5 Easy Prompt Ideas for Natural and Authentic Child Photos

Capturing natural, genuine smiles and authentic expressions when photographing children can be tough!

They either don’t want to be in front of the camera at ALL, or worse, they’ve have years of being conditioned to “give me a smile” when the camera comes out so you end up with fake, cheesy grins that look forced and unnatural.

The best antidote to this is to have some simple prompts in your back pocket that you can whip out to help you capture more relaxed and joyful expressions!

When I first started out taking pictures of children, I know that I would feel really awkward (yes, me, never mind the kids) because I simply didn’t know how to get the relaxed, joyful expressions that I wanted, so my images looked stiff and forced.

Of course, this led me to start trying out different things with different age groups, until I had built up a playbook of ideas I could use on kids of all ages.

(Want to get your hands on that playbook? You can! It’s called the Playful Prompts Playbook and it’s just $9 for 99 ideas!)

Here I’m going to share a few easy ideas with you, for different age groups, that should help you feel more in control, and get those genuine, happy expressions that you want.

But before we start:

What age are you photographing?

The first thing to bear in mind is the AGE of the child makes a HUGE difference to which prompt to use! For example, the prompts that work on a 5 year old will have the opposite effect on a tween.

Plus, every child is different and will respond to different things, which is why one prompt might work for one child, but not another. This is why it can be helpful to have a few different ideas you can pull out if one doesn’t work!

The tips I’m going to give you here vary a little on who they work best for, but remember it’s a range, and you can adapt if you need to!

Without

Prompts to get smiles from toddlers

Aahhhh, toddlers.

Photographing toddlers was probably where the expression “never work with children or animals” first came to pass. As much as I truly LOVE that age (its my favourite!) toddlers don't like to follow any rules, will run off at a moment's notice, rarely sit still for long, and can fall into a tantrum at the drop of a hat!

Which is why it's no wonder they can be one of the trickiest age groups to photograph 😂

There is an upside to photographing toddlers though - and that is you will always get an honest and natural photo as they simply don’t know how to fake it yet and to me, that is a wonderful thing! Plus, they are incredibly funny, full of energy and naturally joyful (if you let them run wild for a bit) so it's a terrific age to capture and well worth the effort.

THE RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT GAME

I have a stack of prompts for working with toddlers, but my favourite has to be the “Red Light, Green Light” game.

This is such a simple prompt - when you shout green the child has to run, and stop when you shout red!

Of course, this turns the whole thing into a game, which toddlers adore, so you get happy, joyful expressions.

But the best part of this prompt is that you get to call the shots on where to place your subject!

So I have the start point with them standing in front of a great backdrop and in great light. (Before I even bring them in I have my exposure settings correct, and I’ve already figured out the best focus technique so I’m good to go!)

At this point, you can slowly count down from 3 before you yell “green!”.

The kids tend to get giddy with excitement - and that’s when you snap some pictures (and then again when you shout red!)

GIVE SIMPLE DIRECTIONS

If you prefer something a little more relaxed, I tend to give simple directions to go somewhere, for example "Can you find a stick?" "Is that a ladbug on that leaf?" "Can you find Daddy?"

You’re chatting away the whole time and playing around too, but you are directing to something where you know you will get a good shot. This allows the child to stop focusing on getting their picture taken and turn their attention to something else instead (meanwhile, you’re pressing the shutter and not missing anything!)

Prompts for natural expressions from children

As children get slightly older, you still want to keep the whole thing FUN, because if there is one thing guaranteed to get boring pictures, it’s to have a boring shoot!

However, you really want to use a prompt that will work on that particular child! Every child is unique, so for example, the more playful prompts aren’t great for a shy child, whereas a more, er, spirited child, will want something even more fun!

Again, here’s just a couple of ideas for photographing kids:

PLAY PRETEND!

Have them pretend to be their favourite character (for example a princess, fairy, dinosaur etc) In some cases you might want to bring in a prop too - a simple pair of glasses, hat or wand can be enough!

(In fact, you can turn this into a whole styled session if you want to!)

FUNNY FACES CONTEST

Ask them to make a weird face and you have to guess what it is - the key to getting really great expressions is to guess really stupid things to make them laugh!

Yes, you'll get lots of outtakes with weird faces but some genuine smiles and laughs too. (But you’re in charge here, so you should be able to decipher when the genuine smile is coming!)

Fun and Playful Prompts for Siblings & Families

Siblings and families can sometimes be tricky to photograph, because it can be hard to get both kids smiling at the same time, and have the adults be happy too!

HAVE SIBLINGS PUT HEADS TOGETHER

My go to pose for siblings is to have them lie on their tummies with their heads together.

Depending on the age of the child you’ll need to add something else into this to get those natural expressions - for younger kids, for example, you could play a game of Simon says, but you can always ask for something impossible to make them laugh!

For older kids, I might deviate a bit from this and direct them to have a staring contest with one another and be ready to catch the part when they start laughing!

CUDDLY FAMILY

For families, I might start by asking the parents to embrace each other, in the spot where I want the photo to be taken.

Then, I’ll ask the kids to to run and give their parents a huge hug - ideally one going to each parent and hug them from the side rather than the front. A little alternative to this (if the kids have a lot of energy they need to run off!) have the kids run around the parents first, then tell them to hug the parents when you yell “HUG!” , which turns it into a game too!

Want even more child and family photo prompts?

If you loved these prompt ideas and want even more, grab our $9 (yes, seriously, $9!) Playful Prompts Playbook which has 99 quickfire creative prompt for capturing everything from babies to teens, plus families and siblings, in a way that feels fun, joyful, and relaxed. (And most importantly, gets you the gorgeously unforced expressions you need!)