Celebrate Your Kids Great Year

As you and your family settle into the school holidays, memories of all your children’s achievements and adventures of the previous school year might be slowly fading away. That’s why we suggest marking every special occasion with some great photography printed to canvas. This week we’ll share some ideas for getting the best out of these special celebratory photos. 

The final year of school before your kids move on to the next tier or head out into the world can be an exciting but slightly sad time. They know that they’ll be leaving some friends behind forever, so make that easier for them by organising a simple photoshoot to take some fun images they can all treasure. They may have the official school photos, but, well, we all know how stuffy they can be. We're sure that we can do better than that, can’t we?

Round up your children and their friends (with their parents’ consent, of course!) and head to the park. A big back garden will do if the background's natural and uncluttered, but the park's great because the open space encourages them to let loose a bit – not that they’ll need much encouragement!

Engage their creativity – This is a chance for them to get away from the formal photos and have some fun, so let them pull funny faces, laugh, make fun of each other, and roll around on the grass.

Use the space – Take some shots of the kids from a distance, allowing them to dance around or spin in circles, but also be sure to get some more intimate images with them all huddled close together. Fill the frame and emphasise their close friendships.

Watch your backgrounds – Use the park effectively by making sure your backgrounds are clean, so try and keep rubbish bins, fences and other distractions out of your frame. You can remove these in post-production, but it’s far easier to get it right in camera.

Use the light well – If it’s a lovely sunny day, be sure to keep the sun behind your subject’s heads to prevent squinting. Add a little positive exposure compensation or choose your camera’s backlight setting to counteract the backlight.

Follow these simple steps and your kids and their friends will soon have some great images to remember each other as they grow. Print them up on canvas and use them to jazz up their bedroom!