You can take cute monthly pictures of your baby! Here are 5 helpful tips that will allow you to take even better pictures!
I took monthly pictures of both of my children until they turned one year old. My youngest recently turned one, so I just finished up a round of monthly pictures.
For each child, I used a different method of taking pictures. Even though both methods were different, I ran into some similar situations.
Since I have gone through this process twice, I have learned a few things along the way. Today I am sharing 5 helpful tips for taking monthly pictures of your baby. I hope you find some of the tips useful for taking your own pictures!
5 HELPFUL TIPS FOR TAKING MONTHLY PICTURES OF YOUR BABY
*I should start off by saying that I am not a professional photographer. I am just a mom who loves taking pictures of her children!
TIP #1: PLAN AHEAD FOR THE YEAR
It might be worth spending a little time thinking ahead for the following year. Think about things such as what supplies you will need, how much money you plan to spend, and how much time it will take to set up the pictures. This helps ensure that you will get the pictures that you want!
Supplies
For my daughter’s pictures, she wore a white onesie with a monthly sticker on it for most of her pictures. The different sized white onesies and monthly stickers were the only supplies we needed.
For my son’s pictures, he wore different outfits and used different fabric backgrounds. I had to think about what kind of fabric backgrounds I was going to use and make sure I liked how they looked together.
I didn’t actually need too many supplies for my daughter’s or son’s pictures compared to some of the other setups I have seen. However, it is still good to think about what you will need in advance. I always like to have a plan, even if things don’t go exactly as planned!
Money
It didn’t cost anything to take my daughter’s pictures because we received both the white onesies and monthly stickers as shower gifts.
On the other hand, we had to buy some supplies for my son’s pictures. We bought a wooden plaque and a variety of fabrics. A yard of fabric by itself isn’t very expensive. However, when you start buying a new yard of fabric each month, it can start to add up. It’s definitely nice to think ahead because it might affect your plans. My original plan was to have twelve different fabric backgrounds. However, I ended up using some of them twice to save some money.
Set Up Time
For my daughter’s pictures, it didn’t take a very long time to set up the pictures because we didn’t worry about the background for the pictures. We just took the pictures on different blankets, on random chairs in the house, and even in a pumpkin!
It took a little longer to get set up for my son’s pictures because we had to set up the different fabric backgrounds. It’s a good idea to consider how much time you are going to have each month to take pictures.
TIP #2: GET YOUR EQUIPMENT AND CAMERA SET UP FIRST
It was much easier for me when I had everything set up exactly how I wanted it to be before I got my baby ready. This included the background, any props, and my camera settings.
Then I would recommend taking a few practice shots without your baby so you have a better idea of what the pictures are going to look like. It is frustrating to miss a great shot of your baby because you had your camera set up wrong!
Babies have a short attention span, so they will probably start to lose interest pretty quickly once you start taking pictures. They are also very messy, so it’s probably a good idea to wait to dress them in their picture outfit until you are sure you are ready!
TIP #3: HAVE SOMEONE HELP YOU
Be prepared to ask for help at some point! It wasn’t very hard to take pictures of my babies by myself for the first few months. They would stay exactly where I set them down. I could take the pictures while my husband was at work.
However, babies will eventually start to move around on their own! My husband had to start helping with the pictures when my babies started crawling because they didn’t want to stay in one place.
I stood ready with the camera while my husband put our baby in place. Then I snapped pictures as quickly as I could, hoping to get some good pictures. Then we usually repeated this process until we got some good pictures. It was also helpful to have my husband there because he could keep the baby entertained while I took the pictures.
TIP #4: ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME
Make sure you have plenty of time to take pictures. While I was taking pictures, I was surprised at how long it could take just to get one good picture.
First of all, it very often took me longer to get everything set up than I thought it would. For example, the fabric we used for my son’s pictures had been stored folded up. I realized I needed to iron out some wrinkles before I started taking pictures. This added an extra step because I had to go get the iron from the basement, wait for it to heat up, and then iron the fabric.
Once everything is set up, your baby might not be quite ready to start the photo session. She might need a new diaper or need to eat. Or maybe she fell asleep while waiting for you to get ready!
Then after you start taking pictures, you might realize that something needs to be adjusted. In my case, a good example of this was the fabric backgrounds. After setting my son on the fabric, I realized that it got all scrunched up when he moved around, even just a little bit. To fix this problem, I had to tape the fabric to the floor, which was an extra step that took more time.
It’s hard to say exactly what is going to end up taking more time than expected. My point is just to make sure you are prepared for it to take longer than expected.
TIP #5: BE PATIENT
Last, it is important to be patient and remain calm. If you start to get upset, your baby might also start to get upset. That will definitely not make taking pictures any easier!
Remember that you are taking a picture of a little baby, not a professional model. Your baby may not do exactly what you want her to do all of the time. If it isn’t working at first, there is nothing wrong with taking a break and trying again later.
It is so fun to look back to see how my babies grew from month to month. I am really happy I took these pictures. There are a lot of really cute ideas for taking monthly baby pictures. I really wish I could do them all!
Good luck with your pictures! I hope that these tips help you take better monthly pictures of your baby! I’m sure others out there have some tips that I haven’t covered. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it! Feel free to leave comments!
Have a great day!
♥Jena♥