Tips for Teaching Your Kids How to Take Quality Photos by Emily Ford

Photo Tips
Tips for Teaching Your Kids How to Take Quality Photos by Emily Ford looks at some of the top tips for encouraging your kids to get into photography. Whether you’re a professional photographer or a keen amateur, you can easily implement these with your children.

Introduction

Photography is a skill that can take many years to perfect. The rewards can be great, but it takes time and effort that isn’t always available if you have a busy schedule. If your kids start showing an interest in photography, you can do them a huge favor by teaching them how to take quality photos early on. Doing so will give them an excellent foundation for developing their skills as a photographer. It can also bring you closer together as you enjoy a shared hobby.

1. Have Fun

Photography shouldn’t be a chore, particularly at a young age. There’s much to be said for the charm and unique perspective that a child can bring through a lens. For both of you, it’s important that this pastime is something you can enjoy together. Encouraging your child to have fun with the camera is invaluable.

2. Practice Together and Review

This point is somewhat linked to the first point. You’ll want photography to be something you practice together at times, sharing that fun and excitement. With the invent of digital photography, you don’t have to worry about wasting film. Therefore, you should encourage them to take as many photos as they like. You can review them together and look at which ones are good and why.

3. Holding the Camera

It may seem like common sense to you, but holding a digital camera isn’t always intuitive to young photographers. Take the time to show your child how to hold a camera. This allows them to steady the camera and capture better photographs. It also means that they’ll be able to frame their shots better. Keeping the camera straight is important and comes from holding the camera correctly.

4. Backgrounds and Foregrounds

Many adults struggle with these aspects of photography, so forming good habits from an early age can be incredibly useful. Teach your child to look at the elements that make up the background and foreground. Show them how to look for clutter and unnecessary things that will mean photos look messy.

5. Get in Close

When using a camera, many people seem reluctant to move too close to their subject. They’ll rely on zoom lenses or simply take the photo from a distance. Doing this means that the end result lacks focus. Show your kids that it’s ok to get up close to the subject (provided they don’t mind that!) to give a clearer focus on the subject.

6. Look for Back Light Situations

Taking a photograph with lots of light behind your subject will cause your subject to come out too dark. Common situations occur where the sun or a window during the day is behind your subject. To avoid this you can tell your camera to use the light coming from the subject to determine exposure rather than light coming from a bright background. Modern cell phones make this easy. All you have to do is tap on your finger on the subject on your screen and the cell phone will use the light coming from your subject to adjust exposure.

7. Landscape or Portriat

Make sure your child understands the difference between holding the camera so the long side is up and down (portrait) or left and right (landscape). As the names imply, the first is fine for taking pictures of people fairly close up, while the second is best when the content of the photo contains mostly backgrounds. A lot of people take too many pictures in the portrait position as this is the way they usually hold their cell phone when they use it. Most photos, however, will look better in the landscape position.

7. In Conclusion

Of course, these are just some of the basics of photography that can help your child improve. Depending on their age, you may also want to cover things such as how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO work together. However, the more complex elements should be saved until they’re ready and able to learn. Also, be sure to have your children evaluate their own work. This will help them become better critical thinkers.

Emily Ford

Emily is a blogger for thephototeam.co.uk. She has been a regular contributor to sites talking about the newest trends in photography and event management. When she’s not writing, she enjoys, cooking, hiking and pretty much anything outdoors.