P#14 Q3: How Can I Get Some Great Candid Photos at My Child's Birthday Party?

The Lens Matters

Vik Orenstein: Candid photos are some of my favorite shots to tack. My first suggestion would be to use a midrange zoom or a long zoom so that you can shoot unobserved.

If I were shooting a birthday party, I would use my 18-200mm zoom. I would probably be staying at the longer focal length, at 200mm, and I would be across the room from the child. I would be very far away but the child would still fill up a lot of the frame.

Toilet Paper and Speedlights

Vik Orenstein: I really hate flash. If, however, you must absolutely use flash then put a sheet of toilet paper over it or use a Speedlight and bounce the light off the wall or the ceiling. This will provide you with a much better result.

Get Up and Move

I think the most important thing with birthday parties is to get different perspectives and move around a lot instead of just sitting at the table.

When the child is blowing out the candles, stand up on a chair and shoot down so you can get the child's face and the cake. When the child is opening presents, shoot low.

I've even been known to make a fool out of myself and lie down on the floor and shoot straight up at the child so that we can get the gift wrapping and the presents in the foreground and the child in the background.

You want to move around a lot. Don't ever sit down. Keep moving.

The Best Shots

Audri Lanford: In addition to cake and presents, what else do you suggest they photograph during a party?

Vik Orenstein: At birthday parties there are usually activities -- games, swimming, something like that. That's the really great opportunity because you can get the kids interacting.

If you're there and just moving around and you always have that camera in your face, they completely forget about you. Then you have really great opportunities to catch those candid photos.

The Perfect Number

Audri Lanford: Do you typically photograph one child at a time or do you photograph several interacting, or both?

Vik Orenstein: I like to do both. I notice amateurs probably, the biggest mistake is to try to shoot all the kids or get too many kids in the frame. You want to capture a single moment.

A single moment can occur between two or three or even four or five kids. I try to zoom in on a cluster and just shoot the cluster.

The main thing at the birthday party is you want to get the interaction. I wouldn't try to get the whole group. If you do that, line them up and do a documentary shot. Try to get the little groups of kids all interacting with each other.

Audri Lanford: Do you recommend anything special for twins?

Vik Orenstein: Twins obviously share a really, really special bond. I have met several twin sets who actually do have secret languages and communicate telepathically.

I guess I would make an effort to do both representing the relationship between the two and also be sure to represent each of them as individuals, because I think they get left out of that sometimes.

In Summary

There's so much going on at children's birthday parties it can be hard to know what to focus on. According to Vik Orenstein, focusing on a few children at a time, rather than the whole party at once, will get you the best candid photos. And be sure to capture the important moments: blowing out the candles, opening the presents and the activities.