Phone Photography Boot Camp

Helping kids become noticers + storytellers

Hello! Do you know what is probably the most valuable app on your smartphone? Any guesses?

The camera! Smartphone cameras are amazing. What a new and rare and wonderful thing, to live in 2022 and have an artistic tool, magnifying glass, and memory-keeper that fits in our pockets!

Cameras help us be better noticers. Photography tells stories. Noticing and storytelling with technology is a wonderful gift, even for a 3-year-old.

You never know what they’ll see when they’re paying more attention! I was shocked when my son pointed this out during one of our photography outings ⬇️

So can I challenge you to let your kids borrow your phone this week? Take them on a nature walk in your yard or—even better—to a park or botanical garden—and let them go wild. You might want to search your junk drawer for old phones or ask relatives if they have smartphones from early generations that they’re not doing anything with.

We’re very technology-conscious around here, but I’ve wasted a lot of time researching cameras for kids. You don’t need to buy your kid a pricey camera with costly film packs if you have an old iPhone 4 in a closet somewhere 😉

You might want to watch through some phone photography tutorials or even a Skillshare class like this one by Dale McManus that my kids and I watched together and found quite helpful.

Here are some quick tips and examples:

Composition

Try this tip to make photos look a little better. The Rule of Thirds places your subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open. Turn on the grid setting on your phone. (For iPhone: Settings > Camera > toggle on “Grid.”) (Check Google for tons of examples.)

If your photo doesn’t seem to have much going on except for your subject, that’s not a bad thing! The negative space will make your subject really stand out.

Perspective

Shoot from a low angle, maybe even by getting on the ground.

It might be cliché, but the Instagram Girlfriend Hand-Holding perspective is a lot of fun for kids to try with a sibling (or you.)

Getting to Know Your Phone

Teach your kids to tap on the screen to focus

If your phone has a “Live” mode (it might be called “Motion Photo”) you’re probably also able to adjust your shutter speed and capture movement. You can test it with a sink, but if you have access to a waterfall or river, that’s where this feature really shines. Hold the phone very still when you take your photo with “live” mode; prop it on something if you can. Then edit it to “long exposure” and you have a smooth waterfall.

Here’s a screenshot of what it might look like on your phone when viewing the photo:

After tapping “Long Exposure,” voila!

Light

Experiment with sunlight! When it’s golden hour (the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset) and everything is magical, go outside and get some pics. When it’s overcast outside, make the most of the opportunity; this is much easier to work with than the brightest part of the day. However, then you have the chance to experiment with shadows!

Editing

Kids go crazy over this part. It’s fun to let them go wild with dramatic contrasts and crazy colors, but it’s also neat when they learn to show restraint and just modify the color levels a little. If you want something a little better than your phone’s photo editor, the Lightroom app is free and it provides a lot of ways to make adjustments.

Portraits of You

Chances are thick that you’ll see photos your kids took and you get trembles of, “Oh no, do I really look like that? Do I really have that many chins? I didn’t know I look so terrible in those shorts” etc. But your kids don’t see you that way.

And maybe you’ll be surprised. As you’re sorting through hundreds of shuttered taps, you just might find a photo of yourself that encapsulates who you are in a way that you haven’t seen before. Maybe the smile that your 6-year-old gets out of you is more real than anything a pro photographer could do. #ProofofMom (or Dad, Grandma, etc.) is a win.

Here are all the tips in one place so you and your kids can try all of them!

Is there anyone you know who would benefit from a photography outing with their kids? Do it together with friends! Then the photographers have more options for models, too!

I hope you enjoyed this overview! I’d love to see the pics that you and your kids come up with! Feel free to email or DM us on Instagram!

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts