How to Take Better Family Photos With Your Phone

1. Welcome: Hello, everyone, and welcome to my class. My name is Legion Madera. I'm a professional photographer, specialized kids and families. And today I'm here to show you some tips on how to stay better family photos with your phone. I designed this class for beginners, but anyone with a smartphone or any other camera can benefit from what we're going to cover here. As we all know, technology today's get incredibly good and pretty much everyone has a smartphone with the Martin decent camera, and I believe they're a great tool to start learning a bit more about photography. You're probably already taking hundreds of photos of your kids every day, and I want to help you get more consistent results and feel more encouraged to shoot better . Instead of just shooting more, we're going to talk about the light composition, boasting angles, things to avoid trouble shooting and some other interesting tips and techniques so that you can get the best out of your options. And hopefully I won't get too technical about it. Expert Glass project. That's pretty simple. I just want you to go and take some pictures of your family, applying some of what you learn here and then share your best shop with us. Easy. Right? Here are some before and after examples of how you can substantially improve your images by simply making some small adjustments before you hit that shutter button. Excited? All right, so let's get started. 2. Look for the Light: photography. Technically, it's all about the light. And generally speaking, there's no better light than natural light. Actually, we're conditioned to find natural, light, pleasing natural. Our very existence depends on the sun, but I'm not saying that the harsh sun on a clear day hitting her kids directly in the face . It's a good look. It's hard and contrast the and they're definitely going to squint. That's why we go for soft light and can recognise that soft light by the shadows produces, which is soft and radiant and where to find it. Well, if you're at home, it's a good idea to open the windows and flood the house with light, turning off any artificial light to avoid color casts and multiple shadows, even if your houses and very bright the cameras today's to do a very good job of exposing. Also, get the kids closer to the windows and read it. Take advantage of the light again. Just make sure the sun is I'm coming through and heating them directly. And if that's the case, that turned them away from the light and you can get nice, dreamy, backlit images, and when you're outside at a bar or the streets. They look for open shape, which is when your subject is in the shade with the open sky above them, like the shadow of a beauty. The next option is to be in the shade right next to a surface that bounces the light back to your subject, like under a tree with the sun hitting the ground in front of it. And remember, just be careful with weird color guests. The balanced light would be the same color as surface where it's bouncing from, so that Cooper figure well. One work is a reflection. 3. Avoid the Flash: Let's talk a little about flesh. Wild, untamed flash plain sucks there, I said, unless you're going for a specific artsy look and good luck with that, or if you're properly and thoughtfully placing the lives to achieve some effect in that flat look with harsh shadows that we all know just doesn't look natural, we immediately associate them with bad snapshots. Also, the flesh coming right from your camera. It's what causes red eyes in the teachers. It's annoying and irritating if you have a baby. Even worse, they're more sensitive to light, and they probably will be upset. So, generally speaking, using your camera flash to take photos of your kids. It's a big no no, just seek with natural light, unless absolutely necessary in situations where they just want to brag to the dark areas a little bit. Try turning on the A C R option on your phone. It will increase. That's on a range your camera is able to capture. That's technical talk, so I won't get into it to help. When the light is very harsh and there's nothing you can do about it might not solve the problem, but 4. Eliminate Clutter: When you know you're about to take some photos, you might have time to organize the house, make sure everything looks spotless. But sometimes you're at home and suddenly your kid there's something cute and you just want to capture that. It makes no sense to go and tidy up the place just so you can take a couple of shots, right? In this case, what he can do is try changing your angles. Be creative. You can shoot from above or go around them or get a tighter composition. Show more of the details. Not all images must show the whole environment, but also sometimes that's where the beauty is. There's nothing wrong with embracing the mess. It's really and you can have character to the image. And many times he can help telling a story. Same thing when you're outside. If you don't want the garbage can to being your friend, just take a couple of steps to decide and it's out cars in the background, distracting from your kids. Change your angle of this scenery behind your subjects should from down below and include more sky. I can't stress it enough experiment. The more you do it more equipped, it will be to deal with the situation 5. Think About the Composition: composition. It's what he decided to include in the frame and also where and how you do so. Composition. It's very personal, and it can change the whole sorry often image still, their basic guidelines that it can try to understand and follow and wants to feel comfortable with them. You can decide to break those rules or not. Your choice. One of the biggest mistakes off beginner