Photography at childrens parties

I found a great article over at the Digital Photography School website about photographing childrens birthday parties. My reason for looking for advice was that I was due to be the ‘official’ photographer at a friends son’s birthday recently and as such wanted to get some tips on how best to approach the day.

The party was being held in a local hall and about 20-25 kids were due to attend. I got there early and was equipped with my new Nikon D200 and copious amounts of compact flash cards ready to shoot in burst mode for the next few hours, aiming to capture the festivities, laughter and games the kids would be no doubt enjoying.

My only problem was that being in a hall, on a day when the sun wasn’t guaranteed, the lighting was going to be an issue. I prefer to shoot with available light so this meant either Tungsten light or tube lighting. It was tube lighting but the windows in the hall were big so when the sun did shine at the right angle, it did cast some really lovely reflected light off the walls and the floor.

Setting higher film speeds

The light, though quite atmospheric was far to weak alone, also as the day moved on I found that the movement of these 5-8 year olds was just too fast to capture on such a slow ISO. As with my preference for available light over flash lighting, I also have a preference for fine grain in Portraits especially. This really wasn’t going to work, the combination of movement, ISO and lighting meant something had to give. I decided to ramp up the ISO rating on the camera to 1600. This was the only way I was going to be able to capture the kids at play, without the distraction of a flash going off 5 times per second and be able to get a credible amount of usable shots. The compromise meant that most of the images were indeed quite grainy.

I was playing a numbers game at the end of it. I shot a full 1GB of images in about 2 hours (around 250 images). Of this I estimate about 25% are usable, however my personal preferences made it hard for me to choose even 5 that I really like. The one above, shot very early on in the day is perhaps my favourite.

Related Posts

• Charity photography always pays dividends in the end
  During the Autumn half term, I became aware of a childrens [tag]playscheme[/tag] that was running for a week in a local church hall so I volunteered to go along for a day and document the activities. Though I don't see myself as a specialist [tag]charity photographer[/tag] it seemed like a good opportunity to make some new work, and provide assistance to a local organisation trying to provide for kids at a loose end for a...
• Why I love Portrait Photography
  Portrait photography is what I love doing. A portrait photography commission, whether in a studio or on location, allows both the commissioner or the portrait and me as the artist to explore different facets of your personality and sometimes of your identity. It does not matter whether you are completely outgoing, or a little apprehensive, the point is, once you are comfortable with the artist you will relax and you will be amazed at the...
• Why I Went To Photography School
  I went to photography school for a reason. It's not that I couldn't take photographs, I taught myself how to do that. I really went to photography school so that I could learn about photography. Sounds obvious? Actually it isn't When I got into photography I was about 16 years old. It was something I thought I would enjoy and I was right. I bought my first manual SLR camera, made by Ricoh, second hand...
• Dispel the myths about documentary photography
  I just finished editing a photography show about a UK gospel choir who this year celebrate 13 years in the music industry. Using the images taken over the years, we were able to build a visual history of the life of the group from 1994 to 2007. Although most of the images were taken, not as documentary, but as a combination of promotional, live event and portrait photographs, along with my co-editor, we found enough...
• Photography Laws, Copyright and Trespass
  Photographers need to know where we stand in relation to copyright and trespass laws. It isn't that there are specific photography laws or regulations covering photography. UK law operates more on the basis of what you are not allowed to do, rather than enshrining rights in a constitution. Truth is there is little in the way of photography restrictions enshrine in law when it comes to photography in a public place. As a rule of...