DIY Children's Portraits

I just took the kids portraits and I'm in the process of editing them.

I've been taking my children's portraits for a couple of years now. While we did recently purchase a Digital SLR--an older model off ebay, to save money--our point and shoot camera works just fine. 

I started taking the kids portraits because:

• portrait studio prices are too high
• the length of time it took the studio to show you the pictures was a waste of my time
• the studio's need to up-sale you on collages, etc.
• photo prints are very cheap at Costco
• if I take the photo's I get to keep any and all of them
• I know how to use PhotoShop 

Now, I do have some education in photography, but in reality everything I know about taking successful portraits has been learned via trial and error.  And, DIY Daddy is a PhotoShop expert, but I've had to learn to do the PhotoShop-ing myself.  You just have to get out there and try.  The hardest part is getting the kids to smile and look at the camera, at the same time!  There are always some great out-takes (like my little thumb sucker down there).

Some portrait taking tips:

• Keep your framing tight--it's not a snapshot of a broad scene--get a close-up of the kids
• Carefully choose your backdrop--make sure there aren't 'ugly' things in the shot: cars, roads, phone lines, etc.
• Get some photo editing software--Windows comes with one called Paint
• Learn some basic photo editing--crop, levels, sharpening focus, collage making, frames, edge effects
• Get portrait ideas by doing an image search

After the actual shooting:

• look through, pick your favorites
• adjust levels and crop
• print sizes and quantities you want