Most of us carry a phone and therefore a camera with us everywhere and we seem to be constantly snapping images of those memorable kid moments. My children love looking back at old photos … so here are 5 great tips for making those photos better.
1. Get Down Low
Adults almost always find themselves several feet above their kids and by simply kneeling or crouching down you can almost always get a better angle for a natural photo. You also make the experience less intimidating for the children and can often include some cool backgrounds that way too.
2. Move Out of The Sun
In most situations, the harsh sun causes shadows on your child’s face and those contrasty areas of light and dark ruin most photos. Ideally you want a fairly even light across the face and being in the shade will do that. You also don’t want the sun behind your child creating that sun flare look on the image or producing so much background light that the camera compensates by producing a sillouette of your subject.
Usually on the phone cameras too you almost always want to ditch the flash although on some occasions they can be used to fill in the subject especially when its light but the light is primarily behind the child.
3. Fill The Frame
There are exceptions but usually when you take a picture of a child, that child is the focus or the subject of the photo and so you should fill up the frame with them. Too often I see great images but the majority of the image is background and since phone cameras don’t usually zoom very well, its just a matter of being a bit closer than you normally would be.
There are exceptions where you want the whole body shot and you can turn the camera into the portrait position or simply think a little about a nice non-distracting background.
In portrait shots the eyes are the most critical feature and its better to cut off a little of the head and be closer … always include the whole chin.
4. The Rule of Thirds
Nine times out of Ten we tend to put the subject or person in the middle of the frame which makes sense to us but photos often look better with the subject positioned 1/3 of the way in from the side. If you imagine your frame divided with a naughts and crosses board, position your subject near the intersection of the lines. Also if you are photographing a landscape, put the horizon on one of the lines etc
Many cameras actually have the option to add the lines on the screen to help … check in the settings.
5. Process The Image … a Little
If you take the time to snap the image, and you are going to share that image on social media etc, then just take a minute to polish it with a free photo app. In fact all of the phones have image editing built in and the most common things you might do are crop out unwanted areas (cut them off) and add some effects.
But be careful … we’ve all seen those crazy images that look so artificial that they lose their soul. I find a little added contrast and maybe some vibrance or saturation of the colours really makes average photos POP!
If you want to try something a little more advanced there are stacks of great photo editing apps like Snapseed which is free for iOS and Android.
Final Tip
My last tip is to take lots of photos … this obviously helps you to become better as you practice but also and more importantly, your children become more accustomed to being photographed. Their extra patience and happiness will make the greatest difference in you capturing those memories.
