How to Take Great Photos of Your Kids

CBN.com KRISTI: OK, Jerry, No matter how hard I try, I take a horrible picture or I have to take twenty pictures to have one good picture. What's the secret to taking a good picture, especially of kids?

JERRY: The secret with kids is to keep a camera around the house and keep film in it. There are magic moments when they are at the table and they have got their faces full of food, when they are asleep on the couch with their dad, or when they are playing with leaves in the yard. You know just those moments and so take a lot of pictures. If you just shoot one shot and that's it; that's all you are going to get. Through their childhood you need to be capturing their personality. Don't make it just a moment where its just a click and you are gone. Follow them.

Capturing those special moments with your kids or your grandchildren can sometimes be challenging, but with a few simple techniques you can take pictures that you'll want to share with everyone.

KRISTI: How do you keep a posed picture from looking so posed?

JERRY: That's a question that everybody has. When you pose somebody they pose like a tin soldier, and even when they sit down, they look like a tin soldier sitting. If they put a child in their lap, all of a sudden, you have a totem pole. What I suggest is to turn the people just slightly, and when they are sitting, sit the child across their lap.

KRISTI: Good point. Speaking of the child, how do you keep the child's attention when you are taking that picture and they are looking left and right and everywhere else?

JERRY: Actually you don't want their attention; you want to distract them like a magician distracts them from something. You don't want them thinking about the camera. You want them to be happy. You can use a favorite toy of theirs to get their attention. The other thing you can do is give them a book to read. You can give them a distraction, a ball, something to play with that makes a great shot.

Great weather means outdoor pictures. Don't ruin that sunny day with bad pictures. Here are a couple of tips you will want to know before you go.

KRISTI: I love taking pictures outside, but I never know whether I should put the person in the sunlight, or in the shade, or in half and half. What do I do?

JERRY: Lighting is very important outdoors. When I was a little boy, before we could change out of our Sunday clothes, we had to stand and squint into the sunlight. Direct sunlight is the worst light for people because it's too harsh. Most people do it that way. Shade is much better. Stand your subjects in the shade. Be careful not to use dappled shade.

KRISTI: What is dappled shade?

JERRY: You want to use solid shade. If there are little bits of sunlight coming through the leaves, it looks good to the eye, but you get the pictures back and the film is harsher than your eye. So you want to make sure you have solid shade. You might even turn the flash on just for a little sparkle in the shot.

KRISTI: Jerry, I love gadgets, especially on cameras. This is my camera. The lens zooms in and it zooms out. What does it do?

JERRY: The long lens is what portrait and fashion photographers use to photograph people. It makes people look their best. When the lens is long [telephoto], it compresses you. When it is wide [wide angle], it makes you look fatter.

KRISTI: So when the lens is out, it makes you look thinner?

JERRY: The wide-angle lens makes you look wider; the telephoto lens makes you look thinner. If you have a zoom lens you have a telephoto lens. Most people think, 'No, it's a zoom.' Zoom out and it's telephoto. Zoom back and it's wide angle.

KRISTI: For safe purposes, let's just always keep it out. It makes you look thin, Jerry.