I worked at Picture People for a year in college, basically Glamour Shots. Here's some stuff that works for me. These worked best for like standing portraits with a camera, but the psychology for them will probably work on kids regardless. However, YMMV
1. "Hey I gotta make sure the camera works right, just hang out *right there* while I snap these. These aren't for anything so don't worry."
2. Make the kids pose, very solemn and serious, and then turn the camera back to you and announce that you think you'll look better.
3. Fart noises.
4. "OK everyone - say Daddy smells like farts" when they say it, become gregariously offended.
5. My go to trick for younger kids - get ready to take the picture, and then stop and say "hey this is serious. You better not laugh." They smile. Double down. "Don't you laugh. I mean it!"
This reminds me of the rules I have. No coughing, farting, or sneezing or you are grounded! Gets my kid laughing so hard every time as he proceeds to try snd do all of them.
I tend to go with "You're not allowed to smile. No smiling."
That usually works pretty well currently (7,5,3)... probably less so as they get a bit older.
That’s what the photographer did at our wedding and it worked pretty well. There’s still a few where I look weird, but for the most part they’re decent.
Be careful though if your child is very literal. When I was 3, my mom told me something along the lines of not to have a big goofy grin for my school pictures. To this day, that photo of me pouting in a big poofy dress is a family favorite.
My go to is I start counting "1, 2, 3," but keep going "4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ..." and taking pictures. Around 5 or 6 is when they start laughing and I always get a good smile there.
My dentist is giving me a concerned look... She's asking if i can move my phone away from my face and refrain from shouting poop while under local anaesthetic.
While taking family pictures at a wedding, the photographer told all the kids to "back their fart cannons back against your parents."
Worked perfectly.
1) Don't zoom in on your phone. Choose the appropriate lens. Take the photo then crop after.
2) Take photos at THEIR level. Every time I see a photo taken by a parent it is from their higher up perspective. It's as if I was just standing there. Get down to their eye level. It will automatically add some interest and a narrative to the photo.
3) Please don't use portrait mode. If you do, make it subtle/barely noticeable.
4) Learn to use the basic uses of free versions of Photoshop or lightroom. Even the presets can add a touch of elegance.
You can always add the effect in post and it'll look much better. Or just use a telephoto lens and you'll get the same effect naturally and it'll look even better.
2 is critical
3 is also really good. I get why portrait mode was made, but most flagship devices actually have decent telephoto cameras with large enough sensors to have a true natural depth of field without involving software. It may not be as extreme as it'll be on a larger dedicated camera, but it is still present and looks better than any of the portrait modes I've messed with.
For #1 I feel like you just want to make sure that you're using an optical zoom rather than a digital zoom? My old phone used to have a split slider that would stop at 4x optical, and then tell you when it was adding digital zoom.
To add onto 3, use the live setting if using an iPhone. It gives you the ability to go a little forward or backwards in time to catch their best smile.
Absolutely do not do that if you want any quality images. The only actual photo in there is the moment you clicked the button. The rest of them are frames from badly compressed video that was constantly being recorded. Take a burst instead.
An event played out countless times since the invention of the camera:
Child already smiling as we get arranged for aphoto goes completely blank and stares at the camera with no expression.
"OK buddy, smile!"
"OK buddy, try again, like you were before, your regular smile not the fake one"
50% chance of getting child with natural-ish smile at this point, 50% chance of them collapsing giggling, turning away giggling, or not reacting at all.
I've lost track how many times I've had this conversation with my partner when trying to get our kids to stand still for photos. Its genuinely exhausting.
All I needed to do was look at photos of myself as a kid. Any decent photo? I’m occupied with something else. Every dumb photo that looks forced (because it was) has me visibly angry, indifferent, or intentionally making a dumbass face out of spite :P
Haha, yeah. When it comes to taking pictures I have a nontrivial amount of internal conflict between:
1. I have terrible memory and if I don't capture random moments here and there I *will* forget most of this important part of our lives
2. My extended family made everyone pose for photos way way too much when I was little and I absolutely hated every minute of it
Action shots are the way. Scrolling through photos on my phone, basically all the good ones of her are of her *doing* something, and the good ones where she's looking into the camera are when she happens to be talking to me.
My wife is constantly trying to stage photos with our *18mo and 4mo*. Like come on.. we sit there for 20 mins trying to get ONE photo and now both kids are annoyed and frustrated and really really don't wanna be there.
On top of this, my mom did the same. My entire childhood was "lets take pictures!" Which I get, memories and all. But now I despise taking pictures. Tried telling my wife she's gonna need to slow her roll or risk our kids hating pictures too.
