Photography is an amazing hobby that you can teach your kid. Along with teaching them something that they will enjoy and which will help them in the future, you can also use it as an opportunity to spend time with your child. There are many ways that photography can help your child. Photography increases your child’s confidence, helps them to make new friends and allows them to connect with nature. Your child may even turn photography into a profession in the future.
Since we are so used to photography, we don’t realize the effort that a child has to put in when they start learning photography. There are many things that we do without thinking needs to be taught to them. The good news is that children have a natural curiosity and pick up things very fast. Most of the time, you don’t even need to teach them. They just watch you and learn. But it is best to explain why you do what you do when you are clicking photos so that they can improve their skills.
When you teach your kid photography, the below five tips will help you to make the teaching easier.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Get a good kids camera and a strong camera case:
Though you may have a good camera in your house that you don’t use or you may be tempted to give them a camera in your old mobile phone, I suggest that you get a good camera for kids. Kid’s cameras today are inexpensive and have many features which are kids friendly like smaller buttons, easy features, and variety of colors and very strong in case your kid accidentally drops it. You have many options in the market like Polaroid Kids cameras, digital kid’s cameras and even toy cameras.
Another benefit of giving your child a new camera is that they will get a very strong sense of ownership over the camera which will help them to be more interested in photography.
Since children drop things, also make sure that you buy a strong camera strap and a camera case. This will help you to teach them to keep the camera safe and also take care of the camera.
Step 2: How should you child use the camera
The next step that you need to teach your child is how to actually make use of the camera. This includes many aspects like how to hold the camera, how to balance the camera, how to position your child’s finger on the click button and how to adjust the focus.
A very important thing here is to teach your child how to use the camera strap and how to secure it firmly around their wrist or around their neck.
You should also teach your child how to cover the lens after they use it and how they need to pack up the camera properly back into the camera case after they use it.
Step 3: Explain the main camera parts
There are many parts in a camera and each has a specific function. I suggest that at the start keep all the settings on “Automatic” mode so that they don’t need to focus on advanced aspects and techniques. Later you can explain each part and its function one at a time so that your child is not overwhelmed by the complexities. You can start with the easiest and the simplest part of the camera which is the power button. After that you can explain the function of the lens and the shutter release button. Then you can explain how to focus on objects via the viewfinder. Later once your child is comfortable with the camera and they are ready for advanced lessons you can introduce them to the zoom function, the flash function, mode dial, and other advanced control buttons on your camera. On a kid’s camera, most of the functions are very easy to use but if your child will be using an adult, normal camera, it makes sense that you take a few months before you start introducing them to the advanced stuff.
Step Three: Steadying the camera
Most of the photographs taken by your child will come blurry. Children fidget a lot and their hands shake. Once your child sees this, they start losing interest in photography. To prevent this, it is very important to teach your child how to hold the camera steadily. They can use their body as a support for their elbows when they are clicking a photo. Another good method is to use a flat surface like a table to place their elbows while they are clicking a photo. You can also buy a tripod so that they can place the camera on it and they just need to click. That way they don’t have to worry about the steadiness when they are learning photography.
Step Five: Focus on only one subject
Since the attention of a child is very low, they start getting distracted with various objects when they start clicking photos. You need to teach them how to focus only on one aspect at a time. As I mentioned earlier, the attention span of a child is very low so any small object can distract their attention. In addition they try to click as many objects as they can in one frame. Explain to them that they need to fill their lens with one object and then click.
Conclusion
When you start to teach your child photography, you will realize that it is a very enriching experience where you get to bond with your child. Your child will learn to appreciate nature and will gain an entirely new perspective of the world around them. The most important thing that you need to keep in mind when you are teaching your child photography is to let go. Let them learn on their own after you have taught them the basics. That way they will be able to explore the world of photography faster and gain their own unique experiences.
About the Author:
Dan Barr is a photographer, a parent to two girls, and the founder of KidsCameraGuide.com, a blog which is all about teaching photography to kids and kids cameras. You can visit Dan at his website www.kidscameraguide.com.
