Family, Kids, Teens » Elizabeth Halford Photography {the blog}

Category Archives: Family, Kids, Teens

Hampshire Children’s Photographer – Sometimes, the best thing to do is just hide…

June 9, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens

…and wait B&W conversions done in Lightroom with One Willow’s B&W set Pin It

3 comments

Posing 101 – Wrap up and Reader Questions

May 14, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

Wow what a week of posing! Thanks to everyone who read. I’ve had some great comments and questions come through, but first, a wrap up of the posts this week: Day 1: Introduction Day 2: 5 Tips for Posing Children Day 3: Posing for Grownups and Teens Day 4: 4 Tips for Posing Hands Day 5: 5...

2 comments

Posing 101 – 5 Poses for Families

May 13, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

*click here for yesterday’s post in this series* As if posing isn’t daunting enough when you first get started, how about posing FIVE PEOPLE all at once? posing families is a whoooole ‘nuther topic alltogether. But first, I’ll start by saying that when posing families… Although you’re working with individual people, you need to think...

6 comments

Cynthe - May 19, 2011 - 4:57 pm

Charming article. Came here from your DPS article on shooting large people. Sure would like to see more photo examples on that subject which I’m very interested in.

As an aside: Spotted several typos ~ you may want to correct ~ especially in the into paragraph to the DPS article which will likely be read by 100s of people: “As with any body type (skinny included) their body image may cause them
to believe that their [they're] either larger or smaller than they are. You can
tastefully discuss body image with them [the] clients which is something I may
be inclined to do with any type of person.” Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/6-tips-for-photographing-large-people#ixzz1Mon3CgJS

And one in this article: Clusters revamped… “This makes the statement that although their [they're] a family,…”

Anonymous - May 20, 2011 - 6:27 am

Hello thank you so much! And that’s really really strange because one of my biggest pet peeves is people not knowing the difference between your/you’re and their/there/they’re. My MAC has had some sort of recent update and suddenly is auto correcting my words the way the iPhone and iPad does. I wonder if that happened with this? In that case, Apple really needs to re-do second grade! LOL. Thanks for pointing it out I shall not waste a single second correcting those!

morgan wynn - July 8, 2011 - 11:28 pm

I do realize that I am a little late reading this! But, this is a very interesting post! I have a family shoot tomorrow, and I am looking forward to trying these out! I am a little confused by one statement and was wondering if you could help me out??

” A good rule of thumb is to set your aperture for how many you have in
the shot (within reason of course). So there are 6 in the photo on the
right which means that if I hadn’t forgotten to check my settings, I
would have set it to f/5.6.”

I have no idea what this means. I know what aperture is and all, but the .6….I’ve never heard of how that affects your pictures? Could you please help??

Anonymous - July 10, 2011 - 7:07 am

Hello! f/5.6 is just an aperture setting. They go:
1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 7.1, 8 and so on

Anonymous - October 29, 2011 - 5:03 am

Thank you so much, and thank you for the rule of thumb, you have given me some great ideas :)

Tony Sale - December 14, 2011 - 10:32 am

Some great advice here I love the way you have posed the family around three dining chairs – these are usually readily available

Posing 101 – 4 tips for posing hands

May 12, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

*click here for yesterday’s post in this series* So after three days of talking about posing in a very general sense, I’ll spend today getting down to the nitty gritty. Today, we’re talking about hands. Posing hands is a touchy subject (har har) because hand placement can be a make or break for your portrait....

no comments

Posing 101 – Grownups and teens

May 11, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

*click here for yesterday’s post in this series* I mostly work with children because the adage is true…”never work with grown ups or teens”. I’m pretty sure that’s the saying, right? :) Funny enough, I find grown ups and teens to be more challenging than children and it might just be their knack for letting...

2 comments

Posing 101 – 5 tips for posing children

May 10, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

*Click here for the first post in this series* Let’s talk about my favourite subject: photographing children. More specifically, posing them. I’m not going to give you the same tips you can read elsewhere or even give you specific poses to try. Skye Hardwick has a killer posing guide for that. I just want to...

10 comments

Colleenhc - May 10, 2011 - 12:15 pm

Yet another great post! Thank you!

Breanne Clemmensen - May 10, 2011 - 1:54 pm

Thanks for a great article. I am looking forward to the rest of the week. I am okay at posing and telling people how to pose, but sometimes I get parents or others with them that have stuff in mind and then I don’t have the voice to come out and say lets do it differently. I had a senior photo shoot the other day that I was so pumped for and had lots of ideas and everything but the mom was so take charge that it was hard for me to say, yeah that great but lets also do this. Does that 50% game work with the older ages too?

kate si - May 11, 2011 - 4:31 am

Not really a fan of #3. Reinforcing gender stereotypes through posing and possibly making that remark out loud to the parents/child is wrong. Especially as kids, telling them that acting like the opposite gender isn’t good or isn’t preferable for no reason isn’t good for the kid. Even it being written on this blog is kind of bad. What’s really wrong with a little boy standing with his hands on his hips? How is that “girly”? If it is “girly” why in the world does it matter?

Npshields - May 12, 2011 - 3:03 pm

Thanks for taking the time to put this together; great ideas and extremely helpful! Keep up the awesome work!

Virgjones - May 19, 2011 - 4:55 pm

Just found your site through DPS. Great great posing tips. I’ll be back!

