Darcy’s Do’s and Don’ts: School Picture Day

Posted by Darcy | 0 comments

I don’t remember much about grade school. Most of what I do remember has nothing to do with education at all, but rather bits and pieces of school uniforms, track and field day, adopting a senior citizen and school picture day. I was always one of the shortest kids in my class which means I was always stuck in the first row, usually front and center, holding the sign that announced the grade and teacher. Oh, how I wanted to hide in back with the big kids.

But now that I am *ahem* thirtysomething, I appreciate those little photographic tokens of my past. The predictable, now laughable, backdrops… the awkward poses and unnatural smiles… they are funny. But more, they capture 12 years of growth that sometimes my parents didn’t always capture.

So, I challenge you… take yearly “school photos.” Only you aren’t obligated to awkward poses and unnatural smiles. Instead, you can capture really great natural poses. Here are a few tips for successful portraits.

1. Turn your camera. Take the photo in portrait orientation rather than landscape. If you rather shoot in landscape, remember the rule of thirds: place the area of focus 1/3 or 2/3 of the way through the photo, rather than dead center.

portrait image:

landscape image:

2. Focus on your subject’s eyes and fill the frame. You have lots of chances to photograph other stuff, this time it’s about the person.

3. Take the photo outside. Have your student stand in a shady area. You don’t want squinting or partial shadows across the face.

4. Take a few silly ones first and allow your subject to loosen up. Most people feel a little like a zoo animal behind a lens.

5. Turn off your flash. It blows out your subject and often creates red eye.

6. Give them something to hold or a little instruction on what to do with their hands. Subjects don’t always know what to do, and holding something may keep a small child still or help your gorgeous teen not feel so strange ‘just standing there.’

7. If you can’t get sharp focus, use a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, improvise. Set your camera on a picnic table, car or steady, stable, flat surface.

8. Take a lot of photos. If they’re digital, you have nothing to lose. Take 25 instead of 5. You’re much more likely to get the good one. If you don’t, try again another day. Unlike the school photographer, you have 365 chances to get a good pic that year.

9. Lastly, a little post-production goes a long way. Most photo-editing programs have ways to improve your photo with a simple click. If you don’t have one, try Picnik. It’s free. I use and recommend Photoshop, which you can get for an educator’s discount through Academic Superstore.

Maybe your photos will end up nothing more than fodder for good laughs over some future Thanksgiving dinner. But when your child is thirtysomething, she’ll be glad to have real portraits.

For more inspiring photography by homeschool parents please check out these blogs for tips and inspiration:

Homeschool Mom Photographers
Short on Words http://shortonwords.blogspot.com
Mt. Hope Chronicles http://mthopeacademy.blogspot.com
Pioneer Woman Photography http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography
Quiet Life http://www.booshay.blogspot.com
Pages of our Life http://www.pagesofourlife.com

Homeschool Dad Photographers
f/11 http://fxmixer.blogspot.com
Boybarian Photo http://www.boybarianphoto.com

These photos, minus the squinting shot, were shot by homeschool dad and amateur photographer, Handy Man (http://www.boybarianphoto.com) and photo-edited by his trophy wife (http://www.lifewithmy3boybarians.com).

Darcy is the mom to three boys ages 8, 7, and 5 and blogs over at Life with My 3 Boybarians. She is the owner of a blog design business at www.graphicallydesigning.com. She and Handy Man live in Iowa…nowhere near a Starbucks.