There you have it. My best tips for getting rid of ‘cheesy smile syndrome’.

If I bring my “big camera” everywhere I go. While I probably should, I don’t. Like most of you, I’ve come to rely on my smartphone camera. While my DSLR and pro lenses can do a lot of things that my smartphone can’t, my phone’s camera is just so convenient. It’s always in my pocket or bag and I don’t have to think about keeping an eye on expensive equipment when I’m out and about with my friends and family. Plus, a smartphone does a pretty darn good job of capturing the everyday moments of my life. I’ve put together some of my favorite tips and tricks for making the most out of your smartphone camera. I hope you enjoy them!

TIP #1

If you feel like your smartphone pictures lack sharpness, the solution could be as simple as holding your camera with two hands and standing still.

We’ve all held our phone out in front of us with one hand to take a picture. Sometimes we even do it while walking. Stop! Whether you’re shooting in portrait or landscape mode, holding the phone in two hands and resting your elbows against your torso for stability will give you the best chance of taking a sharp picture.

The camera shutter isn’t released until you take your thumb off the shutter button on the touchscreen. Try pressing the shutter button before you frame your shot and then gently release the button. This is especially helpful when shooting indoors in low light because it eliminates the impact of your finger pressing the button and potentially making the camera shake.

Try This: The volume + button on the side of the phone can also be used to release the shutter and greatly decrease camera shake.

TIP #2

Chances are, at one time or another you’ve had your smartphone camera focus on something other than what you would like it to focus on or miss focus completely. The result in both situations is a blurry image. To help prevent this from happening, tap and hold on the spot you want the camera to focus until you see the yellow AE/AF Lock alert. Once that pops up, the automatic exposure metering and automatic focus metering have been locked on your subject and will not change.

Try This: Take one image without locking focus – then try pressing your screen to lock focus.

TIP #3

When you point your smartphone camera at a subject or scene, it does it’s best to get you a properly exposed image. You’ve probably noticed though that sometimes it does a better job than others. Sometimes our smartphone cameras want to make our images too dark (underexposed) and sometimes they’re too bright (overexposed) When this happens, you can fix it before taking the picture by adjusting the yellow exposure slider next to the focus square. Just tap the spot on the phone screen where you want to change the exposure and then use the sun icon to increase (slide up) or decrease (slide down) the exposure.

Try This: Take a photo at Sunset and increase the exposure by tapping on the screen.

Proper exposure will make a huge difference in your smartphone photography!

Turn off the Flash

While the flash on smartphones has improved quite a bit over the years, you can’t change the fact that it’s just a small and not very powerful LED light. If you’re shooting at night, whenever possible, turn off the flash use the camera app’s exposure slider to brighten the photo.

If there’s no available light, you may have no choice but to use flash and that’s ok! A flashy photo is better than no photo at all!

Try This: Take a photo in low light and then take the same photo using the exposure slider to compare.

TIP #4

With the limited setting on smartphone cameras, the amount of available light also plays a part in taking sharp pictures. The more light there is the better your smartphone camera will be able to combat shutter lag and freeze motion. It’s difficult to take a sharp picture of a baby crawling in a dim living room but if you move outside during the day, you’ll get a nice sharp image. If you want sharper, less blurry pictures go somewhere with good, natural (from the sun, not a lamp or overhead light) light. You don’t necessarily have to go outside. Move close to a window or an open door.

Good light makes all the difference between a mediocre and a great photo. I would go as far as to say that good light is more important than an interesting background or subject. If you’re shooting a portrait, avoid sunny and direct light on faces. This kind of light causes harsh shadows and squinting. If this is the kind of light you have to work with, try putting the sun behind your subject. This will give you the opportunity to play with sun flare and create backlit images. When possible, look for open shade along the side of a building or under a tree.

Try This: Put the sun both in front of and behind your subject and compare the two images to see what a difference the right lighting can make to an image.