photographers displacing the subject right in the center of the frame that makes the image stati even boring. Sometimes to make the floater more dynamic, try placing them off center if they're looking somewhere other than right into the lens that maybe leave that side empty so we can see or imagine what's there. Here are some examples off the rule of thirds, which is when you're relying your subject or point of interest with these guidelines or their intersection points. I suggest you turn on the greed on your phone so that you have a reference when composing. Also pay attention to natural frames such as the doorframe, a window trees or Brent to surround in your kids. They make for very interesting compositions and help getting us to look. Break matters where the important part of the image is your family again. Everything here is very personal and recommend your experiment a lot. So the very these you are aware of your options so that you can choose what made door in its strong. 6. Natural Posing: Let's talk a little about posing. Better yet about not Bosie. We're all conditioned from a very young age to look a certain way when there's a camera pointed at us, and we all know what that looks like. Unnatural and most of the times awkward during the first days of photography and exposure took minutes, and that's why people were so stiff and serious. Apparently, we carried that to her modern dates, and even though we added smile so that makes most of the times they still look forced and uncomfortable. So why not let people be themselves and captured that? If you think about it, probably your favorite photos of your family were even posed at all. These are the images where you can see and feel personality, affection and the rial moments that you want to remember. Of course, there, since some both features that you love because they take you back to special moment. But you would probably love them even more. There were more spontaneous right? So what's the trick here? You need a connection. It's suggesting. Instead of directing, it's interacting. Instead of giving orders, it's as simple as asking kids to show you something, anything really like. Do you want to show me how you can count to 10 or Hey, show me how you playing with your Lego or literally just talking to them and making them laugh inside of asking for a smile. Breakfast that and I promise you, will be one step closer to timeless images. 7. Get on Their Level : one of the main things. When photographing kids are even animals, for that matter, you should get down to their level. The shot from above can work sometimes, but we get a better feeding off being a part of their world. When we can see things as they do, just sit, kneel or even lying on the ground and get some interesting angles. And here's another tip. If you're shooting close up, especially if they're looking at the camera tried to be a little bit above their level. This way. Their eyes were gonna be white open, and it will look much better. But even though get into their level, looks good. As always, make sure to try different things. The bird's eye view meeting looking from way above when kids were sleeping or playing with your toys can be very interesting. Also, the opposite when you have the camera as close to the ground as possible, can give a feeling of grandeur to your composition, and that can create a very interesting 8. Enjoy the Moments: I know it just gives you a lot of information and try to pay attention to all of these details when trying to take a photo can be a little bit overwhelming at first. But it gets better with time, I promise. And you can even become your second nature if you're blind yourself. What it suggests is that instead of overthinking and risking missing out of a moment because you're too worried about the act of taking photographs that to try practicing one Adam and at a time, for example, take a day or even a week to observe the light you have available at your house or places in visit the most with your kids, then trying makes in the angles and fighting what's interesting about each one. Practice talking and connecting with your Children. Why you're photographing them. Create a moment and enjoy the moment in corporate one element at a time, and you will certainly have better images of her family with more consistent results with a more natural and spontaneous feeling. Remember, have fun 1st 2nd 9. Final Thoughts: with all that said, I can't not mention the value of hiring a professional photographer. You can take good pictures. You can even be a professional photographer yourself. But there are still advantages to hiring a pro family photographer to come and photograph your family. For example, you can be more of the shots. You can be more spontaneous and worry only about having a good time with their kids. And then there's the fact that another person will always have a different point of view, interpretation and style, and you can have a fresh outsiders. Look off your loved ones and last but not least, a professional photographer can provide you with an experience and products that you just can't get by yourself. So in short here, some things to keep you might we delight an open shape, provide soft, natural light. Avoid flash. It's harsh and unflattering. I'm clutter your scene, removed an immense or change your point of view. Try not having your subject always in the center of the frame. Connect and interact in order to capture more spontaneous moments, get down to their eye level, but also try alternative angles and consider hiring a professional family photographer. I hope you enjoy this class and the tips that I shared with you and that with them you feel more comfortable and encouraged to photograph your family. Thanks for watching.