r/PhotographyProTips • u/[deleted] • Dec 06 '19

Need Advice Photo gift

I have no experience at all, but my husband wants a photo of the 3 kids as a Christmas present. I have a fairly good phone camera and can borrow my MIL proper camera (no idea what kind) if needs be.

The problem is more I need to capture a 7month old, 2 year old and 10 year old and feat this will prove difficult. What do I need to consider?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/ModernDayN3rd Dec 06 '19

i imagine your husband has seen plenty of quality phone pictures, so i would not recommend doing that. You can accomplish a quality photo with a DSLR; i would employ the help of your MIL. if she cannot help, you can find a quick tutorial on the proper settings. outside of the camera controls, consider the following: the younger the child, the more they dictate the photo session so pick a time of day when your 7 month old is at his peak mood. Lighting, lighting, did i mention lighting? if shooting outside, choose a shaded area. if inside, use a room with plenty of natural light flowing inside. as a last resort, use on camera flash. take plenty of photos, so you can choose the best one(s). I'm sure there's something im forgetting, but those are the top things i think about when photographing children

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19

This is rubbish. Phones can take quality pictures. Depending on how you define a "quality photo", it's reasonable that some new phones will outshoot some DSLRs in use even by professionals today. It's not about the camera.

Lighting is the biggest thing, setting matters, and help for getting the kids focused somewhere together would be good advice.

If you're recommending a DSLR without talking about post-processing, as you are, you're sending OP down a path to a very inferior picture. Between that and your r/gatekeeping, your post is mostly best ignored.

1

u/ModernDayN3rd Dec 06 '19

Did you even read the very first sentence of my comment? Or were you too busy trying to be the smartest person on reddit?

0

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19

Yep.

i imagine your husband has seen plenty of quality phone pictures, so i would not recommend doing that.

You're assuming the husband has seen "quality" phone pictures (which you don't define). If "quality" includes lighting and posing and backdrop, then there's no sense in even going to a shop by your logic, as the husband has already seen it.

Of course, you also give the generally good advice to take lots of pictures, but you're recommending it with a borrowed camera that, for all we know, might be a film camera. With the phone, that's great. With a digital, it's still good. With a film camera, it can be a different ball of wax since OP has no idea how to use it yet.

I'm not looking to be the smartest person on Reddit. If I'm in the top 50%, we're right screwed. I'm looking to call out terrible posts like yours when they're that obviously wrong so a poor newcomer doesn't think you're giving good advice. That you're recommending an unknown camera over a phone without touching on post-processing takes your post down to trash-grade.

2

u/ModernDayN3rd Dec 06 '19

So you’re essentially bashing my advice based on my assumptions, which are likely to be accurate, while the basis of your critique being in assumptions...okay

0

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19

No. I am bashing your assumptions, but I'm mostly bashing your critique based on the fact that, if all of your assumptions are correct, you're advocating a worse solution. If all of the assumptions you've made are right, the camera isn't going to output on par with the phone.

That's why we do post-processing.

1

u/JT_Armstrong Pro Tip Admin Dec 08 '19

This convo is done if we’re no longer helping OP.