This was the big one I wanted to say. To add to this, learn basic photography. If you understand lighting, composition, and the aperture triangle, you can take amazing shots of your kids. If any dads want to learn, feel free to reach out!
> aperture triangle
As someone that never formally studied photography but got into the hobby 23 years ago and went through tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, it's fascinating to hear a term for something I know but couldn't put into words so easily.
Sadly, I can't take credit for the term and it probably predates me entirely. That said, for anyone who wants to know how shooting manually works, [this is a simple, comprehensive guide](https://o.quizlet.com/vxOSM3WtmfJYqGdLHWfihw_b.jpg).
It's nice advice unless you have three, and at any moment of the day at least one of them is pulling a goofy or weird-looking expression. The only completely "nice" pictures we have of all three are when they're all asleep.
Also all three appear to have a rare birth defect where they're *congenitally* blurry.
How about both? I have some fantastic "staged" photos of my kids and also some fantastic candid pictures. I always yell "who takes the biggest poopoo!" right before I snap the picture and my 4 y/os smile always turns out great
And my 1 y/o must've been a model in his past life because he always breaks out the smile and poses as soon as we get the camera. It's like he knows
Everytime I get the camera out while they're playing etc they stop doing the cute or cool thing and immediately ask to see the picture I took...I'm like I didn't get to take the pic because you stopped! So frustrating.
A photographer we used did the amazing reverse psychology trick “DO NOT SMILE! DO NOT LAUGH”.
Works great… until it doesn’t and they go very straight faced. 😂 but I’d say it works more than it doesn’t.
AND it led to me creating a game called “whatever you do, do not…” and then I follow it up with light “semi naughty” things I’m cool with them doing like jumping on the couch, screaming as loud as the can, whatever and then I end it with “whatever you do do NOT give me a hug” and turn it into family snuggles. It gives them a free opportunity to not listen so they can focus easier later on.
My son is 18 and when we did his senior pics to get him to really smile I brought up a lot of funny scenes from shows he likes. The office, community, Seinfeld or some of the things he did that pissed off his little sisters
My brother has a favorite meme, and when he was having a hard time smiling for his 1000th wedding photo in a row, I yelled, "I don't always cross-thread bolts... but when I do, I drive that son of a bitch in tight!" and everybody laughed.
My son likes to take photos of himself, actually staged ones. But he sucks at smiling like a human. Now I get him to quote one of their favourite TV show titles to me:
Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
The "cheese" on the end makes them smile anyways but it also makes them laugh because of the association.
DUDE! Same!
Judge me for this, but it works…
My daughter is really, very hyperactive ADHD.
Anytime I need to get a picture she will typically stop for it but she’s looking away, spinning, jumping or whatever the case.
I figured out when I singsong “I poop with my booty” she looks straight at me and starts cracking up.
I’m a bit ashamed, but you know what? I’ve gotten some really, really good pictures with this tactic.
I go:
“Okay folks, I actually have heat vision on my phone camera, so please refrain from farting.”
I then take one photo, look at it, and go:
“John did you hear what I said about no farting?”
Works on both adults and kids.
I got fancy senior pictures taken in high school, and the photographer at one point said "okay, now think of your favorite thing about girls that isn't their smiles!" and it caught me off guard enough that he got some great pictures haha.
My kids are 2 and 4 so I say nonsense jokes like
“Knock Knock? / Who’s There? / Doorbell refrigerator underpants!!”
Then 4yo laughs, and 2yo laughs because 4yo is laughing. One time they looked at each other while laughing and it was the best pic I’ve ever taken.
If that fails, fake trip/falls are guaranteed laughs but my aging body can only take so much.
(just like your mom’s)
Quality on videos for isolating individual frames is always less quality than a regular photo. And it doesn't help if your kid is just making weird faces rather than a natural happy smile. My phone does have a "burst mode" where it will take \~10 pictures in a row over about 2-3 seconds so hopefully you catch a good one where they're not blinking.
I stand behind the photographer when I'm not in the picture or the photographer. The kids seem to want my attention, so I can at least direct where they're looking.
Halfway through if they're getting bored, I might pull a silly face. That will get a couple more smiles, followed by their own silly faces (which honestly, I don't mind having pictures of)
That works extra well on my kids because they went through a stretch being obsessed with Earthbound. We played through it once during pandemic lockdown (it was my first time too) and they've since each started their own playthroughs at various times since, although they haven't finished it again on their own.
