How Do Great School Photographers Get Natural Smiles?

Yeah, we hate them too! And it’s usually because the photographer has said ‘Say cheese!’, and the child panics, resulting in a phoney, unappealing smile that’s more of a grimace. If you want to get a real smile from a child, you want that spontaneous expression of glee and laughter. Luckily, that’s what we do best! So here are just a few of our secrets, as school photographers, for you to try.

Don’t Say Cheese!

The problem with cheese, is it’s so…. Cheesy!

Everyone says it. Kids will be encouraged to say cheese for every photo their parents take. And if they really aren’t that interested in playing up to the camera at home, every minute for that perfect Instagram update, then Cheese will be automatically associated to an awkward family photo, and the strained, put-on grin that usually results!

Try getting them to say ‘Cheese-burger’ for an element of surprise, ‘Smelly Socks’ is another favourite, but be careful of pressing the button when they’re on the ‘Ocks’ bit, as they’ll just look weird. It’s the moment after saying something silly that’ll be the golden, genuine natural smile you want.

Sing!

This trick works best for younger children, and it works a charm! Pick a song they know, a nursery rhyme is usually your best bet, and sing it for them. Tell them you just learnt this song yesterday, and ask if they could listen for you and let you know if you’re getting it right. Then, belt it out:

‘A B C D E F Bananas! 2 4 6 8 L M N 0 P… And a bucket full of monkeys!’

Somewhere in there (usually around bananas) they’ll burst out laughing and tell you how you got it wrong. Just be ready with the camera and you’ll hear the giggles through the photo.

‘Scaredy Cat’

If you really want to catch an adorable smile from a child anywhere from age 3 to around 7, ask them to try and scare you. Little ones will often do this by playing peek–boo, or just jumping up and shouting ‘boo’ at the top of their little lungs. When they do, make sure you over-act with fright, and be ready to capture their laughter.

A word of warning – this’ll wind them up royally, so don’t try this just before bedtime….

Get Silly

Surprise and silliness are excellent ways of drawing out a natural smile, especially if you do them both together! While you’re chatting with the children, spring a silly voice on them out of nowhere. Waiting until your face is hidden behind the camera, and make a funny noise. A big snore, a whizz or a trump –  all firm favourites (kids love toilet humour after all). But really any unexpected and slightly daft noise will get the job done.

During our sessions for school photos, the ruder sounds really are our last resort though!

Be normal

When it comes to older children (think 11 and up), the goofy dancing fool isn’t quite as successful in getting giggles. More rolling of eyeballs. So here is where we switch tack. Getting them nice and relaxed before you even point the camera at them is the first step, and we end up having lots of great conversations this way! When it’s time to snap a smile, we usually ask a genuine question. Maybe about something they love, maybe about their funniest memory. We usually throw a bad pun in there for good measure, and before you know it, the posed smiles are gone and the genuine grins are out to play!

How do we know all of this works? Because we use them ourselves! while we haven’t given away all of our trade secrets here (we’re not daft), we’ve hopefully shown you that it is possible to get genuine smiles in school photos.

You don’t have to put up with grimaces and fake smiles! If you think your school could benefit from a more natural, fun approach to their photography, just get in touch with us to see our work. We guarantee it will speak for itself.

‘No Smile Left Behind’ is our motto after all 😊