How To Take Better Baby Photographs During The First 90 Days

November 23, 2008

Although babies are the cutest and most precious beings on the planet, why is there such a huge discrepancy between a really cute BABY and a truly mediocre baby PICTURE?

If you want to take baby portraits that capture THE TRUE ESSENCE OF YOUR BABY, remember these critical points…

Your Baby’s First 3 Months

Think of this period in your baby’s photographic life as the MOLDING STAGE. Babies are so flexible, that more positions are possible now, than at any other time of life. And if someone else is posing the baby while you are already in position to shoot, so much the better.

During your baby’s first three months is the absolutely best time to take keepsake photos of BABY BITS. You can read about additional tips for photographing babies and view sample baby pics here.

At this age, the “baby bits” (feet, hands, eyes, noses, etc.) ALONE can make a keepsake photograph. Either use your camera’s macro setting and/or carefully crop a non-macro portrait.

Black and White images can also create quite an impact. Check your camera for any black and white selection. Or, most of the photo-editing software has ways to make the transition from color to black and white fairly simple.

When you add a parent’s hand(s) or face to the picture, an entirely different effect is created.

Play With Perspective

One approach is to get at eye-level with a sleeping baby, but position yourself at their feet. Believe it or not, you could easily take 50 pictures of a sleeping infant, and never take 2 that are identical.

An outstanding photographic exercise would be to snap off 50 images, each one from a different angle and perspective; using different focus points and aperture settings (for depth of field). Don’t worry; you won’t run out of ideas!

Once you begin to think about taking baby portraits differently, all sorts of new posing ideas will emerge. One example is to use the camera’s macro setting when taking baby portraits.

With the use of a tripod, focus solely on the baby’s eye, thus pushing the nose and everything else OUT OF FOCUS. Although more challenging with babies, it is possible (and very dramatic) to catch the reflection of an object in the baby’s eye. For that type of image, an extreme crop would be optimal.

Want to see more ideas for taking better baby portraits? We’ll show you how to create stunning baby portraits for every stage of your baby’s first 18 months.