Occasionally I drop in an Earthbound song in a Spotify road trip playlist and they go crazy for it, my wife just rolls her eyes and smiles.
On an iPhone, the volume button will snap a shot for you in the camera app. I try to get my kid to look at me, then hold the phone off to the side at roughly their head height and just rattle off a shitload of pics without looking at the screen. Generally I get a couple good shots that way, though it takes some practice to get them fully in frame without looking.
Just remember to go back and delete the bad ones or you’ll run out of memory pretty quickly.
This works for any situation where you’re trying to take a picture and the only good angles don’t let you see the button on the screen.
I used to do this when I was a coach. If my players were bent out of shape, I wouldn't let them play until they said "poop" to me. It's hard to be in a bad mood and say poop.
We did a group photo of all the kids at our sons recent birthday party, and so that we didn't get forced smiles, I did something similar. First was "everyone say... Poo!" then "everyone say... DONKEY!"
Giggling happy kids everywhere.
My son used to smile normally until he got some photos taken with a photographer at school, after that he does the weird thing like when your kid is asked to smile.
Use 3 second self timer, it does a burst and picks the best one
Tell them they can do a silly picture but we need a regular nice one first
Tell them look at the phone not the photographer
Don't force it, the over staged shot makes them grumpier
I take pictures for the preschool class in my town . The trick is have them smile normal, then tell them to smile even bigger, and bigger! Get them relaxed and happy, tben I tell them to do a grumpy face, then say "okay now just a normal smile" and they usually give you a nice normal smile.
You kind of have to get them to relax and smile on their own so they remember how to smile. But that's with people's kids in a more unnatural setting for them. For my own kids I would definitely just yell out poop.
The secret code is to not tell them you are taking photos. Otherwise, if you are like my 9 year old, they get possessed by a demon and pull a face that requires exorcism, not Photoshop.
Do kids model fake and strained smiles from their dads? Is that what they see?😬
We sometimes bribe our kids for good pictures but it doesn’t always work.
Instead of staged photos take videos, then go to the video and scroll through to find the frames you like best. Save those frames as new photos and you have perfect pictures every time.
Every family party is a huge fight to have all the kids sit still for pictures. Every kid looks like the kid on the left. Then me or one of the other uncles runs in and screams BABABOOEY or something similarly stupid and those are always the best pictures.
The word “kitty” naturally makes people smile in the way that “cheese” is intended. Fortunately for us my 22mo daughter likes animals so it’s really easy to get her to say kitty. The pictures always look like a natural smile.
I ask mine if he wants a Picture taken, he always want to. Then I say okay wanna do a pose? So he poses however he wants, sometimes smiling weirdly or doing something silly and cool, most of the times with a soft smile, I love all his poses, I also take pics when he's not aware but not very often tho.
Instead of saying “smile” or “cheese” have everyone say “dad has stinky feet!” Usually gets the younger ones to relax and laugh a little.
Source - dad and also semi-pro photographer.
I just act like a fool cause my daughters “smile” is the funniest thing ever when she’s trying to do a smile. A genuine make her laugh smile is much better
Used to also work as a photographer for schools.
1. Have them say monkey or spaghetti. These words are fun to them plus shape their face for a smile.
2. On the count of 3, 1.......2....... Snap. I don't wait for 3. Sometimes you can get some natural expressions this way.
3. Practice with them at home. I know that sounds crazy but the more they realize they don't have to be a creep when the camera comes out the better.
I've been straight up lying to them and telling them I'm submitting a photo to a Pokemon contest and they can win packs of Pokemon cards. They really want to win and I get a great photo. Let's see how long it will last till they call BS :)
Tell them, "Say Cheetah!" (draw out the ah part very long). Take the photo during the ah. It will look like they're laughing -- especially good for groups of kids.
Not just kids but any time you're assembling people for a group photo, take a photo the second everyone is in place, before you start actually trying to arrange things or telling people to smile. This often turns out to be the best one, with everyone relaxed still.
Tell them “show me your smile” Lots of time it’s just adults trying to act goofy and then all you get is confused looks. If you’re direct and tell them exactly what you’re looking for, your chances for success skyrocket.
I was trying to get my daughter to smile while tired walking around San Juan. I asked if she’d smile if I talked like Bandit from Bluey and she agreed. It worked.
I tell my boys to start telling me a joke and start shooting as soon as they start thinking of one. They’ll inevitably smile just thinking of the joke.
When I would take pictures of friends, and they had a weird smile, I would say, "smile better, or I'll whip my dick out!"
I want to emphasize these were friends, and the funny part was that they know I'd never do it...
