> 5 minute read

Photographing Children’s Birthday Parties

Jelly, ice cream, presents, music, tantrums, crying… it all happens at children’s birthday parties. Be on hand with your X Series camera and you’ll create a great record of the day.

Kid’s birthday parties are an obvious occasion to bring out your camera, but they are also a challenge to photograph for many reasons. You need to be quick on your feet to avoid a balloon, someone’s head, or a competing smartphone getting in the way. And you need to have Jedi-like reflexes to anticipate the moment when the birthday girl or boy cracks that winning smile as they blow out their candles.

Nevertheless, your X Series camera will give you much better images than the smartphone crowd, and will have other parents pestering you for copies. So, let’s get the party started with eight ways to get great pictures at a children’s party.

1. Get Down to Their Level

Little people don’t stand as tall as adults, so if you photograph them from your head height, you’ll miss out on all kinds of good stuff, like the expression on their faces and what they’re doing with their hands. It’s much better to crouch or kneel down in front of them, so you can see them from a child’s-eye point of view.

They might spot what you’re doing, but kids don’t generally mind being photographed too much, especially if you say “Hi” first and ask them about what they’re doing.

2. Get up High

That being said about getting down low for a child’s-eye view, you could also try getting up higher than your normal framing height and find a bird’s-eye view. Looking vertically straight down is a great way to photograph hungry partygoers playing games or tucking into cake. Try flipping out your camera’s screen to make it easier to see what’s going on when you’re holding your camera up high.

3. Zoom In

Remember to try to fill the frame as much as possible; a common mistake that beginners make in all genres of photography is leaving too much room around the subject, which can result in distractions at the edges of your picture.

The obvious solution is to step closer, but if you do this, you run the risk of disturbing your subject and interrupting what they are doing. So instead, think about using the long telephoto end of your zoom lens, or a more telephoto lens if you have one – this will let you keep your distance while also filling the frame.

4. Make Lots of Images!

The more pictures you make, the more likely you are to grab that precious fleeting moment. Flip your camera into continuous shooting mode at the camera’s highest frame rate, and make bursts of three to six images at a time. Selecting continuous shooting is either done by a top-plate dial, or via the Drive mode button. Don’t keep your finger pressed down on the shutter release for too long, or you’ll end up with too many pictures.

5. Blowing out the Candles

If there’s one moment you cannot miss at a children’s birthday party, it’s the birthday boy or girl blowing out the candles on the cake. This is the climax of the celebration – the centre of the party, so to speak.

You need some advanced warning of the impending arrival of the cake, so ask the hosts to let you know their plan. Position yourself so you get a clear view of the birthday child’s face and focus on this (not the cake) as everyone starts singing and the cake comes to the table. Making multiple images and including others in the frame gives an overall sense of the fun and excitement. It’s fine to have the others out of focus. This will actually help lead the viewer’s eyes into the main subject of the photo.

Often the lights are dimmed for this, to help the candles stand out. Avoid the temptation to use your camera’s flash though, as its light will drown out the lovely ambient light of the occasion. Instead, increase the camera’s ISO or sensitivity to ISO 1600 or ISO 3200. Changing the ISO will vary from model to model, so check your model’s instruction manual if you’re unsure.

6. Use Flash (When It’s Right To)

There are times when it’s good to use flash. It’ll help you in dark indoor situations and outside in bright sunshine when your subject’s silhouetted against backlighting. This is not complicated: just pop up the flash (or fit it in the camera’s hot shoe), make sure it’s turned on in the Flash Setting menu, and photograph as normal. The camera’s TTL flash metering will balance ambient light and flash for you automatically.

7. Don’t Forget the Details

Also, be sure to frame some of the small details that you notice when looking around – the cake, balloons and decorations, and discarded wrapping paper. It’s all an important part of the story, and something you can photograph between the moments that involve people.

© Caroline Tran

© Caroline Tran

8. Put the Camera Down Occasionally

It’s important to put the camera down occasionally, not just because you may want to actually take in and enjoy the party for a while, but also because spending a bit of time away from the viewfinder will help other people to relax, and relaxed subjects are happy subjects.

Your Next Steps

• CHALLENGE Photograph the next kid’s party you go to and post some of your favourite images to social media (with the parents’ permission, of course) using the hashtags #learnwithfujifilm and #party. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.