How to Turn Candid Photos on Canvas into Design Elements

Posed and poised is always one way to approach photos, especially when you’re planning to use those photos to decorate your home with pictures of your family and pets. But this assumption that all design has to be carefully planned and carefully managed can leave your home feeling a bit cold and overly ‘done’. A great way to combat that feeling is to mix in some true candid photos on canvas that will give your home’s feel just a spice of chaos.

Not every candid photo is ready for prime-time on the walls, though. Everyone’s spent a frustrating day or two in their lives lugging around their camera and snapping away, and having a steaming pile of poorly-composed photos to show for it. Even the candid photos that have charm often need a lot of tender loving care in order to be considered good enough for your walls. Here’s a few simple techniques that can take sloppy and crazy candid photos and make them perfect for your interior design.

Crop ‛Em

There’s no law that says you can’t adjust a candid photo. Just because it’s candid doesn’t hold you to any sort of journalistic code of ethics – it’s perfectly fine to adjust your candid by cropping out portion in order to produce a better-composed photo, or to eliminate distracting elements from the background.

In candid photos of children, you can crop in tight on the child’s face to emphasise an adorable expression, or even concentrate on an element of the photo that isn’t centred on the kid at all, but represents a moment in time or the feeling of that particular day. Cropping down to the details that matter is always a powerful tool, but when you’re dealing with the chaos of the candid it’s even more powerful.

Look at how this photo of a family pet, cropped to just his soulful expression, turns this room from a fuzzy place to a warm, inviting space.

Go Long for Photos on Canvas

Alternatively, take a step back. When we take candid photos we sometimes assume we have to be right on top of our subjects to ensure we don’t miss dramatic or heartwarming moments, but letting your subjects – whether they’re kids, pets, or strangers on the street – roam a bit gives you the opportunity to produce amazing tableaus.

Don’t just launch into snapping photos feverishly; take a moment to consider where you are, and what the landscape and architectural features can offer your photos in terms of composition and framing. Then choose your positions based on how you can use those aspects. Your photos will be no less candid, but will suddenly be imbued with a structure and purpose that can get lost when you’re solely focussed on the subjects themselves and their behaviours.

Candid is a style – not a law. You can – and should – manipulate your photos to ensure they make for awesome design elements. When you’ve got a few that will pop on your walls click here and we’ll turn them into instant conversation pieces.