If there is one thing I have learnt from being a mum of four, it is just how quickly the everyday stages of family life disappear. One minute you have a toddler permanently attached to your leg and the next you are looking at teenagers and wondering quite how you got there. These family photography tips aren't about creating perfectly posed Instagram photos. They are about making sure you capture the little things you will genuinely want to remember.
Like most parents, I have thousands of photos sitting on my phone. There are birthday cakes, holidays and Christmas mornings, of course, but some of my favourites are far less exciting: one of the children reading on the sofa, muddy shoes lined up by the back door or everyone squashed around the kitchen table.
Those ordinary photographs often become much more special as the years pass.
The good news is that you don't need an expensive camera or professional photography skills to take lovely family photographs. A few small changes to how and when you take pictures can make a huge difference.
1. Photograph ordinary family life
It is natural to reach for the camera at birthdays, Christmas, weddings and holidays, but don't forget everything that happens in between.
Photograph the children baking with you, doing their homework, playing in the garden, cuddling the dog or sitting around eating breakfast.
These might not feel like particularly significant moments now, but they create a much fuller picture of what your family life actually looked like.
Think about the things you might forget in ten years' time:
- Their favourite cuddly toy
- The books they loved
- Their bedroom
- The way they wore their hair
- Their favourite pair of trainers
- Saturday morning pancakes
- Family movie nights
- Walking to school
- Messy craft sessions
- Helping to cook dinner
It is almost like creating a visual family diary.
2. Look for natural light
Lighting can completely change a photograph, but you don't need complicated equipment to improve it.
Natural daylight is usually the easiest option.
If you are taking photographs indoors, position your child near a window rather than relying on overhead lighting. Outdoors, slightly cloudy days can actually be brilliant for photographs because you aren't dealing with everyone squinting into bright sunshine.
If it is very sunny, look for open shade under a tree, beside a building or underneath a covered area.
One mistake I try to avoid is standing somebody directly in front of a really bright window. Your phone may expose for the bright background, leaving the person looking much darker.
Instead, turn them so the window light falls onto their face.
3. Get down to your child's level
This is one of the easiest family photography tips to try.
Instead of taking every photograph standing up and pointing your phone downwards, crouch or sit so you are closer to your child's eye level.
Immediately, the photograph feels more connected.
It is especially useful when photographing younger children playing because you begin to see their world from their perspective.
Of course, there are no strict rules. Sometimes photographing from above or getting right down onto the floor can create a brilliant picture too. Moving around and experimenting will give you much more interesting photographs than always standing in exactly the same position.
4. Don't always ask children to smile
There is definitely a place for the classic "everyone look at the camera" family photograph, but it doesn't have to be every photograph.
Children can develop a very particular camera smile when they hear the words "say cheese"!
Instead, give them something to do.
Ask siblings to whisper something silly to each other, tell your child to give someone a hug, let them run towards you or simply photograph them while they are already engrossed in an activity.
You are much more likely to capture genuine expressions.
With four children, I have also learnt that trying to get everybody looking at the camera with their eyes open at exactly the same moment can become a rather ambitious project. Sometimes the laughing photograph immediately afterwards is actually the better one.
5. Take more than one photograph
Children move quickly.
Someone will blink. Somebody else will turn around. A sibling will inevitably pull a strange face.
Take several photographs rather than relying on one shot.
Burst mode can be particularly useful when children are running, jumping or playing because you can choose the best frame afterwards.
Just remember to go through them later. Nobody needs 47 almost-identical photographs of the same child jumping off a swing taking up phone storage forever.
6. Capture the details too
Not every family photograph needs to include a face.
Some of my favourite photographs focus on tiny details.
A little hand holding yours. Sandy toes at the beach. School shoes on the first day of term. A much-loved teddy tucked underneath an arm. Flour-covered hands while baking.
Take a mixture of wider photographs showing the whole scene and closer detail shots.
If you are photographing Christmas morning, for example, you could take:
- A wide photograph of everyone around the tree
- Individual photographs of the children
- Hands opening presents
- The Christmas table
- Decorations on the tree
- The aftermath of wrapping paper everywhere
Together, those photographs tell much more of a story.
7. Pay attention to the background
Before pressing the shutter, quickly look around the edge of your screen.
Is there a lamp appearing to grow out of someone's head? A washing basket sitting behind them? A brightly coloured wheelie bin stealing all the attention?
Sometimes moving a couple of steps to the side is all it takes to make the photograph look much better.
That doesn't mean your house needs to be spotless before you photograph your children. Mine certainly isn't.
Family photographs are supposed to document real life. You are simply trying to remove anything particularly distracting.
8. Make sure you are in the photographs too
This is such an important one, particularly for mums.
