Photography Tips

We have been taught that there are certain rules that apply to photography in order to take great shots:  rule of thirds, ISO-Shutter-Aperture triad, minimum hand-held focal length, lens compression and distortion, etc.  So, lets take a look at how to teach these to  a young child.

First rule - THERE ARE NO RULES!

Rules will squish all creativity and fun out of a child. How does a child then learn to do photography?  To start, there are a couple of things that do need to be learned: how to aim the camera and how to take the shot.

As the adult, you should first decide where to take your son or daughter to take photos. Choose a fun location that has interesting subjects: a flower garden, a beach, a park all make good locations. Next, set the camera function to be appropriate for that location.  This is one idea to try. Set the shutter speed to be fast, but make sure that you have enough aperture to get a proper exposure. Give the camera to the kid and have him or her take pictures of interesting things that are moving or are motionless.

When you get home, look at the photos together and ask your child which ones they liked best and why. At this point you can explain the reason that a particular shot came out the way it did.  Remember the difference between blur and focus. Blur can be used creatively, but the shot still should be in focus for your subject.

Then, at your next outing, do the same thing, this time changing the camera function that affects aperture.  Set a wide aperture, let the kid shoot, then set a narrower aperture, shoot again and so forth until you get to the smallest aperture.

Again, when you get home, review the photos together and ask which ones they liked the best. Now you have the opportunity to explain the impact of aperture and depth-of-field (don't use those terms without explanation).  Explain that  some pictures show everything sharp and others only show certain things sharp and why.

Yet again, ask your child to place the subject(s) in the center, to the side, in a row, from above, from below, etc. Now you can talk about composition.

Each time you run these experiments, your child begins to see that there are certain settings that yield a particular type of image that appeals to them. With repetition, your child may begin to ask you for that particular setting because they want to capture the image they saw before; like "the blurry rocking horse" or the "freeze motion jump on the slide" as so on. 

Other experiments.