How to share photos of your child without showing their face

If you’ve spent any time on my blog you’ll know that I do share photos of my children quite a bit.

I join in with the Living Arrows linky every week and pretty much all of the photos that I share do show my children’s faces.

A lot of people choose not to show their children’s faces online though.

I know there are a lot of concerns about it, and more people are looking for ways to share photos of their children without having to show their faces.  If this is something that’s on your mind then this post will help with a few different ideas for photos you can take of your children.

Here are some ideas for ways you can photograph your children without showing their faces, so you can feel happier sharing them online.

Get behind them

This is one of the easiest ways to get photos of your children that don’t show their faces.

Stand behind them and photograph them looking away from the camera.

This is something I do quite a lot with my children and I love how it can give a sense of seeing the world through their eyes.  It’s also a great way to get photos of them just being themselves, acting naturally rather than posing for the camera.

Get up high

Stand up above your child and point your camera down at them to take their photo.

This way you get a hint of their features without showing their whole face.

You can also get some fun shots that show your child’s personality this way if they have a particular hat they love to wear or if they like to experiment with hair accessories like Nerys!

Get down low

Another option is to get down lower and photograph your child from below.

I love this photo of Nerys on a swing because the angle gives a sense of how high she’s swinging.

Photograph over their shoulder

If your child is happily engaged in an activity then photograph them over their shoulder to capture them and what they’re up to.

This is a great way to photograph them reading a favourite book, drawing a picture or baking cakes.

Use shallow depth of field

If you can play with the settings on your camera then try using a really shallow depth of field when photographing your child.

Then you can get them to hold their hands out towards the camera and focus on them.  This way their hands will be the main feature in the photo, while their faces will be nice and blurry.

I love using this method to take photos like this one of me and Nerys holding hands while she navigates the climbing frame at the park.

Turn their heads

If you don’t want all your photos of your child to be from behind, then try capturing them side-on.  All you need to do is get them to turn their heads away from the camera.

Something as simple as ‘look at that tree’ is often enough to get them to turn their head away from you without moving their whole body.

Focus on the details

Get in close and focus on your child’s hands or feet or the pattern on their top.

I love taking photos of my children’s feet.  I can’t quite explain why, but I love how I can tell roughly how old they were when the photo was taken by the shoes and socks they’re wearing.

Literally hide their faces

If all else fails, try literally hiding your children’s faces in photos.

Get them to hold something up in front of their faces to hide their features.

You can get some gorgeous photos like this if you get them to hold up things like a small bunch of flowers.  Or you can capture their interests by getting them to show your their favourite toy, like Rhys did here with his red bird toy.

Hopefully these ideas will give you some inspiration to keep photographing your children and feel more happy sharing them online knowing that their faces can’t be seen.

Do you share photos of your children’s faces online?

If you don’t, then what approach do you normally take to keeping their faces hidden?