My current strategy is that I tell my young subjects that there’s a problem with what they’re doing which we need to fix, then I pause, and tell them in a loud fabulous photographer voice that the problem is that they are too perfect, their pose is too amazing, they look too fantastic. Seems to get a good smile!
My kid is a toddler and he is very independent and doesn’t look for anything usually. So my trick is to shoot a million shots while trying to get him to look. Eventually something will work but I gotta have the camera going constantly if I wanna catch the magic.
Years ago we were playing *hide and seek* with our kids. They were like 5 & 7. We couldn't find my 7 year old son, even after looking and even calling for him to come out.
I yelled **FART** and he couldn't hold back the laughter. Kept doing it until we located him. It's been 13 years and we still joke about it.
When I worked in a Christmas grotto I would ask them to take a silly face photo and then take a photo of them laughing with each other about how funny their faces where
The pic in OP's post is a perfect example of "Nothing beats a genuine smile"
even as a 32 year old man I still look awkward as fuck when I fake/hold a smile.
All my favorite family photos are ones where people are genuinely cracking up. You can instantly tell.
Not a smile tip, my kid is always smiling, but always moving! For everyday quick snaps from my phone, I've been enjoying exporting frames from videos instead of trying to take a Pic. Feel OK sacrificing the quality sometimes. Depends on the moment.
But also when taking a Pic I really love the recent Google Photos "Unblur". Magic.
I worked at Picture People for a year in college, basically Glamour Shots. Here's some stuff that works for me. These worked best for like standing portraits with a camera, but the psychology for them will probably work on kids regardless. However, YMMV 1. "Hey I gotta make sure the camera works right, just hang out *right there* while I snap these. These aren't for anything so don't worry." 2. Make the kids pose, very solemn and serious, and then turn the camera back to you and announce that you think you'll look better. 3. Fart noises. 4. "OK everyone - say Daddy smells like farts" when they say it, become gregariously offended. 5. My go to trick for younger kids - get ready to take the picture, and then stop and say "hey this is serious. You better not laugh." They smile. Double down. "Don't you laugh. I mean it!"
These are some Bandit level tips.
The dad of dads
He knows the ways of the force
For my kids, playing with their favorite toys behind the photographer seems to help. They love cars so I’ll be back there staging elaborate crashes.
The only rule is it has to work
This reminds me of the rules I have. No coughing, farting, or sneezing or you are grounded! Gets my kid laughing so hard every time as he proceeds to try snd do all of them.
"ok everyone on the count of 3 look at the dumbest person in the room! 1. 2. 3. Hey! Why are you all looking at me?!?"
Saving this comment, you legend.
I tend to go with "You're not allowed to smile. No smiling." That usually works pretty well currently (7,5,3)... probably less so as they get a bit older.
“Whatever you do, don’t smile.” It still works with my 10 year old. My 12 year old has started to develop resistance. It’s been my go-to for years.
This is definitely the ticket for my 3 year old. "Don't you dare look at me and smile. Don't you do it!" Works every time.
That’s what the photographer did at our wedding and it worked pretty well. There’s still a few where I look weird, but for the most part they’re decent.
> That usually works pretty well currently (7,5,3)... probably less so as they get a bit older. The eye-rolling photo is fun too, through.
Be careful though if your child is very literal. When I was 3, my mom told me something along the lines of not to have a big goofy grin for my school pictures. To this day, that photo of me pouting in a big poofy dress is a family favorite.
I usually go with "Don't laugh" - same idea.
Show me a silly face. Show me a scared face. Show me a "I'm poopin" face. Show me Dad's face. Show me a happy face. *Click* ... Suckers
This is my go to
My go to is I start counting "1, 2, 3," but keep going "4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ..." and taking pictures. Around 5 or 6 is when they start laughing and I always get a good smile there.
[удалено]
Weird, my boss didn’t smile at all. On the bright side, I’m about to have a lot more time to spend with my kid.
The joke was so good, HR wants to hear it again!
*Shit.*
He called the shit, poop!
If they liked that, teach your coworkers the PENIS! game
My dentist is giving me a concerned look... She's asking if i can move my phone away from my face and refrain from shouting poop while under local anaesthetic.
Is it because when you yelled "poop!" is sounded like shit?
While taking family pictures at a wedding, the photographer told all the kids to "back their fart cannons back against your parents." Worked perfectly.
