1. Prepare in advance.
Before you shoot, frame the background first through the viewfinder. Make the entire background, including corners and sides interesting. First frame the background and then place the subject.

2. Have patience.
Talk to your subjects and let them get comfortable with you. When they start to forget the camera is there, you can take more natural candid shots.

3. Avoid using the flash.
The light looks unnatural and washes out colors and facial features. If you’re using film, try 800-speed films, which are widely available and allow you to take sharp indoor photos without a flash.

4. Avoid the outdoors during the middle of the day.
Bright daylight is unflattering and washes out your subject. Instead try capturing your subject in the rich tones and long shadows at sunrise and sunset. If you must shoot during the day, move your subject into a shaded area out of direct sunlight.

5. Get closer.
Being too far away from your subject can take away from the uniqueness of your pictures. Often the key to giving a photo pizzazz is to move in and capture the details of your subject, leaving out extraneous things in the background.

6. Take night pictures.
Nighttime offers different lights and shadows that you can incorporate into your pictures to make them look unique. At night you can use flash, a street lamp or even holiday lights if they’re bright enough.

7. Ex-nay on the pose-ay.
Don’t have your subject pose. A picture caught in motion often makes a better and more memorable shot.

8. Have comfortable surroundings.
If your subjects have to pose, have them find a comfortable, natural position. Here’s when a little leaning or slouching is permitted. Standing straight can make unflattering lines and give boringness to your picture.

9. Use props.
If you’re taking a portrait, include a telling item in the picture. A favorite toy or rocking horse for a child’s picture, or a wedding picture in the background of a couple’s 50th Anniversary picture. The props will create conversation about your picture

10. Unfocus the background.
A background can tend to take away from your picture so try taking your picture with the background blurred and only your subject in focus.

The truth of the matter is that you can put a few tips of the pros into place when it comes to taking a cute baby picture of your very own. The first thing you need to remember and keep in mind is that you simply must keep your poses age appropriate. For younger babies, aged newborn to about 3 months, there really isn’t much you can do other than prop them in the pose you desire or hold them for those perfectly sweet photos.

Once your baby has reached the milestone of holding his or her head up on her own you will find that there are a few more options when it comes to creating great baby poses. Having your baby push up with a blanket over his or her head can create some poignant picture poses while also recording this small milestone in your baby’s development. Once your baby can sit you are open to a whole new world of photo ops and posing options. Some of my favorites include washtubs and rubber ducks, splashing in wading pools, literally sitting in a bucket of balls—use your imagination and things that your baby enjoys for more natural looking posing possibilities. The problem with posing at this point is that your baby is more mobile than ever, which spells disaster for most planned poses. At this stage I seriously recommend a camera that can take shots of a baby on the move.

From the time your baby has reached a state of mobility whether it be rolling over, crawling, or walking you will constantly need to be aware of the fact that every pose is subject to baby approval. This means that a good many of them will not last very long. The truth of the matter is however, that once your baby has begun moving and developing a personality of his or her own, you will find that he creates plenty of poses that are most definitely photo worthy of his own volition. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most of those pictures that win baby photo contests are natural rather than contrived poses.

When it comes to your baby there are so many things you will have to worry about over the course of his or her life. Don’t waste your worrying over taking the ‘perfect’ picture or finding the ‘perfect’ pose. Your baby will provide you with some brilliant poses of his own during the course of his life if you are looking out for them.

How to Create Focus when you cannot Change the Focus
The good news or bad news depending on how you view it, is that point and shoot cameras do not have focusing abilities. This means that you can’t really take close up baby pictures without getting very close to your baby. It also means that you don’t have to worry about photos that are horribly out of focus because you hit the wrong button. When getting to know your camera (I recommend doing this before baby debuts) you should take the opportunity to take pictures of one object (such as a stuffed animal) at various differences in order to see how those pictures came out on your camera.

Taking the time to know your camera is an important first step in taking the baby pictures you have dreamed of taking of your baby. You may find that some of your innocent little baby photos are just the stuff the baby photo contests winners are made of. Truthfully, however, there is much that can be said about taking the time to learn your camera before taking photos of your bright bouncing little one. This allows you to know the best angles for certain views, how close or far away you need to be in order to achieve a certain look, and the perfect distance for photographing larger groups as they go gaga over your little one.

While you cannot manually focus your fixed focus camera you can affect the picture you create of your baby by moving changing the distance between you and your baby. The most important thing to remember is that by keeping your focus on your baby and creating a background or setting that doesn’t diminish your baby’s importance or prominence within the photograph you should have a beautifully focused photo of baby to remember for years to come.

There she was in all her glory. Long white lab coat, frizzy hair, safety goggles — and a face smeared with the black ash of an experiment gone terrifically wrong. She was, at least on this Halloween night, Dr. Abby Normal. But for most of her life I had known her as Abigail, my daughter, and I had just taken some of the most legendary photos of her life.

These weren’t your garden-variety portraits. Not exactly Wal Mart studio stuff either. They were pictures taken of my kids in their natural element — being kids. That is the real photo opportunity of a holiday like Halloween.

For treasured images this Halloween, here are some quick tips to remember to get once-in-a-lifetime photos:

1. Stop Posing — Halloween is not a formal affair. So don’t bother with the wedding style shots. Engage the kids in the play associated with their costumes — and THEN shoot the pictures. Candids reveal the smiles much more than a “Hold still, honey!” moment.
2. Shoot Early, Shoot Often — Film is the cheapest part of photography. And in this digital age, there just isn’t a reason not to shoot several images. There are many good reasons for being trigger happy with the camera. First, if kids are use to you constantly firing away they won’t bother with the plastic smiles. But most importantly, shooting more simply increases your chances for great pictures. With Halloween pictures some of the best pictures are taken while the costuming is in process — don’t wait for the finished product in getting out the camera.
3. Get in Their Face — Halloween was made for pretend. Kids love to make faces, don costumes and assume a new personality. It is the ultimate form of exhibition. You just can’t let the opportunity pass. They WANT to be noticed. Most point-and-shoot variety cameras have wide-angle lenses. While this helps them to get sharp results and to work well in lower light, they tend to move the subject matter further away. Most have a minimum shooting distance of around three feet. Don’t be afraid to push that limit at Halloween. Get in close, have them make faces, ask them to talk to the camera. They will. It is, after all, Halloween.
4. Let Them Call the Shots — It’s their party. Ask them what kind of pictures they want. When my son was Harry Potter a few years back he wanted to jump off the roof on his Nimbus 2000. We had to reason with him a bit. But a little leap from a lawn chair to the grass did the trick and we got the shots of Harry in flight. Chances are your kids have an idea of the persona they are adopting. Let them call the shots to document the experience.
5. Use the set — Most of us decorate for the season. There could be haystacks, a bubbling pot, a roaring fireplace. Use these props, even if they don’t fit the theme of the costume. Down the road the memories you cherish will include all the fun that went into creating the holiday environment in your home.

Good candid pictures of children require active participation and putting them at ease. Halloween is the easiest of seasons in which to do this.
© 2004 by Jeff Westover

About The Author
Jeff Westover is a freelance writer and father of seven from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the managing editor of My Merry Christmas.com, where folks have been making merry online for more than a decade. He writes about holidays, families, parenting, home schooling and photography for a variety of publications both online and offline. Please visit http://mymerrychristmas.com for more articles like this one.