Tip: How to Photograph a Child’s Birthday Party

Hi! Pardon the interruption. I’m Jonathan, Shani’s brother and webmonkey.

While Shani loves to share her beautiful photographs, I’d like to take a moment to share something kind of practical.

One of my favourite blogs, Digital Photography School, gives a lot of great tips, that can come in handy if you’ve just picked up a digital camera, and are going crazy because the pictures just aren’t coming out the way you wish they did.

Just the other day they wrote a post on How to Photograph a Child’s Birthday Party.

One of the things I’ve learned, from Shani and from my own experience, about shooting kids and animals, is their number 2 tip over there:

2. Get a Child’s perspective

One of the most important tips I can share is to get down low when taking photos of children. The biggest mistake I see in party photos is adults taking shots from a standing position looking down onto a scene. While you might take a few shots from this perspective the majority of your photos should be taken at eye level of the subjects you’re shooting.

Photo by Shani Barel

If there’s one thing you can do to instantly improve pictures, is to start taking them from the kids’ eye-level. It not only gives them real presence as subjects in the photograph, it also forces you to get more involved – you can’t do this sitting at the parents’ table.

The thing about these tips is that you don’t need a $3,000 DSLR to practice them. They’re just as valid if you’re carrying that ol’ point-and-shoot from 2007.

So next time your kids have a party, why not take the opportunity to practice your own technique? Don’t worry, Shani will have the pro angle covered, so you can feel free to experiment!

[Digital Photography School]

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