Tips for a Smooth Family Photoshoot with Young Children - Dos & Don’ts
Family photo sessions with young toddlers can be tiring but fun! During your photo session, you can expect us to guide you and your family along, not just how to pose, but also how to have fun with your child for us to capture the beautiful candid smile! Our sessions are meant to be a fun activity for the child, filled with surprises and maybe some treats along the way. But it takes a collaborative effort to make the shoot smooth, and your child happy! Here are some tips and tricks, based on our own experiences:
Do’s
Book a session timing that avoids your child’s nap time. Try to make sure that your child has sufficient nap time and have had a sufficiently filling meal.
Coordinate your outfits. You can refer to our outfit guides for some idea: Click here for outfit guide
Dress comfortably. For children, consider soft fabrics and loose fitting clothes that allows them to move freely.
Communicate to your partner on what to expect. We have condensed some of the common activities/poses we do during the session into this article: Click here for poses
Think of ideas or ways to interact with your children that can potentially make them smile! You can try exposing them to bubbles at home.
Let our photographer know if there is anything in particular that tickles the young children.
Let us know if you prefer for us to not use screen as a way to attract their attention (usually a last resort)
Be prepared that we will ask your kids to show us a little of their silly and goofy sides. That way, they see us as ‘fun people’ instead of someone that is just constantly dishing out instructions. When we are able to build such rapport with them, it allows us to get better photos!
The Don’ts are going to be the more important ones that you should really take note of! Because things can really start to go south once we bring out the wrong bribes at the wrong time, and the kids just go angry because of what they can’t get ahold of.
And of course, a lot of the opposites of the Do’s are the Don’ts too. For example, getting your child to show us their silly side. Unless we signal that your child is overdoing the silly faces for every photo, don’t ask them to pull up a straight smiley face while they are having fun! Sometimes the grannies sees this ‘silly expressions’ as a naughty one and tries to correct it. It can be really hard for us as a photographer to let the grannies know in a manner that doesn’t come off as being rude. So we would really encourage parents to let the grannies know that this is just one of the way we get the little ones to become comfortable in front of our camera!
Don’ts
Bribes are a huge part of our strategy to making kids laugh but we kindly ask that you hide them away before and during the session. It is a lot more effective when we surprise them with rewards during the session. Food, screen, toys - all of them can be a really tricky bargaining chip to work with.
Food - Some children will get possessive over their packet/can of food, and refuse to let go of them. Some would take a really long time to chew them. Should there be a situation where you would like to try using snacks to soothe or bargain with your child, do try handing it over to our photographer or assistant (if present) instead of giving them by yourself or your family member. We will try to use these little treats to build rapport between us and your child. Appropriate snacks we can recommend: Raisins, Baby Rice Puffs from Little blossom, Gerber Grain Puffs. Go for bite sized snacks that is fast to chew and doesn’t make a mess. Any food that is required to be held by the child is not recommended.
Toys & Screen - Similarly, avoid letting your child hold things that you don’t intend for them to hold for the photoshoot! These can include things like their comfort pillows, your phones, iPads, bubble guns/wands & toys. But of course, if you wish for your little one to get a picture with a monumental stuff toy that he/she grew up with, that’s perfectly fine! It can be really challenging sometimes to get our child to let go of these things without making them feel upset! So it is overall best to keep these distractions at bay so that our team can divert their focus more onto the activities that we will suggest to try to make your child smile!
Don’t ask, instead, be empowering and enthusiastic in front of your little ones! For young children that are just starting to form their own opinions, we highly recommend to avoid asking too much for their opinions. Instead, use words like ‘let’s go!”, and carrying them over to where the activities are going to happen, e.g. bubbles. This typically works out better as children who just started learning the concept of “don’t want”, “scared”, and “no” might just say it for the fun of it! Once your child is in the spot where our photographer suggest, we will typically engage your child in different ways to distract them and have their eyes looking into the direction of the camera.
Remember, your display of enthusiasm and confidence over the activities are very important to making your children feel safe in your arms, comfortable and excited!
Lastly, about screen…
Screen can be a really powerful tool for getting the kids to calm down, or to catch multiple children attention at the same time. However, it is often used as a last resort during the session.
Some kids gets really giggled at some songs or will choose to dance to them! Meanwhile, some children will stare blank onto the screen which is not necessarily a bad thing if the alternative is of them, throwing tantrums or trying to wiggle themselves out during a full family photo!
The key to using screen as an effective tool is to do some prep work! Parents can think of what songs/ which timestamp of the song are attention grabbing to your child!
One of the best songs to teach and engage your child would be “If you are happy and you know you clap your hands”! This is one of those songs that has a higher chance of getting the child to do something funny or get them laughing as they clap their hands instead of staring blank onto the screen!
At the same time, do let us know if you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of using the screen as a last resort. We totally get it as well!
Fell asleep towards the end of the session 😂
Most importantly, have fun! Not every family photoshoot will go as planned, and that's okay. Children, just like adults, have their off days. Understand and accept this reality. Embrace the imperfections and unpredictability that come with photographing young children. Even if you end up with photos capturing tears or frustration, they are still memories to be cherished. Who knows, that crying photo might end up somewhere in their wedding childhood montage.
Enjoy the experience with your family. The most beautiful moments are often the ones where everyone is genuinely engaged, sharing laughter and love. Trust in the process and savor these precious memories that will be treasured for a lifetime.