You need to work with the mood of your subject to help them feel at ease and become more comfortable in front of the camera.

Once the subject has become more engaged and comfortable you can take the energy up a few notches, change wardrobe, and change locations.

There are three things to consider when getting ready for a portrait session.

An outdoor location can be a great place to start working with kids and building a rapport.

Working with siblings with different energy and interest levels can present challenges and opportunities in a portrait session.

While in an outdoor location you can take advantage of the sunlight as a backlighting source while using a reflector as fill light.

Keeping a set of posing ideas on hand can help inspire you to try new poses while on location.

If shooting in the subject's home there are a number of things you can do to increase natural light, scout the best angles, and remove unwanted visual clutter before you shoot.

With the home owner's permission you can adjust window light and furniture to create a better environment for the portrait session.

You don't want to end up with a series of the same composition with different backgrounds.

There are basically six different personality types that most kids will fit into when they show up for the photo session.