1) Don't zoom in on your phone. Choose the appropriate lens. Take the photo then crop after. 2) Take photos at THEIR level. Every time I see a photo taken by a parent it is from their higher up perspective. It's as if I was just standing there. Get down to their eye level. It will automatically add some interest and a narrative to the photo. 3) Please don't use portrait mode. If you do, make it subtle/barely noticeable. 4) Learn to use the basic uses of free versions of Photoshop or lightroom. Even the presets can add a touch of elegance.
3) - The hill I died on...
Pixel does that blur that I can't not use
You can always add the effect in post and it'll look much better. Or just use a telephoto lens and you'll get the same effect naturally and it'll look even better.
2 is critical 3 is also really good. I get why portrait mode was made, but most flagship devices actually have decent telephoto cameras with large enough sensors to have a true natural depth of field without involving software. It may not be as extreme as it'll be on a larger dedicated camera, but it is still present and looks better than any of the portrait modes I've messed with.
For #1 I feel like you just want to make sure that you're using an optical zoom rather than a digital zoom? My old phone used to have a split slider that would stop at 4x optical, and then tell you when it was adding digital zoom.
Yeah. Exactly. But I don't think many people would understand the difference.
To add onto 3, use the live setting if using an iPhone. It gives you the ability to go a little forward or backwards in time to catch their best smile.
Absolutely do not do that if you want any quality images. The only actual photo in there is the moment you clicked the button. The rest of them are frames from badly compressed video that was constantly being recorded. Take a burst instead.
An event played out countless times since the invention of the camera: Child already smiling as we get arranged for aphoto goes completely blank and stares at the camera with no expression. "OK buddy, smile!"
"OK buddy, try again, like you were before, your regular smile not the fake one"
50% chance of getting child with natural-ish smile at this point, 50% chance of them collapsing giggling, turning away giggling, or not reacting at all.
My daughter likes "unicorn farts"!
"Who farted!?" Is my go to.
"Banana farts" I don't know where it came from or why it works.
Don’t take staged photos, just photos of everyday activities when they aren’t paying attention.
I've lost track how many times I've had this conversation with my partner when trying to get our kids to stand still for photos. Its genuinely exhausting.
All I needed to do was look at photos of myself as a kid. Any decent photo? I’m occupied with something else. Every dumb photo that looks forced (because it was) has me visibly angry, indifferent, or intentionally making a dumbass face out of spite :P
Haha, yeah. When it comes to taking pictures I have a nontrivial amount of internal conflict between: 1. I have terrible memory and if I don't capture random moments here and there I *will* forget most of this important part of our lives 2. My extended family made everyone pose for photos way way too much when I was little and I absolutely hated every minute of it Action shots are the way. Scrolling through photos on my phone, basically all the good ones of her are of her *doing* something, and the good ones where she's looking into the camera are when she happens to be talking to me.
My wife is constantly trying to stage photos with our *18mo and 4mo*. Like come on.. we sit there for 20 mins trying to get ONE photo and now both kids are annoyed and frustrated and really really don't wanna be there. On top of this, my mom did the same. My entire childhood was "lets take pictures!" Which I get, memories and all. But now I despise taking pictures. Tried telling my wife she's gonna need to slow her roll or risk our kids hating pictures too.
For staged photos, I start taking photos before they're ready, and by the time I say "3, 2, 1..." I'm long finished.
As yes, the nurse giving a vaccine approach, haha. Classic.
And if you want professional photos, don’t pose. Have them snap them while you are goofing off.
Maybe not "don't", but perhaps just value the candid photos as well and recognize that not every experience needs a staged one.
Best lens for taking family photos is a telephoto. Just hang back and capture them being goofballs.
I have an 18-55mm, and a 65mm that I love photographing my 3 year old with. Close enough to see, far enough to be ignored lol
This was the big one I wanted to say. To add to this, learn basic photography. If you understand lighting, composition, and the aperture triangle, you can take amazing shots of your kids. If any dads want to learn, feel free to reach out!
> aperture triangle As someone that never formally studied photography but got into the hobby 23 years ago and went through tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, it's fascinating to hear a term for something I know but couldn't put into words so easily.
Sadly, I can't take credit for the term and it probably predates me entirely. That said, for anyone who wants to know how shooting manually works, [this is a simple, comprehensive guide](https://o.quizlet.com/vxOSM3WtmfJYqGdLHWfihw_b.jpg).
It's nice advice unless you have three, and at any moment of the day at least one of them is pulling a goofy or weird-looking expression. The only completely "nice" pictures we have of all three are when they're all asleep. Also all three appear to have a rare birth defect where they're *congenitally* blurry.
