Program mode and the camera takes all the exposure technicalities out of your hands, leaving you to concentrate on the portrait.
For indoor shots some cameras have the appropriately titled Party or portrait Mode. These ensure the camera’s flash fires to make the picture bright. All you have to do then is get the person to look good in the photo. When photographing children you’ll find they tend to smile unnaturally or pull a face when asked to pose, but there are ways around this to ensure you capture a more natural expression.
One tip I use is to ask them to look into the lens to find the “camera genie”. This obviously only works with younger children! They’ll start to stare intensely into the lens. Joke about the genie to make them smile or laugh and press the shutter. Not only will you get a better expression, but you’ll also find the eye contact perfect.
Most cameras have a red-eye reduction mode that fires a pre-flash to reduce the devil-inducing effect. Make sure this is switched on and showing a small eye icon on the LCD panel.
When you become more experienced try turning the flash off and using natural light from the window or room lighting. The mode appears as a small lightning symbol with line through it. Window light will cast a shadow on the unlit side of the portrait which can be reduce effectively using tin foil, spray mounted onto a large sheet of card. Position this reflector so it points at the subject from the shadow side. As you move the card you’ll see light reflect onto the person and the shadows disappear.
A question of balance
If you take pictures using room lighting you may need to switch the camera to a different white balance setting. This is usually