Tips for a DIY Home Photo Shoot with Your Kids

I'm all for going to an actual portrait photographer for portraits -- let me say that up front. Even though I have officially closed the portrait part of my business last year, I feel like I would be remiss if I don't say that upfront.

Anyway -- if you would like to, however, try to do some portraits at home, let me give some backdrop ideas. Because, darn it -- you know what it's like, don't you? You get the most adorable picture of little Sarah. Her eyes are twinkling, her smile is shining -- but her lunch plate with a smattering of hot dog pieces can be seen in the background. Augh! It's things like that that can really take away from a picture.

And, it doesn't even have to be something so extreme. It can be a cluttered counter (like at my house!), a chair that clashes with her outfit...whatever. There are a lot of things going on in our houses, and they are not condusive to picture taking.

I started out trying to just use a cream colored flannel king size bed sheet. I will tell you that all though it wasn't the best, it did work okay. But, even better was when I picked up a king size black vellux blanket from JC Penney's (on sale, I was able to get it for $30) and a several yard piece of pink fleece from Walmart. These both made wonderful backdrops before I started buying backdrops that were actually made for photographers. (And, even then, I still sometimes used those!) You don't even need fancy equipment to hold them up -- when I first started practicing on my kids several years ago, I would tape backdrops to door frames, ledges, etc.

Now -- here's the next part of this tip -- try to get your little one to sit/stand at least a few FEET away from the backdrop. Trust me on this -- it *will* look better. Now, I will admit, I have done as little as a foot in front of it before, but I really would not do any closer. The farther away, the better.

Okay, so those are the home photo shoot tips for now. Oh, but here is a quickie that was fun for us. If home doesn't work -- go outside! But, here's the kicker -- if you have more than one child, only take one of them at a time. One summer I took one of my boys out for a few hours of pictures on a local college campus. It was just me and him. Those are still some of my favorite pictures of him, and he still remembers it too!