We have all been there. You see a lovely moment. Your child is playing quietly in the garden. The light is perfect. You grab your phone. You ask them to look at you. They turn around and pull a face that looks painful. It is the dreaded “school photo” smile. They bare their teeth. Their eyes go wide. The magic moment is gone.
Taking photos of children is hard work. They move very fast. They do not care about lighting. They have zero patience for you to fiddle with camera settings. It often feels like you are trying to photograph a tiny, very fast squirrel.
But you do not need to be a professional photographer to get great shots. You also do not need a fancy camera that costs thousands of pounds. Most of the time, a smartphone is all you need. The secret is not in the gear. It is in how you talk to the child and how you see the world.
This guide will help you take photos you will want to frame. We will look at simple tricks to get natural smiles. We will learn how to use light. We will also talk about how to make the whole process fun instead of stressful.
Get down on their level
This is the number one mistake most adults make. We take photos from our standing height. When you do this, you are looking down on the child. This makes them look small. It also means the floor takes up most of the background. It creates a photo that feels distant.
To take a truly engaging photo, you must change your perspective. You need to get low.
Kneel down on the floor. Sit on your bum. Lie on your stomach if you have to. You want your camera lens to be at the same height as their eyes. When you are eye-to-level with a child, the photo feels much more personal. You enter their world instead of just looking at it.
This also changes what is in the background. Instead of the carpet or the pavement, you might see trees, the sky, or the rest of the room. It instantly makes the photo look more professional.
If you are photographing a baby who is doing “tummy time,” get right down on the carpet with them. If your toddler is jumping in muddy puddles, squat down so you can see the splashes fly up. Your knees might get a bit dirty, but the photo will be worth it.
Forget the word “cheese”
Please stop saying “cheese.” It is a habit we all have. We think it makes kids smile. It does not make them smile. It makes them show you their teeth.
A real smile uses the whole face. It reaches the eyes. A “cheese” smile only uses the mouth. It looks stiff and fake. We want to capture genuine happiness. To do that, we have to be a bit silly.
Instead of asking for a smile, try to make them laugh. If you are taking a photo of a young child, make a funny noise. A fake sneeze works wonders. Pretend to fall over. Put a soft toy on your head and let it fall off. Bathroom humour is almost always a winner with kids under ten. A well-timed raspberry noise can get a brilliant belly laugh.
For older children, talk to them. Ask them questions about things they love.
- “Who is your best friend at school?”
- “What is the grossest thing you have ever eaten?”
- “Can you show me your best superhero pose?”
Wait for the reaction. Click the button when they laugh at your joke or when they think about their answer. That creates a real expression. It shows their personality.
Chase the good light
Light is everything in photography. It does not matter how cute your child is. If the light is bad, the photo will not look good. The good news is that you do not need studio lights. You just need the sun.
The best light is soft light. Soft light happens when the sun is low in the sky or when it is cloudy. Clouds act like a giant soft-box. They spread the light out so there are no harsh shadows. Britain is actually great for photography because we have so many cloudy days.
Avoid taking photos at midday when the sun is high and bright. This creates harsh shadows. It gives people dark circles under their eyes. It makes kids squint. Squinting does not look good in photos.
If it is a very sunny day, find some shade. Go under a tree or stand in the shadow of a building. The light there will be even and flattering.
If you are indoors, turn off the ceiling lights. House lights are often yellow and unflattering. Instead, go to a window. Face your child towards the window. The natural light will illuminate their face beautifully. Catchlights are the little white reflections in the eyes. They make eyes look bright and alive. Window light is the best way to get catchlights.
Capture them doing something
Posed photos have their place. Grandma loves a nice photo where everyone is looking at the camera. But the photos you will treasure most are often the candid ones. These are the photos where the child is not looking at you. They are busy doing something else.
Let them play with their toys. Let them read a book. Let them help you bake a cake. When a child is focused on a task, their face relaxes. They forget about the camera.
This is when you get to capture their concentration. You might catch the tip of their tongue sticking out as they draw. You might catch the joy on their face as they kick a football.
Follow them around quietly. Be a fly on the wall. If they look at you, just smile and wait. Eventually, they will go back to playing. That is your moment.
This works well for shy children too. Some kids hate having a camera pointed at them. If you tell them to ignore you and just keep playing, they will feel much more comfortable.
Clear up the clutter
You are focused on your child’s cute face. You might not notice the pile of dirty laundry behind them. You might not see the rubbish bin in the corner. But the camera sees everything.
Before you take the shot, do a quick scan of the frame. Is there anything distracting in the background? A messy background ruins a nice portrait. It pulls the eye away from the subject.
You do not need to clean the whole house. Just move the distracting items out of the shot. Or, move the child.
Simple backgrounds are usually best.
