Ways to use this list
- Beginner course homework: draw one card a week and bring the best three shots to class, with one sentence on what you tried.
- Family walk: everyone draws a card at the start and the photos are shared at dinner. Children love the toy adventure and bug's-eye view prompts.
- Photo club: draw one prompt per meeting and run a small, friendly vote. The same prompt in different hands shows how many ways there are to see.
- Daily practice: one card each morning for 30 days builds the habit. Keep the photos in one folder and watch how your eye changes over the month.
- Portrait sessions with friends, family or couples: draw from People & pairs to get past the stiff "say cheese" moment and catch natural pictures.
Press Draw a card, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a wheel, duck race, hat and more.
The full list (42 entries)
- Rule of thirds: put your subject off-centre
- Find leading lines that pull the eye into the photo
- Frame your subject inside a doorway or window
- Shoot one object from five different angles
- Get down low: shoot everything from ankle height
- Shoot from directly above, looking straight down
- Fill the whole frame with one texture
- Find perfect symmetry
- Leave lots of empty space around a small subject
- A silhouette against a bright sky
- Photograph shadows, not the things that cast them
- Show movement with blur
- Black and white: look for strong contrast
- Golden hour: shoot just after sunrise or before sunset
- One colour only: everything you shoot today is red
- A reflection in a puddle, window or spoon
- Ten photos without moving your feet
- Something old and something new in one frame
- Tell a story in three photos
- Photograph a sound without showing what makes it
- Find a face in an everyday object
- Shoot through something: a glass, a leaf, a fence
- Find letter shapes and spell your name
- A day in the life of your shoes
- Make something tiny look huge
- The same wall in morning and evening light
- A pattern with one thing that breaks it
- Your own street, seen like a tourist
- Find five circles around the house
- A toy on a big adventure
- Something soft, something hard, something bumpy
- Your favourite place to sit
- Make breakfast look fancy
- Find every colour of the rainbow
- A bug's-eye view of the garden
- A portrait lit only by a window
- Hands at work: cooking, drawing, building
- Catch a real laugh, not a posed smile
- Two people walking side by side, from behind
- Someone doing their favourite hobby
- Two silhouettes against a sunset
- Someone looking out of a window
Questions people ask
What are good photography prompts for beginners?
Start with prompts that teach one idea at a time: rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, symmetry and shooting from a low angle. Tap Beginner skills to draw only those.
Do I need a proper camera for these prompts?
No. Every prompt works with a phone camera. Learn to tap to focus and to lock the exposure, and you have most of what a beginner needs. A camera with manual settings helps later, for things like long exposures.
What is the rule of thirds?
Imagine the photo split by two lines across and two down, like a noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) grid. Placing the subject on a line, or where two lines cross, usually looks more balanced than putting it dead centre.
What is golden hour in photography?
Golden hour is roughly the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset, when sunlight is low, warm and soft. Shadows are long, faces glow and colours look richer than at midday.