I have noticed that many children photographers started shooting professionally shortly after having children. Sure, you can control your schedule and hours as a photographer, which is great for mamas. But, I know that I started to really learn photography and go beyond just my love of taking photos after having Ryder because I wanted to be able to capture as many of the precious moments of him growing up as I could. 

It’s amazing how accessible great cameras are these days, several of my friends have nice digital SLRs. The problem is, you get the camera and then say to yourself, how the heck do I use this thing? Yeah, there is a manual book, but that’s about the dryest read ever. 

If this sounds like you, I’m hoping to get you going in the right direction to take some amazing and memorable photos of your kiddo(s) in this post series. I’m a visual learner for sure, and when I saw the poster below, I was so excited! This gives you the basics of shooting in manual mode on your camera. I’m going to try and go more in depth for exposure, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I’ll talk about each in a different blog post. So, it’s a great time to subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already. Here’s my disclaimer- I have not been formally taught so, I most definitely will not use all the correct lingo, but I will give it my best shot! 

Exposure

When you are looking through the viewfinder of your camera, you should see your light meter with a zero in the middle and tick marks on either side- +1, +2..on the right and -1, -2.. on the left. When you press your shutter button half way down before you take the photo to trigger your auto focus, you will see a tick mark move to one of these numbers or in between. You want to try and keep that moving tick mark on zero for correct exposure. If your tick mark is on the right side of zero your photo will be overexposed (too bright). If you tick mark is on the left side of zero, your photo will be underexposed (too dark). Sometimes, I might slightly overexpose to avoid the skin being too dark.

When you need to change your exposure and move your tick mark to the right or left, this is when aperture, shutter speed, and ISO come into play. They all work together to control exposure. So, tune in next time, and we will talk about Aperture!

Leave a comment and tell me what kind of camera you use to photography your children! Thanks for reading!