Photography Tips for Gorgeous Girls

At ilovegorgeous we love holiday pictures, and half term week provides the ideal opportunity for your gorgeous girls to take lots of snaps of their outdoor adventures!

Helen Rose is a professional baby, child, family lifestyle and childrens’ fashion photographer.  

You can see her fantastic photographs in the online Summer '12 edition of Babiekins magazine, where she photographed some of the ilovegorgeous collection. She also offers one-on-one photography tuition to adults and children at home.

We asked Helen for her top photography tips to help your gorgeous girls take the perfect holiday pictures:

Keep your lens clean and clear

Watch out that you don’t put anything in front of the lens of the camera like your fingers or thumb or that your hair doesn’t blow in front of it in the wind.  It may be a good idea to tie up your hair or wear a hat for this reason, especially if you are pointing the camera down to the ground as you don’t want your hair falling in front of it. Also, it’s good to always remember to keep the camera steady, if you move whilst taking the photograph your picture may end up blurred

Move in closer

If you spot something nice to photograph, snap a picture and then try moving in closer too to get a better shot. Sometimes the details on things like the leaves on a tree or bark on a tree can be really interesting so don’t be scared about getting even closer and take a few more photographs to experiment and capture it.

Find your light – photographing people or animals

Look at where the sun is when you are taking your photograph, as it can sometimes be far too bright if you take a photograph pointing into the sun. It is often best when taking photographs outside on a sunny day to have the sun behind you, so that it can light up whomever you are photographing better. If it is cloudy weather you do not have to worry about this too much. Also try turning your camera on its side to create a different shaped shot.  Remember, never point your camera directly into the sun, as it can hurt your eyes.

Move your camera with a moving subject – photographing people or animals

If you are photographing something that is moving (such as a squirrel or a dog running), you don’t want it to be a blur in your photograph. A good trick is to ‘pan’ or ‘follow’ the animal with your camera so that you can see it in the middle of your picture as you are taking it. This makes sure that the animal or person will be sharp and in focus whilst the rest of the background is blurry where you have moved the camera. Don’t forget to be quick and try taking more than one photograph, as the more you take, the better chance of getting a good one.

Keep your landscapes straight

When taking a nice landscape photograph of the sea for example, try to make sure you keep your camera straight so that the ‘horizon’ or where the water and sky meet doesn’t look wonky and like it’s flowing downhill. It’s also a good idea to not have the horizon exactly in the middle of your photograph, try moving the camera slightly to either get a little more sky or a little more sea in the photograph.

(In photography, this is called the rule of thirds = two thirds of photograph is sky and one third water or one third sky and two thirds water – ask an adult to explain what this means if you don’t understand.)

Be patient

Taking photos on a digital camera is brilliant as you can keep trying out different angles and ideas to see which you like the best and you can see your pictures straight away on the camera too!

When trying things out it is also good to get other peoples opinions on your photographs as it can give you other ideas to try out.

It’s okay not to have the perfect photograph first time, so be patient with yourself and developing your skills.

Don’t be afraid of getting close up, moving further back, getting down low or up high or even waiting for another day when the weather is a bit nicer, but most of all have fun, keep snapping and enjoy doing it!

Helen Rose is offering a special 20% discount to all ilovegorgeous customers off her one-to-one tuition workshops.*

Her workshops originated in helping out busy mums, but they are now and open to all.  We think they would make the perfect present for someone, or a gorgeous treat for yourself! Simply mention ilovegorgeous upon booking.   You can find out more about Helen and contact her through her form on her website www.helenroselifestyle.com.

We would love to see your gorgeous girls' photos of their outdoor adventures over half term! 

Email them to us at offers@ilovegorgeous.co.uk with the subject line 'Photo Competition' or post them on our Facebook page and we will pick our favourite shot to be made into a gorgeous canvas print for your girl to hang on her wall!

Don't forget you can get 20% off our cosy clothing for half term until Monday 22nd October too when you quote code HHH20!**

*offer applies to Helen’s normal tuition price; £150 for an evening (2 hr) session or £200 for a morning/afternoon (3.5 hr) session.  Offer ends 31^st December 2012, workshops must be redeemed by 28^th February 2013.

**offer excludes bridesmaids dresses, communion shoes and accessories.