Minimalism is a big thing in photography – by stripping out the extraneous in a photo you get a stronger photo. For kid’s photography, this can be a bit of a challenge. Remember, less is more and follow these tips:

Start with Composition

Sometimes it can be tempted to strip out everything and leave nothing behind. In kid’s photography, this can mean just a plain background and your child as the subject. What you don’t want is to strip out everything and ignore the rules of composition – that just results in snapshot-style photos.

Start with your focal point, and use the rule of thirds. You can also combine a few leading lines to make your subject more prominent.

Textures and Colors

When you eliminate the extra details, you can make more bold choices in what remains, because there is less surrounding “noise.” Imagine you have a background that is brightly-colored, with lots of shapes – you wouldn’t want your subject wearing something brightly-colored, as this wouldn’t help them stand out (in fact it would make them blend in).

However, when the background is simplified you can experiment with color and texture. Brick walls, foliage, a field of flowers – still simplified, but powerfully so.

Zoom, Crop, Move

These are the three tenants to creating minimalist photos. Here they are:

1. Zoom: Either get closers to your subject or zoom in with your lens to cut out the details you want to exclude.
2. Crop: You might not have the time or tools to zoom into your subject, in which case you can crop after the fact with a photography editing tool.
3. Move: You don’t necessarily have to relocate your subject to get a minimalist photo when you’re dealing with distracting backgrounds.

Using a large aperture can also help to somewhat obscure the details – just make sure that your focus is spot on or else you’ll end up with blurry faces.

Tell a Story

You don’t need to include a lot of details in minimalist kid’s photography to tell a story. Stripping out the details can actually help to focus on what you’re trying to tell the world with your images. You can start with an emotion or event – happiness, sadness, fun, new explorations. Next, find a way to tell the story through your photo. Keep practicing, it can take some time to get used to dealing with minimalist photography of your kids.

Minimalist photography is a great way to put the focus on your kids and enhance your kid’s photography. Give it a try!