Tips for taking good pics with Nikon 60d?

So I'm taking up photography as a hobby mostly landscape but my friends asked me if I can take pictures of their kids. Now I take pictures with my Iphone but I do have a Nikon 60d camera, what should I focus on and do so the pictures come out well? It'll be outside like in a park, any tips appreciated thank you.

We can't teach you years of photography skills in this little box, and that is really what you need. But here are a few things that should help you out some.

1. Do NOT take photos in direct sunlight. Most amateurs make this mistake. That is the WORSE light you can use. It creates glare and hot spots on faces, as well as washed out color and dark shadows on the eyes.

2. Get in the SHADE to take your photos.

3. Set the WHITE BALANCE on your camera to the SHADE setting. Otherwise there will be blue skin tones on the kid's faces.

4. You really need a good shoe mount flash on your camera. Set it to a -1 EV power to use as a fill flash to help brighten up the faces. Even if all you have is the pop up flash, set it to the -1 EV setting, which will be done in the menu on the camera.

5. NEVER get in close to the subjects when using a wide angle focal length on your lens. That will cause face distortions. If you are only using the kit lens, set it to the 55mm position and leave it there when shooting any faces. If you are shooting a group of kids, you can use the more wide angle range of your lens.

6. Do not use the camera in the Auto mode. I suggest you use the Shutter Priority mode and set a shutter speed of 1/200. Let the aperture set itself. The 1/200 shutter speed should be fast enough to prevent blur due to subject or camera movement and still be within your flash sync speed.

7. Do not let the camera automatically pick a focus point. It will rarely be where you need it. YOU need to be the one to select WHERE the camera focuses by controlling the focus point. If you don't know how to do that, it is time to read and study your owners manual. When taking any close up face photo, you compose with the camera in the vertical position and place the focal point on the eye nearest to the camera.

8. You may also want to study your camera manual and learn how to set the camera to focus tracking so it can keep moving subjects in focus.

Those should help you out some if you are able to put them into practice. Honestly, you sound as if your skill level is not where it should be for this, … BUT… As it is not something like a wedding and, hopefully, you are not accepting payment for this, you can start learning with this experience.

Thank you for the pointers and I'm doing this for free, as I said my friends know I'm barely starting out which is why they asked me to take pictures of their kids so I can practice.

In addition to the excellent suggestions by Steve P., you should take LOTS of pictures, in order to get a few that are really good. Professional photographers often take hundreds of photos to get a single good shot.

Further, it can't be emphasized enough to try to take your outdoor photos on a cloudy day. It is the best lighting situation and avoids the problems of attempting to deal with a combination of bright sunlight and dark shade.