Pregnant Candids
Tips/tricks/techniques for taking candids
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doubleintegral
If you've been wanting to start taking candids, or if you want to improve your candid game, hopefully this thread can help. Anyone can feel free to contribute advice here.

The way I see it, any candid photography activities must meet the following objectives:

1. Get the shot you want. Otherwise, what's the point?
2. Don't blatantly look/act like a creep. Of course there's a little bit of inherent creep factor to taking candids, but your goal is to minimize the appearance of it as much as possible.
3. Don't get caught. People have gone to jail for "improper photography" of boobs and butts in public, and while bellies might be a bit of a gray area it's best to not leave that up to legal interpretation.

Each objective is just as important as the other two, although #3 is probably the most important. The advice here will help satisfy all three.

1. Don't initiate contact (verbal or physical). Look but don't touch.

2. When you see a belly, consider if it's worth the effort. I've seen people post candid pics of bellies that aren't that big and I just have to wonder why they bothered. I try to only take candids of big/huge bellies.

3. In most cases you only have 1-2 chances to get your shot before looking suspicious. This is especially true of places that aren't overly crowded. For example, don't follow a pregnant woman around the whole damn Target, and you can only pretend to be interested in bed sheets or shower curtains for so long. Especially with superb sightings, it can be tempting to the point of obsession to make sure you get the girl from as many angles as possible, but you have to resist this temptation if it's going to take too long. I once found myself idly staring at Greek yogurt for five minutes because there was a preggo 15 feet away. Fortunately I don't think she noticed. Blend in, make your attempt, and move on. (There are some exceptions to this. Ikea and grocery stores, especially during high traffic times, may afford more opportunities since it's conceivable that people can cross paths multiple times in those stores. You still need to know when enough is enough.)

4. Turn off the shutter sound. If your phone doesn't allow this then I wouldn't even bother.

5. Use video mode instead of photo mode. Multiple benefits here: you don't have to keep clicking the shutter button, you have a better chance of getting the right shot, and you can always pluck stills out of the video afterward. Choose as high a resolution and frame rate as possible. Some people have good luck with slow-motion mode which, depending on your phone, shoots at 120-240fps instead of the normal 30-60fps, but my particular phone underexposes slow-motion videos so I stick with 4K at 30fps. Make sure your fucking flash is off, and if at all possible, and set your phone to not lock autofocus while recording.

6. Hold your phone close to your body, and/or at an angle where you are certain no one can see the screen. I usually hold my phone at my side by my leg, unless I have a shopping cart and can hold it up higher.

7. Don't look at or otherwise manipulate your goddamn phone while taking your candids. It's tempting to check and make sure you're getting the goods or touch to focus, but just don't. It's a good way to draw attention to yourself. If you miss the shot, you miss the shot.

8. Know your device. It may take a while, but you should gain an understanding of how close/far away you need to be and what angle to hold your phone.

Other suggestions?
Liked by Chairmanlmao69 (Nov 26, 2023), CG3P (Oct 12, 2022), Goodboi1818 (Jul 15, 2022), xiong (May 18, 2022), Bluebird704 (May 16, 2022), Shadowcade (Feb 9, 2017), Charlie Gonzales (Feb 7, 2017)
Unreg-account-001
At almost each of my candid shots i have been pretending iam talking on my phone, turning to the side with video mode on, and recording preggos.
My another method is when i see a candid on the street, i try to park the car in the way that preggo will come in front of the hood then i just record them without acting because its very little chance of being caught by sitting in your own car playing with your own phone.

Im curious in your methods, go on mates Smile
Liked by pregnantfan123 (Jul 12, 2017), Charlie Gonzales (Feb 7, 2017)
doubleintegral
(February 6, 2017, 7:30 pm)Repsolrafal My another method is when i see a candid on the street, i try to park the car in the way that preggo will come in front of the hood then i just record them without acting because its very little chance of being caught by sitting in your own car playing with your own phone.

