Unlocking the Art of Details

Details to focus on

• Hands:
• When you're telling your clients what to do and prompting them, follow their hand movements. If you see them do something you didn't get a chance to snap have them do it again and go in for that hand detailed shot!
• Noses:
• Whether it's mama giving baby an Eskimo kiss or hubby whispering in moms ear; follow the noses and you will be sure to grab some cute little details.
• Hair:
• I LOVE it when babies twirl their mamas hair and when mamas play with their babies hair.... I always try to tell moms to NOT worry about the wind blowing their hair around because it will add emotive movement to their images! So if the winds blowing, let that hair go wild and you will be in for some gorgeous movement!
• Eyes:
• These don't necessarily have to be up close. I know you've seen those images of the way a mamas looking at their husband or their babies...or maybe the child is hugging the mamas leg staring into the camera. Just make sure your focus point is set on their eyes.

questions you want to ask your clients

• If it’s a family session, ask them a fun fact about each of their children and really dig deep. Ask them what makes them unique and special. The more details they give you the more you will learn how to prompt them to grasp those in depth detail shots.
• FOR EXAMPLE: let’s say they tell you “Jimmy” loves to dig in the dirt. You can easily have “Jimmy” grab some hand fulls of sand/dirt, just dig around, and grab some cool shots of his hands in the dirt and the dirt falling out of his hands. With that, you’ve easily got movement and little Jimmy’s hands from that season of life captured.
• Think CREATIVE IMAGERY when you’re preparing for each session. Every session will be different so you want to make sure and really study what your clients send you through their questionnaire. This way you can prompt each family authentically to who they are and once you nail this part of it you will end up with different images.
• This is another good one… What moments make you stop throughout the day and say “I never want to forget this..” be as detailed as possible. (Think about your favorite freckle, the way your babies hand wraps around younger, how your partner walks behind your and kisses your neck, or how you all crawl into bed on Saturday mornings.)
• These are going to be those shots you want to get up close and personal with your clients to really grasp those in-depth DETAIL shots!

tips for getting detail shots

• Shift your perspective
• Go in, out, above, and around when you’re shooting. (This is one of the biggest things I try to remember during a session. This is also how you obtain multiple shots from one prompt/pose.)
• OVERSHOOT
• I’m an avid over-shooter. I take anywhere from 600-1200 photos per session. This always entails that I WILL have the shots I need to fulfill that gallery. I don’t always have time to check the back of my camera so I ALWAYS overshoot. It’s something that came natural for me to do but I also set my camera to take multiple shots per “click” of the shutter. (Check your manual to see if you can change this setting.)
• Fill your frame
• When you’re shooting detail shots make sure to fill your frame with objects surrounding your focus point.
• FOR EXAMPLE: If you’re focused on baby giving mama nose kisses then you want to make sure you’re focused on their noses but fill your frame with their hair + facial features. This adds depth to your focus point and creates a more imaginative shot.