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Styles: Photographing Children
Shoot at their eye level 
If you usually take picture of children standing up with the camera pointing down, you end up with pictures with the carpet / floor / ground behind them, but none of the surroundings. They are often unflattering and appear detached and unengaged with the child. However if you crouch down to get the camera at their eye level you get to see where they are (often important in setting the context for what the child is doing) and you get more of a connection with the child.
This basic rule should be applied as much for quick snapshots as more composed pictures.
Use continuous shooting
Setting the camera to take 2 or 3 frames per second means that if they blink at the wrong moment, you'll hopefully capture a good shot half a second later.
Children also move about a lot more than adults and often won’t stay still and pose for very long.
Take lots and lots of pictures
Remember it's digital so you can delete most of them later. But you might just capture that magic moment. There’s a lot of luck involved here so take lots of pictures and hope for the best! (books written by professional photographers wouldn’t tell you that but it works).
Use natural light
Kids seem to suffer from red eye more than adults and it can ruin an otherwise great picture. Avoid using a cameras built-in flash whenever possible. Off camera flash or bounced flash from an external flashgun will avoid red-eye.
Distract them / catch them unaware 
Kids often start playing up when a camera is pointed at them - so it's often a good idea to distract them with toys, food etc. We find that just letting them watch TV works well (see picture below). Another option is to have the camera on a tripod, stop taking pictures but keep the camera pointed at them and use it when they least expect it.
Try giving them something to do, a jigsaw to complete, a toy to play with or perhaps a cake mix to get messy with. When they are focused on their activity they will be less aware of the camera and the results will be more natural.
Getting a child to smile
If it is your own child this is not usually too difficult. However you may have to resort to child like behaviour yourself to get plenty of smiley faces.
Try making silly noises, pretending to sneeze or bump your head. The younger the kids, the sillier you can be. That doesn't work with older kids where you need to try and play it cool.
Babies
Distract them with their favourite toy (e.g. rattle, teddy bear). If the mum is around (assuming the mum is not the photographer), have her stand behind you and wave her hands in the air.
Sample Pictures
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By getting down to the childs eye level, the photographer was able to capture the setting for the picture.
Had he just took the photograph from normal standing height, then the background of the image would have most likely just been the path. This certainly would not have made as pleasing a picture. |
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For this shot, the camera was mounted on a tripod. The children were told to have a break from having their picture taken and to watch 'Scooby-Doo' on TV.
Once they thought no more pictures were being taken, they stopped playing to the camera and I managed to capture this image.
A wireless shutter release is handy here as you can move away from the camera completely. | |
Photographs
This is a site about photography so I'm sure you are expecting to see plenty of pictures.
For now, why not take a peek at the flickr galleries belonging to the two authors of this site.
Colin's Flickr Page
Phil's Flickr Page
"Most people try to include too much in the picture. If you are photographing a child playing on the lawn, photograph the child, not the trees, the house, and everything else in sight. Photography is really a simple statement and the clearer it is the better."
- Eliot Elisofon
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