While the flash on smartphones has improved quite a bit over the years, you can’t change the fact that it’s just a small and not very powerful LED light. If you’re shooting at night, whenever possible, turn off the flash use the camera app’s exposure slider to brighten the photo.

If there’s no available light, you may have no choice but to use flash and that’s ok! A flashy photo is better than no photo at all!

Try This: Take a photo in low light and then take the same photo using the exposure slider to compare.

TIP #5

Burst mode is great for when you are trying to photograph a moving subject such as a running animal or toddler or a someone playing a sport. By snapping images in quick succession, you’re more likely to get a shot that’s in focus and you may even have several keepers to choose from.

Burst Mode is available for iPhone 5s and up. To access it, just hold down the shutter button (or volume + button) and the iPhone will continuously take pictures until you lift your finger again.

Try This: While holding down the shutter button, you’ll see a counter at the bottom of the screen that tells you how many images you’ve taken.

Auto HDR

iPhones have a feature called High Dynamic Range, or HDR. HDR allows you to take pictures that have high contrast light sources (for example, a bright sunset against a dark mountain) and better capture both the light or the dark area of the picture without losing details. The idea is that the resulting image will be truer to what the eyes see. It does this by does this by taking three pictures, low, medium and high contrast in quick succession and then blending them to create a final HDR image. HDR is a good choice for stationary images with interesting lighting. Don’t try to use it for action shots though. There’s a good chance that when it blends the three images together, it won’t be sharp.

You can manually turn HDR on or off from the Camera app, but if you have an iPhone 5s or newer, you can just switch it to HDR Auto mode. In HDR Auto, when you point your camera at something, the iPhone’s camera sensor will determine if the image might need HDR correction.

Try this: Take a photo without HDR and then take the same image again using HDR. Compare the images side by side to see the difference.

TIP #6

The composition is one of the most important aspects of photography and also, probably one of the most taken for granted. How you frame your subject and compose your shot ultimately determines how memorable and interesting it is.

A lot of times, we see something that we want to take a picture of and take 15 images of the exact same thing from the exact same spot. Moving a few feet to the right or to the left, getting higher and getting lower can totally change an image and give you a series of unique and interesting images instead of dozens that are almost identical.

Changing your perspective can also help eliminate distracting background elements like cars and other people. It’s important to pay attention to the whole scene. Nothing ruins a portrait faster than a lamp post or street sign coming out of the top of your subjects head! A few steps to the right or left or getting a little higher or lower is all you have to do to get rid of distracting background elements.

Try This: Take a photo – then move a few steps one way to try and eliminate distractions in the background. Compare the images to see how a few steps make a big difference.

**Get Closer **

Sometimes the surroundings are part of the story and we want to include them in the image. Your best friend in front of the Eiffel Tower, your daughter playing in the waves at the beach, etc…Sometimes the surroundings aren’t important though and can actually be distracting. Are we looking at the couch? The clutter on the coffee table? Is it the car in the background? Or is it that cute baby? Getting close to our subjects and filling the frame with them can make the resulting image more intimate and help clearly define them as the focus.

Try this: Stand where you would normally stand to take a picture and take one. Now take two steps closer. Take another shot. Now, try getting as close as your smartphone camera will allow you to get and take another. Look at your shots. Which is your favorite?

TIP #7

There are a lot of apps on the market that can be used to edit images on your smartphone. Many people use Instagram or other apps that apply filters to the entire image. While there is nothing wrong with using filters if you’re putting them on top of an image that is not exposed properly or with incorrect white balance (color) your picture won’t look as good as it could. Two of my favorite editing apps are Snapseed and PicTapGo. Snapseed allows you to correct exposure and color for the entire image or to make adjustments to specific parts. PicTapGo includes filters that correct exposure, contrast, and color.

Try this: Take your favorite iPhone photo and run it through one of the apps above. Share your photo with others to see what they think!