When photographing young children, it’s helpful to engage them in play. For this session, held at a local park, Tammy started with a lovely family portrait on the grass, shot from a high angle. Next, she captured some active portraits on the playground. She shot a series of images of the boy swinging, with Mom pushing him higher and higher.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 24–105mm f/4 lens. Exposure: 1/250 second at f/6.3 and ISO 400. Flash fill.
The little girl was captured as she prepared to crawl through a tunnel. Tammy converted the image to black & white to cancel the color cast caused by the sun shining through the red plastic tunnel. The surprised look on the girl’s face makes this image a winner to Mom.
Tammy says, “For action shots, I switch to continuous focus mode to maintain even shallow focus at lower f-stops. I raise the shutter speed to 1/400 to help ensure sharpness.”
Tammy values using high shutter speeds, as such settings allow her to freeze subject movement and avoid blur due to camera shake when working with a hand-held camera. Using a zoom lens allows her to isolate the subject.
Exposure: 1/125 second at f/6.3 and ISO 400. Flash fill.
Exposure: 1/400 second at f/5.6 and ISO 400. Natural light.