5 Tips for Photographing Your Kids at Home

I can’t say for sure if being a photographer is what makes my kids run and hide at the very sight of my camera or if kids don’t like photos in general. Photographing your kids at home isn’t always an easy thing but it’s something I like doing – capturing our every day; capturing our lifestyle and our story.

Here are some tips for how I capture every day images of my own kids.

Find Pockets of Light: Find pockets of lights in your own home. Evaluate your home one day and see how the sun lights up a room. Is it brighter in the evening or in the morning? Does a window cast a shadow on the floor with a square pocket of light? Does the light from the hallway illuminate the entryway to your own room? Every day there’s light that you can use to capture your kids. Place them in these pockets. See how the light hits the back of their head or casts shadows on their faces.

Capture their Favorite Activity: If your kids are anything like mine, being put into that wonderful pocket of light usually ends up being the one place they don’t want to be. If it’s in their natural setting – say a living room – then capture your kids doing what they normally do but guiding them towards your favorite pocket of light. Often times, I will grab my daughter’s crayons and placed them in on the floor just as the setting sun starts to shine into our back windows. The light is so wonderful then.

De-clutter: Sometimes I like the general chaos of my home in the photos. It can tell a realistic story. However, sometimes I simply want to capture an expression without the distraction of an empty bottle or legos thrown haphazardly across the room. A quick declutter will clean up a scene quickly and provide wonderful negative space to isolate your child in a photo.
Use a Wide Angle Lens: I almost exclusively use my 50mm on my camera. On my 5D Mark II, it’s the perfect focal length for capturing a scene in almost every room in the house, while still giving my kids space to breathe.
Peek-a-boo: When my kids really don’t want to cooperate with the camera in their face, I’ll resort to what I call the “peek-a-boo” technique. I like to lurk around corners and capture life unscripted. I like the unscripted, lifestyle images that come from moments like this.