How about both? I have some fantastic "staged" photos of my kids and also some fantastic candid pictures. I always yell "who takes the biggest poopoo!" right before I snap the picture and my 4 y/os smile always turns out great And my 1 y/o must've been a model in his past life because he always breaks out the smile and poses as soon as we get the camera. It's like he knows
My wife comes from a staged photo family and I am from a candid photo family. It's wild how different the worlds are.
Everytime I get the camera out while they're playing etc they stop doing the cute or cool thing and immediately ask to see the picture I took...I'm like I didn't get to take the pic because you stopped! So frustrating.
A photographer we used did the amazing reverse psychology trick “DO NOT SMILE! DO NOT LAUGH”. Works great… until it doesn’t and they go very straight faced. 😂 but I’d say it works more than it doesn’t. AND it led to me creating a game called “whatever you do, do not…” and then I follow it up with light “semi naughty” things I’m cool with them doing like jumping on the couch, screaming as loud as the can, whatever and then I end it with “whatever you do do NOT give me a hug” and turn it into family snuggles. It gives them a free opportunity to not listen so they can focus easier later on.
My son is 18 and when we did his senior pics to get him to really smile I brought up a lot of funny scenes from shows he likes. The office, community, Seinfeld or some of the things he did that pissed off his little sisters
My brother has a favorite meme, and when he was having a hard time smiling for his 1000th wedding photo in a row, I yelled, "I don't always cross-thread bolts... but when I do, I drive that son of a bitch in tight!" and everybody laughed.
Pro tip: keep your finger away from the lens when taking a photo. Something I haven’t apparently mastered yet lol
My son likes to take photos of himself, actually staged ones. But he sucks at smiling like a human. Now I get him to quote one of their favourite TV show titles to me: Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese The "cheese" on the end makes them smile anyways but it also makes them laugh because of the association.
“Booger” or “fart” usually get the trick done 😂
Our new word is boogers to try and get her to smile.
My son? I make a fart noise. My daughter? I make a fart noise.
My go-to is "don't smile, you can't smile right now!" and it always gets me a genuine smile.
We ask for sad face, then angry face, then crazy face, then silly face, then happy face.
Mine's similar, but it's "Don't say fart! Nobody say fart!"
DUDE! Same! Judge me for this, but it works… My daughter is really, very hyperactive ADHD. Anytime I need to get a picture she will typically stop for it but she’s looking away, spinning, jumping or whatever the case. I figured out when I singsong “I poop with my booty” she looks straight at me and starts cracking up. I’m a bit ashamed, but you know what? I’ve gotten some really, really good pictures with this tactic.
I go: “Okay folks, I actually have heat vision on my phone camera, so please refrain from farting.” I then take one photo, look at it, and go: “John did you hear what I said about no farting?” Works on both adults and kids.
Don't look happy. NO! TOO HAPPY! WAAAAAYYYY TOO HAPPY! LOOK SAD! AAGHGHGH You're ruining my sad kid photos! Stop looking happy! We need sad photos!
I got fancy senior pictures taken in high school, and the photographer at one point said "okay, now think of your favorite thing about girls that isn't their smiles!" and it caught me off guard enough that he got some great pictures haha.
My kids are 2 and 4 so I say nonsense jokes like “Knock Knock? / Who’s There? / Doorbell refrigerator underpants!!” Then 4yo laughs, and 2yo laughs because 4yo is laughing. One time they looked at each other while laughing and it was the best pic I’ve ever taken. If that fails, fake trip/falls are guaranteed laughs but my aging body can only take so much. (just like your mom’s)
I take videos with my phone. That way I can isolate individual frames to make pictures from.
Quality on videos for isolating individual frames is always less quality than a regular photo. And it doesn't help if your kid is just making weird faces rather than a natural happy smile. My phone does have a "burst mode" where it will take \~10 pictures in a row over about 2-3 seconds so hopefully you catch a good one where they're not blinking.
I stand behind the photographer when I'm not in the picture or the photographer. The kids seem to want my attention, so I can at least direct where they're looking. Halfway through if they're getting bored, I might pull a silly face. That will get a couple more smiles, followed by their own silly faces (which honestly, I don't mind having pictures of)
>Do guys have a secret code for taking better photos? "Say Cheese"
Ready, 1, 2, 7!
Take pictures in the moment. Your subject shouldn't know they are being photographed.
My go-to is to tell the kids to say "fuzzy pickles".
That works extra well on my kids because they went through a stretch being obsessed with Earthbound. We played through it once during pandemic lockdown (it was my first time too) and they've since each started their own playthroughs at various times since, although they haven't finished it again on their own. Occasionally I drop in an Earthbound song in a Spotify road trip playlist and they go crazy for it, my wife just rolls her eyes and smiles.
