Here's another
 

I have the feet in the next shot. I'll have to get better at getting the whole image.
Alicia

Alicia, one of the things I did was to get a couple of books about doing portrait photography, and specifically, photographing children. There are many, many books available on these subjects. Just pick a few that have the level of technical info to suit your needs.

I don't care about f-stops and filters but I did learn SO many things about lighting angles, contrast ratios, posing, getting the subjects to cooperate, etc, that it was well worth the time and money for me to study up. It made a world of difference the next time I scheduled a photo shoot with a sweet little two-year old who would only give me about ten minutes of her short attention span!

Michele,

Would you be willing to share the name of some of those portrait photography books. I use a manual Minolta with a portrait lens. I can use all the help I can get on photography.
Thanks,
Alicia

The book I bought is "Professional Secrets for Photographing Children" by Douglas Allen Box. I like it because it shows many different lighting situations, lots of them using natural daylight. I prefer natural light partly because it gives the truest colors and partly because it means I don't have to go buy lights and reflectors! It's not a technical book -- I think only about one sentence per page lists f-stops and apertures and the rest is on lighting and posing and getting the kids to do what you want.

The other books I used I got from the library and I don't remember their titles. I did a quick search just now on Amazon using words like photography, lighting, and portrait and got dozens of books that came up. Take a look and see which ones strike your fancy!

Hope that helps.

In my Stroke of Genius bookstore, I have a whole page of books on the subject, including the one that Michele mentions. http://www.portraitartist.com/bookstore/photography.htm

Sorry, Cindy -- I keep forgetting that you offer books, too, and that I can send book business your way!

Photo choice
 

Dear Alicia,

The pose is fine, but I think a different expression would be good. See if you can get expectancy in her expression and always aim for her personality to come out.

Mary Short

Alicia, on this specific photo there seems to be some distortion in the head -- it seems to be stretched sideways, especially at the top. I wonder if using a wide angle setting on your lens might have done that. Maybe that could have caused the distortion in the chair in the other photo you showed, too.

Point and shoot cameras with built in zoom lenses often have a setting for "wide angle" when the lens is not zoomed out (ie when the lens is pulled all the way back in). If you're using this kind of lens try zooming in (towards the subject) one or two steps to get past the wide angle settings and to a more natural lens setting, something around 50 mm or equivalent. (Check your camera's documentation on this.)

Maybe shoot a test roll with your camera and see what kind of distortion you get around the edges of the frame at different zoom and non-zoom settings. You can see this distortion effect most clearly if you try photographing one of your paintings from straight on: there will be a noticeable bowing-out effect on the sides of the canvas when you're in the wide angle settings.

As far as the child's expression, one tip is to use something to distract the child's attention and get an alert, "expectant" expression. Maybe a toy or a treat, if the mom is okay with that, held behind you by someone else, or held in your other hand if you can manage the camera with one hand.

Dear Michel,

After reading all the reviews, I think the best thing to do would be to take more pictures. As far as the distortion, the original pictures don't have that distortion in them. I think it happened in Photoshop.

My camera is an old Minolta SLR manual focus therefore I need both hands to use it. The lens is a portrait lens 80mm and takes great pictures. I'll just have to practice my technique for little children. I'll certainly get the book you suggested and give it another go.

Thanks,
Alicia