JS - May 20, 2011 - 8:52 pm

Really good article. Thanks.
On a bit of a tangent now:It seems a lot of photographers would suggest staying away from Skye’s posing guide (I’m sure there are guides of equal value and much less cost out there). My understanding is it comes as part of the Workshop Workbook. I was enticed by this article to look into the workbook – but upon reading more about it (see links below), I glad I didn’t – and I thought that might be worth sharing with others here.http://www.photogvendors.com/?p=27http://www.flickr.com/groups/creativechild/discuss/72157622675005592/http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=21&thread_id=2920508

Anonymous - May 20, 2011 - 9:22 pm

Hi thank you so much for reading! And thank you for your link. I would just like to point out, though, that there was nothing said there about her posing guide, but rather that site was all about her workshop. While i have no right to speak into that area because I’ve never attended one, I highly recommend her ebook and posing guide. As many said on that link you shared, she may be better suited for sharing her knowledge in writing. I think they’re right and fully stand by her written materials :)

Mary - November 5, 2011 - 3:36 pm

Seems a bit sexist that you think that something is “girly” and not masculine enough for a boy and what is the “right” pose for each gender. What you really should be saying is that you need to find the right pose for the child that best suits their personality and also one that they are comfortable with. The hand under the boys chin doesn’t look “girly” at all, it looks awkward and poorly positioned. If it was an image of a girl it would look the same way….awkward and poorly positioned.

Wales - December 31, 2011 - 7:27 pm

I totally agree with you Mary, But let us not forget, that like many other photographers who are finding it hard to make a living these day’s, Liz has chosen to whore herself out to the rest of the world as yet another tog who can teach YOU how to make loads of money!
As a result, she will write stuff that appeals to the majority out there. In my opinion, she appeals to the “2 C’s in a K” marketing group (Look it up on Wiki).

Anonymous - December 31, 2011 - 7:59 pm

Dear Anonymous Commenter with no work of his {her?} own to speak of,
I made $6k this month. $4k on just one job. By following my own advice. Have a lovely day :)

Posing 101 – Introduction to Posing

May 9, 2011 Posted in Family, Kids, Teens, Taking Pictures

Posing can be a big stumper for many photographers new to the business of photographing people. Like so many things I didn’t want to give brain space to figuring out, as a beginner I took pride in being the anti-posing photographer and claimed it was all in the name of being real, spontaneous and fancy-free....

15 comments

Anonymous - May 9, 2011 - 6:39 am

Testing testing hope we all love this new comment system!

Selinaduncan - May 9, 2011 - 6:42 am

This is brill for someone like me. Im into photography and have been practicing on family and friends but when it comes to directing them into poses I find it soo hard so I end up telling then to do what makes them feel comfortable (kinda a cop out really) avoiding fear of them looking like a mannequin. I do end up with some good shots but with this I hope I can get great shots now! Can’t wait for the other postings. Thank you.

Zena Smith - May 9, 2011 - 6:54 am

Really looking forward to this weeks posts! I enjoy photography as a hobby and have been asked to take pictures for friends and family, this will be so helpful. Thank you :)

Ramori - May 9, 2011 - 7:33 am

can’t wait! I’ve always had hard time posing people..
sometimes I get a natural which know what I mean which is great, but when I have a client who doesn’t feel comfortable with the shoot and get all frozen it’s really really hard to get him / her to pose right.
just the other day I was taking photos of this teen and the poses just didn’t feel natural, it was all frozen.. I had a hard time that day..

Elisabetta - May 9, 2011 - 9:21 am

Can’t wait to hear more on the subject. I do feel natural photography is about capture the magic of the moment, but I am learning and would like to grow as photographer. You rock!

Colleenhc - May 9, 2011 - 10:36 am

Thank you for this! I was just googling this very subject yesterday lol

Diana Blackford - May 9, 2011 - 10:49 am

Looking forward to reading more this week! I was trained as a photojournalist, so I don’t know much about posing and my personality is definitely not the take charge kind, so I would love to learn how to make posing people become like a second natures to me.

Dena Howard - May 9, 2011 - 12:06 pm

I agree completely! My clients (especially the men) feel so much better when you explain to them that they don’t need to worry about what to do with their bodies, and that you will guide them on how to pose “naturally”. Talk about instilling confidence! Show them the back of your camera with them in a dynamite pose and they will feel on top of the world and the rest of the session ends up being easy. Looking forward to this series.

Elizabeth C. - May 9, 2011 - 3:14 pm

Definitely looking forward to this series!

Elizabeth C. - May 9, 2011 - 3:14 pm

Definitely looking forward to this series!

Sara - May 9, 2011 - 3:20 pm

Oh I am so happy you’re doing this! I feel I really need strengthen my photography in the posing area. So often I find myself stumped with how to place people, children and families especially. Couples I’m much better at, but for children, especially the very young ones I seem to photograph most often, posing is a struggle. Also getting unique family shots, with everyone in the photo, but not looking like a “hey sit here and smile at the camera!” pose. Can’t wait to see what you post!

Susan - May 9, 2011 - 4:35 pm

thank you! One of the most difficult things for me….you are always looking for ways to help others….and I just want you to know how much it is appreciated! You rock!!! :)

Emil - May 9, 2011 - 11:11 pm

So excited to read more on Posing!!

Nathaniel Albrecht - May 10, 2011 - 2:52 am

Posing Week with @ehphotograph on elizabethhalford.com!! Excited to learn more!!

Gina Parry - May 10, 2011 - 2:34 pm

Oh thank you so much Elizabeth for writing this article. I believe it’s going to be so helpful to so many of us. I would like to add that before I start a session, I sit and have a casual chat to the parents and children (assuming that they are at an age to understand) about what we are going to do. I can engage with them from the start, it’s not as awkward as you might think and as long as the parents let you ‘run the show’ without them constantly telling the kids what and what not to do, it all works out well. I try to remember the rule of thirds, my composition and lighting and if the individual being photographed feels awkward, I can see it. I stop and have a break, chat about feeling confident and relaxed and move on. If I were to get stressed about posing, so would they – children and adults. Can’t wait for the next installment.

Are you going to show some examples of good and bad posing?