I have also done this.
Charlie Gonzales
(Edited)
(Edited)
Doubleintegral had make a very comprehensive explanation, agree with all of that.
in the early days, on few opportunities, i'd tried to make verbal contacts, and that's all spooked them up.
just like he said "Don't initiate contact (verbal or physical)", is really true, i can say it's really un-argueably.
if it's to taking candids, then just focus on taking candids, nothing more.

if don't mind, allow me to share my little experience.
In most cases, i did this :
For example we're on a dept strore.
1. Open any "messaging / chat app"
2. Make sure she's look toward at you ! ,,, nah, why ?
3. While she's looking at you, make typing gesture (just act normally like were so focus with some chat on phone).
i usually make typing gesture while walking slowly (and normally) towards closer to her.
4. She'll then look away, continue her shopping.
5. People usually staying at a corner for a while, took time for thinking which brand to buy. That's our chance !!
6. While holding phone with, let's say ... Whatsapp is opening, hold your phone about eye level and screen is facing to her,
then get closer to get something from the rack, just in front of her.
She will, and yes she will, looking at your screen and knowing you're actually "really" on a chat.
Now you win the mind game.
7. Next, turn on the cam & shot as much as you want, i usually use the "sound button" as my shutter button.
Psychologically, she'd already sure you're on phone chat, and totally don't even care anymore about your phone.
Because, people, especially a woman wearing skirt, mind will automatically be aware with a guy holding a phone.
After they make sure what we're doing, then that awareness will be sinked away.
8. If she left, i'd be going to opposite direction, and meet her up at another rack from the opposite direction. So it won't be like a creep.
9. After 1 or 2 opportunity meeting up at the same racks, i'd be walk away first before her, wait untill she move to around 2 racks,
and then meet up again from opposite direction. Believe me, they won't even care anymore, because random scenerio is playing right now.
9. If you're sure she'll be quite long on a rack, that's our chance to get underbelly shot.
Just squat down and holding your phone facing up, take something and pretend to reading the product's description,
or holding 2 different products on booth hands like we're comparing booth.

From what experienced so far, taking candids, especially in close encountered, the key is actually a mind approach.
Make them forget and won't even bother about your hand holding a phone, that's the key tricks.

As for to taking videos or photos, it depends on which outcome does we wanted to.
The pros and cons is like :
Video is the best way to get most angles. And we don't have to worry about click the shutter again and again.
And a moving illustration of course is more attractive than a still image. We can be more focus and calm in the process.
But videos has it cons, like it's less sensitive to light, tends to be darker outcome than taking photos, even with 4k, especially at indoor and for underbelly shoot.
With photos, it can be edited into brighter, better cropping, ect. Video can also be manipulated, but a still image is easier to edit than a video. Snapshot from a video
usually have lower resolution outcome than a photoshoot, as it tends to more blurry with moving object because video capturing system is slower than photo capturing system.
Still image cons is, VERY HIGH RISK TO LOST THE MOMENT as we missed the framing, like croped, or even missed-shot.
Booth way is good, just find which way is more pleasant. Because anyway, the key in candid is : the mind approach at blending into situation.
Liked by pregnantfan123 (Jul 12, 2017)
wadafak
@charliegonzales ahahah after what i taught you!
Phamas
(Edited)
(Edited)
There's an app that will make your phone look like its literally doing nothing but its actually taking pictures, you can set it to take pictures at intervals or even record a video and it will look like you're doing nothing. Its how I used to get snaps of people at my old job. If you have a shirt pocket and your phone camera is able to be out on top, you're pretty much golden. I just walked around with that thing snapping away and it worked brilliantly.
Liked by pregnantfan123 (Jul 12, 2017)
Unreg-account-001
What is the name of it?
Minipreggo
I use an app on my iphone called 'S Cam' which turnes the screen completely black so it looks like its locked. You can take photo's, video and slow mo
Liked by pregnantfan123 (Jul 12, 2017)
Ubernesss
(February 6, 2017, 7:30 pm)Repsolrafal At almost each of my candid shots i have been pretending iam talking on my phone, turning to the side with video mode on, and recording preggos.
My another method is when i see a candid on the street, i try to park the car in the way that preggo will come in front of the hood then i just record them without acting because its very little chance of being caught by sitting in your own car playing with your own phone.

Im curious in your methods, go on mates Smile
Your strategy of acting like you're on your phone while taking video works GREAT! I tried taking my first candid and it didn't work to well, though I saw your technique, tried it, and the improvement is amazing!
Unreg-account-001
(April 5, 2017, 11:13 am)Ubernesss
(February 6, 2017, 7:30 pm)Repsolrafal At almost each of my candid shots i have been pretending iam talking on my phone, turning to the side with video mode on, and recording preggos.
My another method is when i see a candid on the street, i try to park the car in the way that preggo will come in front of the hood then i just record them without acting because its very little chance of being caught by sitting in your own car playing with your own phone.

Im curious in your methods, go on mates Smile
Your strategy of acting like you're on your phone while taking video works GREAT! I tried taking my first candid and it didn't work to well, though I saw your technique, tried it, and the improvement is amazing!
Glad to hear it mate, Lets share your work here then Smile i always use this 2 techniques and never been caught, spring is back so i got 2 or 3 Real bombshells for you Guys :p

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