The Posing Playbook for Photographing Kids

Shoot 11

For this portrait, I started out by changing some of the momentum of the session we’d been shooting. We had just finished photographing a number of fun, high-energy shots in a row, and I wanted to shift the feel of the images for a couple of scenes—to move from upbeat shots to some that were more subdued and softer in expression.

We were shooting these images in a wide-open studio space that we’d rented for a series of commercial shoots, creating a smaller studio set within the overall space. This hand-painted background was evenly lit by four Westcott Flex daylight-balanced constant lights. In addition, I used a pop of fill flash from my Nikon SB-5000.

I sat down on the stool first, demonstrating for her the exact pose I wanted to start ...