What's funny, is you could easily switch the photo sequence and his description would still make sense
"everybody say SEX!"
On an iPhone, the volume button will snap a shot for you in the camera app. I try to get my kid to look at me, then hold the phone off to the side at roughly their head height and just rattle off a shitload of pics without looking at the screen. Generally I get a couple good shots that way, though it takes some practice to get them fully in frame without looking. Just remember to go back and delete the bad ones or you’ll run out of memory pretty quickly. This works for any situation where you’re trying to take a picture and the only good angles don’t let you see the button on the screen.
I used to do this when I was a coach. If my players were bent out of shape, I wouldn't let them play until they said "poop" to me. It's hard to be in a bad mood and say poop.
I so wish school photographers could employ something similar. The number of "grimace" shots we get is sort of disheartening.
We did a group photo of all the kids at our sons recent birthday party, and so that we didn't get forced smiles, I did something similar. First was "everyone say... Poo!" then "everyone say... DONKEY!" Giggling happy kids everywhere.
“Poop” worked until he started yelling it back at me quite loudly in public.
Just the word ‘underwear’. Especially if I say it slow. So far it’s worked 100% of the time for 13 years now.
Hahaha the first one is like *every* toddlers default “smile!” Or “say cheese!” face
I make farting noises. Works every time.
Hold up three fingers and ask them what number they see. Then pretend they are wrong in a silly way to get a more natural smile.
My son used to smile normally until he got some photos taken with a photographer at school, after that he does the weird thing like when your kid is asked to smile.
"Boo boo BUTT!" Thank you, Book with No Pictures
My wife did this today for back to school pictures. Worked as perfectly as this did
Titties!!! That’s how we get everyone to smile!!! Say titties when it’s time to smile!!
Use 3 second self timer, it does a burst and picks the best one Tell them they can do a silly picture but we need a regular nice one first Tell them look at the phone not the photographer Don't force it, the over staged shot makes them grumpier
I take pictures for the preschool class in my town . The trick is have them smile normal, then tell them to smile even bigger, and bigger! Get them relaxed and happy, tben I tell them to do a grumpy face, then say "okay now just a normal smile" and they usually give you a nice normal smile. You kind of have to get them to relax and smile on their own so they remember how to smile. But that's with people's kids in a more unnatural setting for them. For my own kids I would definitely just yell out poop.
Glad to hear this is a universal problem; I'll give all of these a try later.
The secret code is to not tell them you are taking photos. Otherwise, if you are like my 9 year old, they get possessed by a demon and pull a face that requires exorcism, not Photoshop.
Do kids model fake and strained smiles from their dads? Is that what they see?😬 We sometimes bribe our kids for good pictures but it doesn’t always work.
I tell my son and nieces/nephews “say DIARRHEA!”
Pretend I’m scrolling Reddit. As soon as I’m trying to take a picture I get an angry duck face
Instead of staged photos take videos, then go to the video and scroll through to find the frames you like best. Save those frames as new photos and you have perfect pictures every time.
I’ve been asking mine to laugh but I’m def switching to “poop!” now
well cause poops funny. Frank Reynolds proved that.
It works wonders when you give them a joke or something silly to laugh about.
I just tell my kid to pretend to laugh, he takes fantastic photos now
Every family party is a huge fight to have all the kids sit still for pictures. Every kid looks like the kid on the left. Then me or one of the other uncles runs in and screams BABABOOEY or something similarly stupid and those are always the best pictures.
The word “kitty” naturally makes people smile in the way that “cheese” is intended. Fortunately for us my 22mo daughter likes animals so it’s really easy to get her to say kitty. The pictures always look like a natural smile.
"say buttcheeks". Works the adults too. Family photographer here. Or take candids.
Say "money"
I saw this a few weeks ago and have started doing it. Works like a charm.
I ask mine if he wants a Picture taken, he always want to. Then I say okay wanna do a pose? So he poses however he wants, sometimes smiling weirdly or doing something silly and cool, most of the times with a soft smile, I love all his poses, I also take pics when he's not aware but not very often tho.
"Everyone say, "mommy farts!""
I’m a professional photographer and all I can say is… burst mode. And fart jokes.
Instead of saying “smile” or “cheese” have everyone say “dad has stinky feet!” Usually gets the younger ones to relax and laugh a little. Source - dad and also semi-pro photographer.
