November 16, 2023

7 Photography Tips I wish I had known before I had Kids

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This post is sponsored by Olympus Imaging Australia.

Many of you already know that Jenni and I met in antenatal class over 8 years ago and we’ve been best friends ever since! We loved to plan play dates with our mother’s group and started to document the fun we were having on Facebook, this quickly transformed into our blog. We often laugh at all the original photos from 8 years ago, our photography skills sure have come along way since those days and we really wish we had invested more time in capturing those cherished years the best way we could.

Today we’ll be sharing our top 7 tips we wish we had know before we had kids! I suppose we’ll be sharing the mistakes we made in the hopes it saves you from making the same ones.

1. Don’t get caught up in the ‘App Game’!
One of our biggest regrets is the time and money we spent on ‘fun’ photography apps with all those crazy filters, frames and overlays. Thanks to Facebook’s memories we get weekly reminders of just how dated those apps and filters have become. We wish we had just left the original photos alone or at least made sure we saved original copies before all the editing. Don’t get us wrong we still love to use photo editing apps but we will never make the mistake of not keeping an original. See below just one example from 5 years ago and the same best friends a couple of months ago. We know now how much we would have loved them both to be unfiltered and natural.
Classic example of how 'trendy' apps can date your images.
Bottom photo captured on the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II using the portrait lens on AUTO. Top photo captured on smart phone with maybe 5 different apps inflicted on it.
2. Don’t rely solely on your phone camera
This was another big regret for us, especially with our second born children – iPads had just come onto the market and we used them for nearly all our home photos as it was easy to capture and then edit them using all the crazy apps we discussed above. We wish we had used a quality camera like our Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II to capture the originals and then transfer them to our devices if we wished to edit/share them. Did you know that you can do all of that with just one touch of a button on our Olympus cameras? They sync quickly and easily with our phones or tablets and that guarantees we get an amazing quality shot every. single. time. You can check us out using this feature on this Facebook video we recently shot.
Cute baby photos taken on iPad
Here’s an example of some cute images that were created to appear ‘old fashioned’ taken on an iPad, beautiful photos that we have no original unedited copies of. On ‘trend’ at the time but not so much now.
3. Look for different angles, get closer and play with the ‘Rule of thirds’.
You will often hear photographers talk about the rule of thirds; if you divide any canvas into thirds horizontally and vertically, the intersection of those dividing lines will often be the areas of greatest visual interest. After using the rule of thirds a lot in our own photography, we can see the truth in this, it’s something we wish we had known about earlier on. Also, look for different angles instead of always taking a front on shot and don’t be afraid to get in close to your subject.
Rule of thirds
You can select to see the rule of third lines ‘live’ in the shooting display on the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II
4. Lighting
Golden hour – one hour before sunset and one hour after sunrise is the best time to plan an outdoor photoshoot, this will ensure you don’t have harsh sunlight throwing shadows all over your subject. Overcast days can also be great as the sun is less harsh on these days also.

If you’re shooting indoors find a spot with a lot of natural lighting; sit close to a window and use some white cardboard or a car sun visor to reflect extra light on your subject. Taking time to think about lighting can turn an average photo into something amazing.

5. Take hundreds of photos
Now that we live in this digital age, we can afford to do this. Kids move around so much, their facials change as they move & the lighting/scenery can change in a second too so invest in a large good quality SD card so you don’t have to be limited by storage space. Our Olympus cameras have amazing built-in art filters that enable us to capture one photo and it will then throw beautiful art filters over that image, we then sync the camera to our smart phone (using the Olympus app) and choose our favourite filtered image. It’s something we use all the time.
Example of a few auto art filters that are built into the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II
Example of a few auto art filters that are built into the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II
6. BACK UP!
We’re sure many of you are nodding your heads in agreement to this one. Jenni learnt this one the hard way after failing to back up a tonne of photos of her son when he was little and when her laptop crashed she lost so many precious memories (she still finds it hard to talk about). There are so many different ways to back-up digital files like an external hard drive, online cloud storage, thumb drives and many more. PRINT YOUR PHOTOS, sorry for the use of capitals again there but this is another great way to safeguard your favourite photos and something so many parents aren’t doing as much as they used to, why not create and print a photo book once a year filled with highlights and special memories?
7. Have fun
This one sounds obvious but remember to keep your photo shoots FUN by telling jokes, making silly noises, laughing and generally getting them to relax. We try really hard not to utter the words “say cheese!’.  Also, take advantage of your camera’s settings – we use the ‘Sports Mode’ on our Olympus often when shooting our kids because they move so fast and it enables us to capture them without the blur.
Most importantly, know when it’s time to put the camera down, there’s no point in getting frustrated or flustered trying to capture that ‘perfect’ moment because you’ll forever look back on that photo and remember the frustration not the actual special moment you set out to capture.
Telling funny jokes and having FUN on a recent shoot.
Telling funny jokes and having FUN on a recent shoot.
We hope these tips help others to not make the same mistakes we have and we also hope it encourages you to have some fun with your photography. You might like to watch this ‘behind the scenes’ Facebook video of us talking more about photoshoots and our photography gear.
Jenni & Louise xx
If you want to become a Fellow Fun Mum Member & receive all of our fun craft, recipes & activities as well as special offers & promotions – click the button on our home page 🙂
   
Oh, and why not pop over and ‘like’ us on Facebook OR perhaps Twitter is your thing. You can also find us on Pinterest & Instagram too!        
 
We also have some fun video tutorials for you to view on our YouTube Channel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *