I got an email from Shauna last week asking for suggestions on getting a good smile from kids. I thought I’d covered that already, and found that I didn’t, so here we go!
If you are able to get an assistant, use one! I rarely have one, but when I do, it helps a LOT. My 9 year old son comes with me sometimes, once I had him be my reflector boy (which I rarely use, but was trying it out) and he was “bonking” me on the head with the reflector and I pretended to get hurt by it saying “ouch” really loud. It got the 2 year old to laugh hysterically. Here is the cute smile we got:
I have found that songs are the key to the young ones hearts. My 17 month old daughter lights up when she hears a song she loves. Find out what they love and sing it (they don’t care if you can carry a tune).
For kids 6-10, I hear they like potty talk. Though I don’t do it myself, they seem to enjoy the idea that daddy wears diapers, or daddy has stinky feet. Make sure dad has a sense of humor before you go doing that though.
That age group, its also fun to say…”tell me about your girlfriend” and whether they have one or not, you will likely get a smile. Get them talking about something they love: sports, their new ipod, a skateboard. What did they do for their last birthday party? What do you want for Christmas? Where was your last vacation? Though some shots will have awkward open mouth faces, inbetween…the thinking…the smiling…capture it.
Lastly, have a handful of words to have them yell out. The one I like to use a lot is “YEE-HAW” the yee part produces a great smiling face. Unfortunatlely, its over used at my home and my daughter likes to draw out her haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww and that doesn’t give me the face I want.
“HOWDY” is another good one. “Happy” or “hooray!” Celebratory words. “HeeHee” is another one I like. Have them yell as loud as they can (location permitting) AH HA HA haha and after that moment, they will laugh for real.
It is possible to get a big group looking and smiling
Please, please, avoid the dreaded “cheese.” I’m sure it used to work (back in the 1950’s). When we originally introduced it to our children it may produced a good smile, but now it is so over used that there is no smile in the face when it is being said. I often see the mouth forming a straight line (you know what I’m talking about), the kids look scared, or thinking, “just get this done already.” You gotta surprise them, shake it up, get creative. But don’t SAY CHEESE!
Any tips you have? Please share!!!
Thought I’d let ya’ll know, I got crafty over on my site this week, and on Friday I will announce some fun stuff over at KDP, so come on over!
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THIS is the post I've been waiting for! lol…….perfect timing too, I have 2 shoots in the next few weeks and this will help!!
My daughters have pointed out that I smile behind the camera when I'm getting ready to shoot! lol….do you do that?
Thanks Kristen!!
Wonderful tips! I love photography and will definitely use these techniques next time i'm taking pictures! :) Thank you for sharing!
Sandra
Thanks for all of the great ideas! I am going to have to test them out soone!
I used an assistant for the first time the other day and got great shots that I don't think I would have gotten otherwise. As for the not saying cheese thing, my dad who is a church going, very spiritual wonderful man ( also a BIG goof ball ) likes to yell "everyone say SH*T" and let me tell you, that gets everyone rolling…sometimes TOO much! But my kids love the songs.
Such great tips! I love all your tips!! Thanks so much for sharing.
These are great tips…I'm trying to think of what I used last weekend. I think I mostly pretended to be one of the girls (3 little girls). I would squeal, laugh, take pictures of their butt (they thought that was hilarious). Mostly I just had fun with them and that seemed to work.
THANK YOU!!! I love all your ideas.
great ideas!! will give em a try.
The last family group pic I took, I was stuggling to keep the kids' attention. I finally pulled a kleenex out of my pocket and put it on my head. There was a slight breeze, so it would move and almost fall off…..and sometimes get blown off. The kids LOVED it and it kept their eyes on me and a fun, smiling look of anticiption on their faces. And, of course, great laughing smiles when it blew off!
I tell my little boy to say "oogley-boogley" He smiles and says "boogley" But I need to change it up because it doesn't work the same anymore:)
We say fuzzy pickles to get that perfect smile…Kind of an odd word :)
Awesome tips! One thing that works for my 4-year old (and my 16-month-old is picking up on) is the "don't smile" game. We keep saying "Don't smile" in silly ways and he always ends up smiling big!
Great tips, especially for the older kids. I have found potty humor works on the elementary crowd too. I tell them to say "Green Boogers" or something like that and they love it.
A tip I picked up from a book is to play Peek-A-Boo from behind the camera with infants and toddlers. They love it, and you're likely to get their attention and a great shot!
Great tips!! I always get people to say HI RHONDA. They think it is silly to say it over and over and the usually end up laughing. It actually works quite well! Or I get kids to yell "i LOVE ICE CREAM" or anything they love to eat.
I teach 4 year olds, and the one thing that always works is saying,"whatever you do – don't laugh!" I always get immediate genuine smiles with that.
This is great advice! Thank you!
my 18 year old hates his smile and he still says you have to make me laugh. one time we were trying to make him laugh and he yawned really big and we all laughed, the photographer got it and it was one of our favorite pictures, the moral, just keep shooting. it is great to have an assistant, i have tried to be fun while shooting and get blurry pictures! great post!
I am loving that I stumbled across your photography tips! I just got a dslr for my birthday and have been playing around with it. I want to be able to get great pics of my 3 little boys while they grow up. One thing I would LOVE to know how to do is to get that vintage look that is so popular using photoshop, please do share!
another great word – ask the kids to "say ZIGGY!!" —
A smile for you: We had 38 people at our family reunion this past Thanksgiving. Of course, everyone wanted a group photo (which means I wasn’t in it, LOL). As I was trying to arrange everyone so I could see all the faces, I shouted out “If you can’t see me, I can’t see you!”….at which point my blind hubby chimed in with “I can’t see ANYTHING!” The entire group busted out in real laughter, and I got my shot.
When I am working with young children btw 3-7 I generally get them laughing at me, Dancing around, Ask them to shake their booty and then when I shake my booty to show them how, they giggle uncontrollably, and usually the parents, if in it at the same time, start laughing like crazy. “this goofy photographer’
For really young babies and children I have the parents stand behind me and give me bunny ears and goofy faces outside.
Love all your posts, thanks for sharing!!!