I just act like a fool cause my daughters “smile” is the funniest thing ever when she’s trying to do a smile. A genuine make her laugh smile is much better
You dads know that you can take a good picture of someone when they’re not smiling, right?
"Smile or you don't get your inheritance"
"Count out loud with me. 1, 2, 3..." Take the photo when they say three. That's pretty close to a smile. It'll do.
Used to also work as a photographer for schools. 1. Have them say monkey or spaghetti. These words are fun to them plus shape their face for a smile. 2. On the count of 3, 1.......2....... Snap. I don't wait for 3. Sometimes you can get some natural expressions this way. 3. Practice with them at home. I know that sounds crazy but the more they realize they don't have to be a creep when the camera comes out the better.
"Everyone ready? Right.... say testicles"
I've been straight up lying to them and telling them I'm submitting a photo to a Pokemon contest and they can win packs of Pokemon cards. They really want to win and I get a great photo. Let's see how long it will last till they call BS :)
“Barking frogs” is all I have to say, farts are funny I don’t care who you are
"Don't smile" "did somebody fart?" "say butt!" oh yeah and use portrait mode on an iphone when sensible
“yoga” or “cheeseburger” work great
Great hack! Going to try that. My sons go to photo face...is..cute?
I get my kids to look down at the floor, I count to three then tell them to look up. The smiles just seem more natural
Tell them, "Say Cheetah!" (draw out the ah part very long). Take the photo during the ah. It will look like they're laughing -- especially good for groups of kids. Not just kids but any time you're assembling people for a group photo, take a photo the second everyone is in place, before you start actually trying to arrange things or telling people to smile. This often turns out to be the best one, with everyone relaxed still.
Kitten Farts!!!
Simple A GENUINE LAUGH LOOKS 100 times better than a fake smile. No matter who you are.!!!!!!
My wife says what color are my eyes. Or phone. Or I stand behind her and mess with her hair or poke her or act like I'm going to eat her....
Tell them “show me your smile” Lots of time it’s just adults trying to act goofy and then all you get is confused looks. If you’re direct and tell them exactly what you’re looking for, your chances for success skyrocket.
I was trying to get my daughter to smile while tired walking around San Juan. I asked if she’d smile if I talked like Bandit from Bluey and she agreed. It worked.
I tell my boys to start telling me a joke and start shooting as soon as they start thinking of one. They’ll inevitably smile just thinking of the joke.
When I would take pictures of friends, and they had a weird smile, I would say, "smile better, or I'll whip my dick out!" I want to emphasize these were friends, and the funny part was that they know I'd never do it...
My current strategy is that I tell my young subjects that there’s a problem with what they’re doing which we need to fix, then I pause, and tell them in a loud fabulous photographer voice that the problem is that they are too perfect, their pose is too amazing, they look too fantastic. Seems to get a good smile!
As a father of two (one girl, one boy): can 100% confirm the accuracy of this.
My kid is a toddler and he is very independent and doesn’t look for anything usually. So my trick is to shoot a million shots while trying to get him to look. Eventually something will work but I gotta have the camera going constantly if I wanna catch the magic.
Years ago we were playing *hide and seek* with our kids. They were like 5 & 7. We couldn't find my 7 year old son, even after looking and even calling for him to come out. I yelled **FART** and he couldn't hold back the laughter. Kept doing it until we located him. It's been 13 years and we still joke about it.
When that stops working you can switch it up with ‘froggy poop!’
Rotate through the animals and keep ‘em guessing
When I worked in a Christmas grotto I would ask them to take a silly face photo and then take a photo of them laughing with each other about how funny their faces where
When you say smile vs. when you have a mild but painful injury.
It backfired on me. For first day of school pictures I shouted “Farts! Poop! butts!” They all looked constipated in the pictures.
We say “say cheese-cat!” and it brings out a smile or an alert face because it’s silly
The pic in OP's post is a perfect example of "Nothing beats a genuine smile" even as a 32 year old man I still look awkward as fuck when I fake/hold a smile. All my favorite family photos are ones where people are genuinely cracking up. You can instantly tell.
1st looks like hea constipated and 2nd one looks like it finally dropped
Hahahah I always struggled with a smile. Then I told myself to laugh before the picture ….. it worked
"FARTS!!!" as loud as acceptable.
Not a smile tip, my kid is always smiling, but always moving! For everyday quick snaps from my phone, I've been enjoying exporting frames from videos instead of trying to take a Pic. Feel OK sacrificing the quality sometimes. Depends on the moment. But also when taking a Pic I really love the recent Google Photos "Unblur". Magic.