How to Maintain Privacy When Sharing Pictures of Your Children Online

Photography Tips

While a lot of people don’t mind posting photos of their kids online, photographer Marcin Lewandowski is against the idea of showing his child’s face on social media. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to share photos at all. If you feel the same, you might be interested in his suggestions for other ways to share pictures without revealing a child’s identity:

Wanting to retain your child’s privacy doesn’t have to limit your creative possibilities. On the contrary, you have a world of options to work with.

As a bonus, when you concentrate on something other than focusing on a child’s eyes, you might just have a much easier time and a lot more fun photographing children. You can play around with your imagination and figure out more interesting ways to share your family’s life.

Children’s feet and fingers are especially cute. They make wonderful subjects and tend to change very quickly, too. Place them with larger adult feet or something else for scale.

Children’s clothes are also a great subject, especially if they’re wearing something funny or are in costume.

Though you may be trying to avoid photographing faces, you don’t necessarily have to avoid photographing your child’s head. Use your creativity. Find something to hide the face–a branch, a hat, a mask. Or, try shooting a silhouette.

Find creative ways of masking the face.

One more thing that you can try is incorporating distance in your images. From far away, faces become unrecognizable.

Photographing children without showing their faces doesn’t have to be stressful or uninteresting. It should actually excite your creative side and push you to try new things.

There’s no correct take on how to use social media when it comes to your kids. Many parents love sharing photos with their friends and family and save their worries for other matters. For some, a stance against showing a child’s face on social media is based on the fact that Facebook and other social media platforms can use your content in whichever way they like. But Lewandowski says his biggest reason is that he doesn’t want to use his son’s face as a trophy. He limits his exposure to a minimum until his son is old enough to decide for himself what gets shared online.

What are your thoughts on this subject?