This is a guest post.
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll probably remember that disposable cameras provided the majority of family photos. You’ll have noticed now, though, that times have changed, and gone are the hand labelled folders of fingerprint-smudged, developer-printed pictures. The dawn of the camera phone, with the decent quality photos you can take on them, combined with new found opportunities for storing and sharing our photos on social media, has entirely reworked our attitude toward taking pictures. Interestingly, Infotrends calculated that in 2016 we took 1.1 trillion photos, predicted to grow to 1.4 trillion by 2020 - almost exclusively on smartphones!
Naturally the ability to capture and share more of our experiences is affords us amazing opportunities, but there is a danger to forego quality photos for overstuffed Facebook folders that people may only flick through once. To get people to really engage with your photos in this new age of Facebook albums and Instagram likes, we have created a guide to list of easy to follow tips for taking great family photos in 2018.
1. It’s The Little Things That Are Worth A Snap
We all know family life whizzes past faster than you can say ‘When did you get so tall?’. When you have to take care of all the little details to keep your family working like a well oiled machine, (figuratively speaking) you may think it's only worth your time to take pictures at the big occasions, the weddings, the parties and so on. Sometimes though, the everyday photos are the truly magical ones, and ones that when you look back you’ll truly cherish - kids playing in the mud, dad fixing a table leg, mum doing the washing. You’ll always remember the wedding days of your kids, so to capture the photos of the little things will serve as a wonderful reminder of the days gone by.
2. Better Equipment Will Make The Difference
Sometimes those unforgettable moments are so embedded in your brain that when you look back at the photos they never really live up to how you remember it. Maybe you are remembering it more fondly than it happens, or maybe its time to experiment with some better experience, you’d be surprised at the world of difference it makes! Perhaps you have considered this, but found professional photography gear to be far too outside your price range. May I suggest looking, then, at peer-to-peer lending platforms like Fat Lama, which allow you to rent all sorts of things, including professional equipment from nearby professionals or hobbyists for a fraction of the price from traditional rental services. This may give you huge potential to have broaden the horizons of your photography, from wide angle shots to taking to the sky’s with a drone and shooting those moments from above!
3. The Smiles and The Moments are Not the Same thing
Sometimes the perfect photos are so hard to capture because when you’ll know better than anyone that getting ten kids to stand still, look forward and smile is an imperceptibly impossible task. Why not try just capturing the moments as they are, playing with sticks in the gardens, messing around at a wedding, just embracing a more natural style of photography. When you look back you’ll probably find all those fake smiles weren’t worth the effort of the marshalling. Take a step back and capture them in action!
4. See It From their Perspective
When you go through your life with all its strains, struggles and challenges, it’s easy to forget that your child’s life is a lot simpler, the world is bigger, and their eyes are so magically full of wonder. Young kids naturally focus on things closest to them and usually that means their viewpoint is close to the ground as too - their view is entirely different to ours! If you want to take shots in their world, get your hands and knees dirty and take some shots from lower down. You’ll have an album of fantastic, intimate and personal photos in no time at all!
5. Less Is More.
I know this may come as a surprise, but I would say the biggest key to success is taking fewer photos! When you look back in your family albums, how many of those photos make you go ‘ahhh’ or ‘oh yeah, that’s Uncle! He was Great!’. It’s hard to imagine doing the same with your oversaturated Facebook photo albums, so the trick I’d recommend is making them smaller and more tailored! By all means, try and capture every range of activities and emotions you can but just don’t make a habit of it. You want each photo to be like a little gem in a necklace - too many of a low quality and suddenly they feel cheap and tacky! They say the only art form where you can accidentally create a masterpiece is with photography - remember that despite this professionals are still incredibly choosey, even with the accidents!
Guest Post: How To Take Better Pictures of Your Kids https://t.co/HEztmr85R4 #photooftheday #pblogger pic.twitter.com/RUpvZf8JnC
— Diana C (@mrsdchastain) May 15, 2018
These are fantastic tips, thanks for sharing! I only have my cellphone to take pictures of my littles, so number one on my wish list right now is a new digital camera! I also find that the best pics are the ones that I take while they are not paying attention. :) It only takes about 20+ shots of them sitting still and smiling for the camera to find just one decent one, lol!
ReplyDeleteI try to not let my grandkids know that I am taking pictures of them - if I can. When we get them together and ask them to smile or say “cheese”, their faces and smiles get all distorted - like we are torturing them or something! I like your tips, especially the less is more one. Plus when we get older we tend to reminisce. I say things like, remember when so and so did this? Instead of just talking about it, I could have captured them digitally on camera! Sometimes though, I don’t always have my good equipment with me to take professional pictures, just my iPhone so I take what I can. We can always edit them. I’ve lost a lot of precious moments! In this day and age, there’s no reason not to capture the moments!!
ReplyDeleteI admit it. I take horrible photos, lol. I need all the help I can get.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, I have the hardest time getting good pictures. I need to use your tips and approach it in a different way.
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