Capturing Emotion in Your Photos

Does it seem like everyone but you can get the fun shots that they want?  Ever feel like your kids just pull the cheesiest smiles when the camera comes out? With Easter coming up this weekend, I thought it would be fun to share a few quick tips on how to capture emotion in your photos.  Many times it can be hard to get that natural smile, especially from your own kids.  So I have a couple of quick tips to help you get that emotional magic from the hardest of subjects!

Here are 3 top ways to get emotion from your subjects:

1.  “Snuggle”.  This can be an easy way to coach your subjects whether they are best friends, siblings, or lovers.  Just telling your subjects to “snuggle” can get them closer and more into each other.  

2.  Scream, jump, run.  Having your subjects do any emotion can get them to relax, have fun and in the mean time, you are capturing an emotion.

3.  Don’t pull your camera down.  Once you have your subjects doing something fun like screaming, jumping, or running, leave your camera ready to shoot.   Shooting the fun emotion is great, but capturing the magic moments where they are laughing right after they scream, jump or run can be priceless too! 

Extra Tip:  Some point and shoot cameras have a delayed shutter speed which makes getting the shot even harder.  If you don’t have an SLR with a quick shutter speed, consider trying the camera on your phone.  A lot of camera phones, including the iPhone has a very quick shutter speed, which helps you grab the moment as it is happening!

 Have a great weekend and Happy Easter! :)