Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's move along. This post is going to be aimed at those of you with either a DSLR (if you can change lenses on your digital camera, that's you) or a point-and-shoot with Manual setting capabilities. The most important step, I believe, to taking better pictures of your kids (and better snapshots in general), is to get the heck out of Auto mode. Really. Get out. Step away from the auto settings!
I'm going to break this up into three posts, because there is a lot of information to digest. There is a basic triangle of settings that goes into planning your manual exposure. Manual exposure is all about taking the control into your own hands! You choose your aperture, your shutter speed and your ISO. Huh? We're going to start off with aperture!
Think back to biology class with me for a minute (I know, sorry). Did you ever get to dissect an eyeball? I did- and I LOVED it. But all creepiness aside, the human eye is a helpful guide when we're talking about aperture. In writing, you'll often see aperture written as "f/" or "f-stop". Back to the eyeball. What happens to your pupils when you walk into a dark room? They get BIG! Why? To let in as much light as possible, in order to see. Then when someone flicks on a light (oww!), the pupils contract to smaller diameter to let in less light. Darker situations require larger openings to let in more light; bright situations require smaller openings to control light. This is EXACTLY what aperture does for us!
When I'm in my house shooting my kids, I always have to work to let as much light into my camera as possible. We have pretty good natural light, but not the best. At home, I always keep the lens on my camera that has the biggest aperture possible- in my case, a 50mm 1.4. See that "1.4"? While it is a small number, it is a large opening for my lens. The smaller the number, the more light allowed in. Many kit lenses (the lens that comes with your camera body) do not allow you to go any further than 4-5.6; that just wouldn't work in my house! If you're serious about taking great pics of your kids, I cannot say enough wonderful things about a 50mm 1.8 lens! For both Nikon and Canon, this lens is less than $200 and a total STEAL! Be warned- it is a prime lens. This is not a bad thing- but it takes some getting used to. Prime means that there is no zoom- you have to do the footwork! It is such a fun lens, though!
Here is a photo of my daughter taken in my house, in front of a window. I had a lens on my camera that would let me go as open as f/2.8.
Isn't she adorable? Oh, right... aperture. You can see that there was plenty of light! This photo also leads into the next use of aperture: we also use it to control depth-of-field. Notice how Kate's eyes are nice and sharp, but the background is blurred and creamy? That, my friends, is aperture at work. The lower your aperture, the less area will be in focus. There are other intricacies of depth-of-field that I am not going to dwell on right now- aperture is enough to worry about right now!
Aperture: 1.4
One of the questions I get asked often is how to get that blurry background- well there you have it! The closer you are to your subject, the blurrier the background will be.
Hopefully that is a helpful start! Next time we'll talk about Shutter Speed! Questions? Leave a comment or shoot me an email- I'm happy to talk to you more!
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