It is very easy to become the unofficial family photographer and then realise you are hardly in any photographs yourself.
Hand the phone to your partner, one of the children, a friend or even a stranger when you are out somewhere.
Use your phone's timer or prop it safely on something if nobody else is around.
And don't wait until you feel particularly photogenic.
Your children will not look back at those photographs and worry about whether your hair looked perfect or whether you were wearing your favourite outfit. They will just see their mum there with them.
I have become much more conscious of this as my older children have grown up. I want the record of our family life to include me as part of it, rather than looking as though everyone went on years of holidays and days out without me!
9. Photograph relationships, not just individuals
Try to capture how your family interacts.
Grandparents with grandchildren, siblings playing together, your child chatting to their dad or everyone laughing around the dinner table.
Photographs showing relationships often have far more emotion than traditional portraits.
They don't even need everyone to be looking at the camera.
A picture of two siblings walking away holding hands can say much more than a perfectly posed photograph.
10. Don't over-edit your family photos
Editing apps can be useful for straightening horizons, adjusting brightness or improving an image slightly, but it can be tempting to do too much.
Trends in filters also change remarkably quickly.
If you want photographs that still look natural years from now, keep editing relatively simple.
The skin tones, colours and surroundings are all part of the memory.
I would much rather look back at photographs that feel like our real family life than discover I had put the same fashionable filter over every photograph from an entire decade.
11. Get your favourite photographs off your phone
This is the step I think many of us forget.
We take hundreds - sometimes thousands - of photographs, but how many do we actually see again?
Every so often, choose your favourites and do something with them.
You might create:
- Family photo albums
- A gallery wall
- Small framed photographs for shelves
- A yearly memory box
- Prints for grandparents
- Photo gifts
- A scrapbook for each child
Using a photo printing service such as Photo Zone is an easy way to turn some of those forgotten camera-roll images into physical photographs you can actually enjoy.
I love having printed photographs around the house because the children notice them too. They will pick up an old photograph and suddenly we are talking about a holiday, birthday or funny moment they had completely forgotten about.
Digital photographs are convenient, but there is still something lovely about being able to hold a photograph in your hands.
12. Create a simple photo routine
You don't have to document every single second of family life.
In fact, trying to do that can mean you spend more time looking through your screen than enjoying what is happening.
Instead, create a few simple habits.
You could take a family photograph:
- On the first day of every month
- On the first and last day of school each year
- On every family holiday
- On birthdays
- At Christmas
- On Mother's Day and Father's Day
- In the same location once a year
Another lovely idea is to photograph each child in their bedroom once a year.
Bedrooms change so much as children grow. Posters disappear, toys are replaced with books or technology, and suddenly a room that once contained toy boxes and dressing-up clothes looks completely different.
It is one of those things you rarely think to photograph until it has gone.
Family Photo Ideas Throughout the Year
If you want to document your family more regularly but never know what to photograph, try creating a loose list of seasonal ideas.
Spring
Photograph woodland walks, Easter activities, gardening, spring flowers, rainy-day puddles and the first warmer days outside.
Summer
Capture beach days, picnics, paddling pools, festivals, family holidays, BBQs and long evenings in the garden.
Summer photographs don't have to be elaborate. A dripping ice lolly and a child wearing slightly wonky sunglasses can sum up the season perfectly.
Autumn
Think pumpkin picking, woodland walks, conkers, Halloween costumes, baking and those lovely piles of fallen leaves children can never resist jumping into.
Winter
Christmas naturally provides plenty of photo opportunities, but remember the ordinary winter moments too - cosy afternoons at home, board games, hot chocolate, frosty walks and everyone wrapped in far too many layers.
A Few Photos Are Better Than Hundreds You Never Look At
One thing I am trying to get better at is being more intentional with photographs.
We don't necessarily need 500 pictures from a weekend away.
Sometimes ten photographs that really tell the story of the trip are far more valuable.
Every month or so, spend ten minutes looking through your camera roll. Delete the accidental screenshots and blurry photographs, favourite the ones you really love and choose a handful to print.
It makes managing a huge photo library feel much less overwhelming.
The Best Family Photographs Aren't Perfect
When I look back through photographs of my children, the ones I love most aren't necessarily the ones with perfect lighting or carefully coordinated outfits.
They are the ones that immediately take me back to a particular moment.
A laughing face.
A familiar room.
A favourite toy sitting in the background.
A sibling hug that probably lasted about three seconds before somebody complained.
Family photography is ultimately about storytelling.
Learn a little about light and composition, certainly, but don't become so focused on creating the perfect photograph that you miss the moment itself.
Take the picture.
Print your favourites.
And, most importantly, make sure you are in some of them too.
Years from now, those ordinary photographs may turn out to be some of the most precious things you own.
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