Better Newborn & Child Portraiture By Suzette Nesire

Tips For Better Newborn & Child Portraiture

By Suzette Nesire

michaels Media School was recently visited by Suzette Nesire who has been creating award-winning images for families in Melbourne for over 15 years. As one of Australia’s leading Portrait Photographers specialising in photographing children of all ages, Suzette presented a Special Event FREE Lunchtime Seminar designed to help photography enthusiasts capture stunning, candid and emotive child portraits. Suzette has kindly offered up the following 'punchy' tips which you can begin putting into practice.

See below for a list of tools Suzette keeps in her studio.

holding hands, keep them together

Keep the children together as much as possible. Suggest holding hands or put them back to back. Get them walking away or walking towards you.

giggles

Children will laugh at anything. Make silly faces and ask them silly questions to get them giggling.

quiet

Children will always at some stage slow down. Make sure you are watching them. Be there, be ready!

wait

Direct children to where you want them to be, then allow them to be themselves and before you know it they will do something interesting.

hugs

Merely suggestion to one child to give another a hug, to squash the other with a cuddle or asking 'who's more ticklish' will spark a reaction you can shoot.

two weeks old

Try to capture newborns as early as possible. At 2-3 weeks babies are always sleeping. Partners are usually available for a first family portrait at this stage too.

get them nude

A nude child is amazing - they look so perfect in their skin and it means less distraction for your image

sleep image

Children are awake for most of their lives. Get the sleep shot while you can. It's easiest to capture in 2-3 week old newborns.

parents hands

Even though the mother may not want her photograph taken after giving birth, use parts of the mother or fathers body to create a sense of relative size

warmth

Have your shooting area very quiet and VERY warm. New parents enjoy the quiet, new babies love the warmth.