Four Tips for Great Easter Photos

Easter is seemingly the perfect opportunity to take gorgeous photos: the flowers are in bloom, the weather is (usually) beautiful, the family is together, the Easter Egg Hunt is exciting and the perfect Easter outfit (for me and the kids)! But don’t be fooled by all the perfect ingredients! Shooting great photos can be tricky because of the very excited (and sugar-charged) kids, bright sun and lots of activity. Managing a camera, the family, the activities and the meal can be challenging. So here are a FOUR TIPS to keep in mind while shooting this Easter weekend:

#ONE: Change Your Angle

Kids are small and all the activity of the Egg Hunt is down on the ground! So get down on their level. Standing to capture a photo is the fastest and easiest position to shoot, but your photos will be more dynamic if your camera is on ground level. You can also capture their facial expressions at this angle. Now this means you’ll need to be laying on the ground or in some weird Yoga Pose (yes in your Easter clothes!). Or you can squat and just place the camera on the ground. Since the kids will most likely be running around, you’ll need to be quick on your feet (or rolling around), anticipate the action and take lots of photos. And stay close to your kids. Snap a few photos of the whole environment (the backyard with all the kids running around or the Easter meal table), but then keep it simple and focus on one person or one moment of action. Also, take a few simple shots of just the Easter basket, their new Bible or special Easter decoration.

Here is an example of shooting on the ground (so you can see the facial expression )vs. shooting in standing position. Since Micah is looking down to find eggs, I had to get under him to get the expressions. In the second photo set, the camera is at ground level. And in the third set, I am standing in the first one and then knelt down for the second shoot.

#TWO: Step Away From The Background

We love to get the colorful flowers in photos. Position your subject about 5-10 feet from the background. When the subject is directly in front of the background, the photo has no dimension and the subject tends to get “lost” in the background. So have them move forward, but still keep those pretty yellow forsythias as part of the photo composition. Here you can see how the composition of the photo changes as the subject steps away from the background:

#THREE: Find Some Shade

Most likely you’ll be taking photos of the kids dressed in their Easter Outfits before Church in the morning. At this time of the day, if it’s sunny, the light will be pretty harsh creating high contrast shadows. To eliminate this, take your crew under a tree or in the shade of the house. I prefer a tree because then you can still get a little “back light glow.” But don’t get too much bright light in the background because it will make your subjects too dark. If you have the opportunity to choose the time of day to take the photos, late afternoon is the best time (about an hour before sunset). The sun is low on the horizon and it’s very warm. These photos below are taken at 9:00 am. You can see on the left the light is very harsh in direct sunlight. Then I moved Elliot to the shade where the light is more flattering (although I couldn’t get a good smile out of him):

Now, if you want to bend this “Find-Some- Shade-guideline” a little and you are a bit more advanced, try shooting with the sun directly behind the subject. Since the light coming from behind will overpower your subject (creating a silhouette), you’ll need to overexpose to make your subject brighter. (I’ll do a technical post on this technique later this month.) Depending on the time of day, the sun will be in a different position in the sky, so find the sun and try to position yourself so the subject is in between you and the sun. You’ll most likely need to get down on ground level and shoot up. It’s fun too to try to position the sun right on the edge of the subject to get a little sun flare (see below).

#FOUR: Take Lots of Photos

You only need a handful of great photos to document your day, however you need to take ten times that to actually get THE PERFECT PIX. Since we live in the digital age – shoot away! Because kids are so unpredictable, you never know when you’ll capture that facial expression or a sweet smile. So take lots of photos and give yourself permission to delete the bad ones.

Did you have a favorite photo tip? Please share yours in the comment suggestion below! Enjoy your Easter Weekend. I praise God for His sacrifice so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him. I pray that we all will enjoy the Easter Celebration in a fresh and powerful new way this year.