Whether you’re just starting out in photography, or you want to improve your photography skills, you can try out these 5 fun photography activities for kids.
These photography activities for kids are designed to boost imagination and inspire creativity. They’re designed for children or young photographers, but adults can absolutely join in too.
Take a look at the photography activities for kids below and get your camera at the ready!
Photography Activities for Kids
- Love Your Landscapes
Landscape photography is one of the most popular forms. It’s all about capturing the beauty of the world, either the natural landscape, or the built environment too.
There are lots of different styles of landscape photography. In this activity, you’ll explore nearly all of them…
- Find and capture a natural landscape image full of trees/plants/greenery
- Find a capture a coastline landscape (this might not be easy straight away, depending on where you live. You might need to plan a trip, or be a patient waiting to collect this one)
- Capture an image of the night’s sky
- Capture an architectural image – this can be a cityscape or a landscape image of an impressive building/buildings
- Capture an impressionistic landscape image – this is where the photo has a feeling of atmosphere about it. Try to capture an image in misty weather, or at sunrise or sunset. Your image should feel a certain way, fantasy-like or ethereal
- Capture a minimalist landscape image. Here, less is more. Imagine an image of just snow on the ground or in the sky. Find a landscape with minimal colours or minimal shapes and capture it for your collection.
- Capture an aerial landscape. Again, this one might need some planning, but if you can have access to a drone, this is a great way to capture an aerial landscape. Alternatively, if you’re onboard a plane, or if you can do a tour of a high building, see if you can capture an image from a super high angle.
Once you’ve managed to collect them all, then congratulations! You now have your own landscape photography collection!
You’re also well on your way through our series of photography activities for kids. Keep going…
2. Master In Motion
Our next of the photography activities for kids is all about capturing motion on camera in a still image.
There are different ways to depict motion in your photography.
- Try using a normal camera mode to capture a moving object. The motion will likely turn out as a blur against a clear backdrop. Experiment with this technique until your blurred subjects have the feeling of motion you want to portray
- You can also play around with the different photography modes on your camera. If your camera has the option, try adjusting the shutter speed. This will vary how much light can travel into your camera. A fast shutter speed will capture crisp, clear images of your moving subject – this is how sports photographers capture images of fast-moving sports people. A slower shutter speed will increase the blur. You can use this to create motion blur or time lapse photos.
Once you’ve explored the different techniques, try to collect 10 photos of crisp, frozen motion and 10 photos with motion blur. Add them to your photography portfolio!
3. Perfect Portraits
Once you’ve explored the photography activities for kids mentioned above, why not move onto portrait photography?
Portraits are images that feature a person, or people, or an animal, that communicate the subject’s personality or a moment of time in their life.
There are lots of factors that can influence how a photographer can do this, ranging from their use of lighting, their use of backdrop or setting, as well as poses or expressions.
Capture the portraits of family members or friends, or your pets. (Make sure you have their permission to take their photo). Start indoors. Take a few of each subject, whilst talking to them or giving them different prompts to respond to.
Move your subject to nearby a window and take a few more.
Move your subject outdoors and take a few more.
Show your images to some other people. Ask what emotional impressions other people might have of your subjects. Do they think your subject is friendly? Do they think your subject is authoritative? Do they think your subject is comfortable?
How you take the photo can influence how you share their personalities. You want to try and capture their expressions as naturally as possible.
4. Style Out Some Still Life
In the next of our photography activities for kids, we’ll look at still life photography. Still life images depict inanimate objects.
Choose a collection of objects from around the house. You can use toys, foods, utensils, shoes, any objects that you can find.
First, photograph them individually where you find them. Then take a photo of them in a place you’ve chosen. This can be a window sill, or on a table, or against a backdrop. You decide.
Once you have an individual photo of each item, start to build collections of the items to capture. Assemble your items into a creative display… Where do the bigger items belong? Can you apply any symmetry? Capture as you go, then reflect on your favourite arrangements. Add your favourites to your portfolio.
5. Edit your Photos
Once you have a collection of photos from the photography activities for kids above, you can really enhance them with some editing.
This doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you’re a beginner.
You can use a photo editing app on a phone or a tablet. You can also find photo editing apps for desktops too. Our favourites include Adobe’s Lightroom, which has a free version, and PhotoDirector, which helps you to animate your photos too.
Apply effects and filters to help enhance your photos even further. Explore sharpening, or blurring, enhancing the colours, the contrast or the saturation levels.
Once you’re happy, you can make a new portfolio with all your edited images. If you want to, you can print your photos in a photo book, or publish your portfolio online using a portfolio builder. You can use an app like PhotoBox or create a free website on Google using their portfolio template.
More Photography Activities for Kids
If you’ve enjoyed our fun photography activities for kids, then you might also like our blog on Practising Your Photography Skills, or 6 Fun Activities for Boosting Visual Literacy, which is all about developing visual storytelling skills.
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