Children Portrait Poses And Picture Ideas – Simple Photo Ideas

In this video, Lisa  shares some simple Children Portrait Poses she recently used for a portrait session we did with our 4 year old daughter. We also included a transcript of the video and a download guide of these poses, just in case you wanted to read or print out these examples and tips. Keep in mind that we use these same ideas and tricks when creating shots for inserting into our Digital Creations.

As always…Leave a comment below and let us know what you think or if you have any questions.

If you prefer to read…we’ve included the Video Transcript Below.

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Hey everyone!

It’s Lisa,

Today…I wanted to talk to you a little bit about posing. It was a beautiful night here last night in upstate New York, so I took our 4 year old out in our backyard which is a large field.

I wanted to get some nice spring pictures of her. It was such a beautiful night and I’m so glad we did it last night, because today is hot and humid here and I don’t think she would’ve lasted more than 5 minutes

But anyways, what we did was just used a simple green chair, put it in our field and started snapping away. And she had a great time. It’s so important to try and make it fun so they have a fun time. It will show in your pictures.

We had a GREAT session. It was probably about 20-25 minutes long and took some really nice shots. So I just wanted to share a little bit of that session with you.

So, I usually start out by having the child stand behind the chair. If it’s tall grass, I’ll carry them back there and it’s a good idea to leave their shoes on that way the tall grass or any bugs won’t be too distracting. And I’ll have them lean their arms on the back of the chair and then take a few full length shots and then move in for some three quarters and some close up shots.

After this, I’ll remove their shoes and I’ll have them sit on the front of the chair.

I usually like to sit them on the edge of the chair and cross their feet and put their hands on their lap and then maybe have them looking to the side.

I’ll tell them to look over at a certain tree or maybe I’ll say, “Oh, look at that bird over there” and then I’ll get their attention and I’ll do something silly and get a couple of smiles.

This gets them looking right at the camera. Next, I like to turn the chair sideways a little and have the child sit down on the chair. I’ll get a couple of close-ups and then I’ll have them maybe lean their head softly up against the back of the chair and take a few shots like that.

Then hand them a flower and have them turn their position and take a shot of them leaning up against the back of the chair. I also have them gazing out in the distance not looking at the camera.

And, by then they may start getting a little bored, so it’s a good idea to maybe have them stand up on the chair. They love standing on the chair, they just feel so big and so important and of course it has to be a sturdy chair. It’s also a good idea to have the parent standing close by if they’re small or unbalanced that way if they happen to lose their balance, the parents will be right there.

 

Lastly, I’ll turn the chair completely around and I’ll ask them to climb up on the back of the chair, which they’ll be excited to do, because all kids love climbing.  I’ll get some shots of them standing on the chair and also have them hold on to the back of the chair.

I’ll usually get some cute shots like that and then I may ask them if they want to play peek-a-boo and of course they love playing peek-a-boo.

I ask them to duck down and hide and then when I count to three, I tell them to scare me. So they’ll duck down and I’ll say 1, 2, 3 and then they’ll either jump up or peek their little head up and sometimes when they’re first coming up, their eyes are wide and their mouth are wide open.

I’ll get a couple of shots like that but then I’ll have to wait until they come down from that smile and that’s usually your perfect shot. Also when they’re just peeking over the chair, that can be a great shot too.

The big takeaway here is to have a plan before you actually do your session and take lots of shots. You’ll want to write your posing ideas down or print your picture ideas to bring with you.

If you want to use my session pictures as a reference…that’s good to. You can print these pictures I took from this session and use it as a swipe file to follow.

Well I hope you enjoyed this posing guide on posing children. I hope you got a few tips and tricks that you can use at your next session.