photo's in your own home kids

[neyney]

I'm just a new member and hope to make many friends.
I've been asked to take some pics of my cousins children in her home any tips,using Nikon SLR 3100 with no proper lighting?

[Donald]

I'm just a new member and hope to make many friends.
I've been asked to take some pics of my cousins children in her home any tips,using Nikon SLR 3100 with no proper lighting?

Elaine

Welcome to CiC. Glad you've decided to join.

As a quick glance at any of my stuff will show, I'm not a people photographer. However, given what you've written I would have thought a large window with good natural light plus a reflector would be your minimum requirements.

[FrankMi]

I'm just a new member and hope to make many friends.
I've been asked to take some pics of my cousins children in her home any tips,using Nikon SLR 3100 with no proper lighting?

Hi Elaine and welcome to CiC! I shoot with the Nikon D3100 as well. If you are doing portraits without artificial lighting you may be able to substitute window lighting and a reflector for some of the shots. Will the shots be informal or formally posed images?

[neyney]

Thanks ill give it a go , only just started recently getting into photo,s as the camera was a gift.So got loads to learn.

[neyney]

thanks for the welcome and the info .

[Peter Ryan]

Welcome Elaine,

Try to use natural light, candid shots are better than posed but watch the direction and harsness of the light. A bright overcast day is better than bright sunny day as the light is more even and you don't have to worry about shadows. Watch the kids and try to anticipate their reactions to situations.

AND

Have fun.

[Sahil]

Elaine, making friends here would not be a problem here. Just be regular for a week and you will have a long list of good friends.

What age would the kids be? If they would be above 4 years of age, why not shoot them outdoors. I don't really like the idea of clicking kids of that age, indoors. They should be shown in their playful mood, which generally is outside the home.
And what kind of lenses do you have? Any fast lens?
I think with D3100 you can bump up the ISO to 800, without any sweat. Do you have a flash? You can bounce it off the ceiling. And try staying close to a window, as suggested above by other members. Nothing like natural light.

If you are shooting very young kids, have a look at my photostream for some ideas.

[rpcrowe]

Elaine,

I would seriously consider a hotshoe flash as a future purchase. Bouncing a hotshoe flash and using a reflector/diffuser will provide very nice lighting indoors even with slower lenses. I like the Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro: www.dembflashproducts.com but, I understand that there is a U.K. varient available on your side of the pond. I have seen this reflector/diffuser on eBay which "seems" like it pretty well captures the attributes of the Flash Diffuser Pro at a lower price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bounce-Card-...item45fcf5f24b

Nikon distributes some very nice flash units and there are third party units available which are touted to work quite well but are less expensive.

[Squidgy]

Just take lots and lots of pictures Elaine, watch for the light and shadows and take your time. If there is a large window with plenty of light make use of it but turn off the room lights or you may get unwanted colour casts in the pictures. Most important - make sure you focus on the main subjects eyes if its a posed shot. Have fun and good luck, dont forget to post some of your pictures on here too!