- A brick wall.
- A wooden fence.
- A green hedge.
- A plain sofa.
If you are using a phone with “Portrait Mode,” use it. This feature blurs the background artificially. It makes the child pop out of the image. It is a great way to hide a messy room if you do not have time to tidy up.
Be quick and use burst mode
Children do not stay still. They are constantly in motion. If you try to take just one perfect photo, you will probably miss it. You will end up with a photo of the back of their head or a blurry hand.
Use the “burst mode” on your camera or phone. This takes many photos in a row very quickly. You hold the button down, and it goes click-click-click-click.
Later, you can look through all twenty photos. Nineteen of them might be blurry or have weird expressions. But one of them might be perfect. You can keep the best one and delete the rest.
This is vital for action shots. If your child is jumping on the trampoline, use burst mode. You will catch them right at the top of the jump, with their hair flying in the air. You could never time that perfectly with a single click.
Also, have your camera ready before you get their attention. Do not call their name and then spend ten seconds unlocking your phone. By the time you are ready, they will have moved on.
Dress for comfort, not style
We all want our kids to look smart. But a child in an itchy wool jumper is not a happy child. A toddler in a stiff dress shirt will be grumpy. If they are uncomfortable, it will show on their faces.
Let them wear clothes they can move in. Soft fabrics are best.
Think about colours too. Neon colours can be tricky. A bright pink shirt can reflect pink light onto their chin and neck. This makes their skin look strange. Neutral colours or soft pastels are safer choices.
Avoid giant logos or cartoon characters on their chest if you can. If your child is wearing a shirt with a giant Paw Patrol face on it, people will look at the shirt before they look at the child’s face. Solid colours or simple patterns are timeless. They will not look dated in ten years.
However, pick your battles. If your daughter insists on wearing her fairy wings to the park, let her. If your son wants to wear his superhero cape, let him. Those eccentric outfits are part of who they are right now. You will look back and laugh at those fashion choices later.
Get in the photo too
This is a note for the parents, especially the mums. We are often the designated family photographers. We have thousands of photos of the kids and the dad. We have very few photos of ourselves with the kids.
It is easy to make excuses. You might feel you look tired. You might not like your hair today. You might want to lose a few pounds first.
Your children do not care about any of that. They do not see the bags under your eyes. They just see the parent they love.
In twenty years, they will want photos of you. They will want to see how you looked when they were small. They will want to see you hugging them and playing with them.
Hand the camera to your partner. Use the self-timer. Take a selfie. Just make sure you exist in the family album. You are a huge part of their childhood memories. You deserve to be in the picture.
Let them be the photographer
Kids are curious. They see you holding this device and they want to know what it does. Instead of saying “no, don’t touch,” let them have a go.
If you have an old camera or an old phone, let them use it. Or let them help you hold yours. Show them how to press the button.
Let them take photos of their toys. Let them take photos of you. Seeing the world through their eyes is fascinating. They might take a photo of the cat’s nose. They might take a photo of your knees.
This helps them understand what you are doing. It makes photography a game you play together. If they feel involved, they are less likely to run away when you want to take their picture.
Don’t aim for perfection
Social media can make us feel bad. We scroll through Instagram and see perfectly dressed children in spotless houses. They are all smiling angelically.
Real life is not like that. Real life is messy. Real life has snotty noses and scraped knees. Real life has tantrum tears and chocolate stains on t-shirts.
Do not delete the “bad” photos. Keep the photo where they are crying because you wouldn’t buy them a sweet. Keep the photo where they are covered in mud. Keep the photo where they are pulling a silly face.
These are the real memories. They tell the true story of your family. Perfect photos are nice, but imperfect photos have character.
Print your photos
We take more photos now than ever before. But we rarely look at them. They sit on our phones until we run out of storage space. Then we back them up to a cloud and forget about them.
Make an effort to print your favourites. Put them in frames. Stick them on the fridge. Make a photo book once a year.
Children love seeing photos of themselves. It gives them a sense of belonging. It shows them that they are a valued part of the family.
Sit down with your child and look through the photo book. Tell them the stories behind the pictures. “Look, that was the day we went to the beach and you dropped your ice cream in the sand.”
These moments of sharing are just as important as the photos themselves.
Summary
Taking great photos of your children does not have to be a battle. It is about patience and observation.
- Get down to their eye level.
- Use natural light from windows or the outdoors.
- Make them laugh instead of forcing a smile.
- Capture them playing and moving.
- Burst mode is your best friend.
Remember that the goal is to capture a feeling. You want to remember how their hair curled at the ends. You want to remember that gap-toothed smile. You want to remember the way they looked at you.
So grab your phone. Get down on your knees. Make a silly noise. And capture the magic of childhood before they grow up. It goes faster than you think.