Isla, my 5-year-old granddaughter, was busy setting up her tea set in the living room. I was one of the invited guests and arrived early. I immediately noticed the lovely morning light illuminating the little girl. I grabbed my camera.
Isla's a ham, as are most little kids in my experience. I followed some simple rules: I posed Isla with the strong window light behind her and I set my point and shoot lens to 105mm.
Backlighting hair is always a fine idea and a lens of between 85mm and 135mm is traditionally best for shooting good portraits. The longish lens gives a more pleasing look when compared to an image made by filling the frame using a wide angle lens.
In the bad old days of film this was much harder. You never knew what you had until you processed, and possibly printed, your film. Today, with digital cameras, shoot, immediately examine the result, and shoot again, if necessary.
