Capturing great kid pictures with your phone? Easy

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to take professional-looking photos of your kids.

Whether you’re at a soccer game, on vacation, in your backyard or at the park, the opportunities for sterling, memorable photos are plentiful, especially when you have your iPhone handy.

And we know, parents, that you rarely leave home without yours.

Courtesy of the Red Tricycle website, here are some suggestions for how you can take iPhone pictures of your kids that will dazzle your friends and relatives.

1. You don’t have to unlock your phone. If your phone is locked, you can just swipe left to pull your camera up. No passcode or touch ID required.
   
2. Your phone comes with focus. When you have your camera open, just tap the screen where you want your focus to be (a yellow box will indicate this). Tap it again and it will allow you to adjust the exposure.
   
3. It’s easier to lighten a dark photo than to darken a bright photo. If you’re in a situation where the lighting is too low but adding a big overhead light or flash would ruin the photo, opt for darker. You can take a dark photo and lighten it, but once your photo is too light, it’s hard to darken it enough to make it worth keeping.
   
4. Don’t go overboard on filters, and put your filter on your phone before you take the photo. The biggest mistake most people make to existing photos is to get carried away with filters. If you want to use a filter, try editing your photos in the Instagram app, where a double-tap on any filter allows you to adjust the amount.
   
5. Change the way you hold the phone. Most of us hold it upright and snap pictures, but changing the position of your phone can make a subtle but noticeable difference. For example, flip the phone upside down — you can create different angles this way and still easily reach the photo button to take your picture. Also, crouch, kneel or lie down on your belly to get photos that fill the frame with your child and show the world from his or her point of view. And instead of taking the same picture three times, move around to capture different angles of the same scene. You’ll be amazed at how the light and the mood of the photo changes when you move even a few feet.
   

And, lastly, parents: Practice, practice, practice. Challenge yourself to take one good picture of your kids each week. Yes, you’ll take a lot of bad photos. But in the age of digital photography, who cares? Delete the ones you don’t like and keep going. You’ll definitely end up with some gems!