Or, more realistically, you can take them yourself! We missed out on that with Leo since he was in the NICU his first 11 days of life and by the time we got him home, a pro photo shoot was the last thing on our minds. In fact, "get more sleep" and "oh my god will my baby please stop crying" were just about the only things on my mind.
So we had newborn photos that looked like this:
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| Our first snuggle |
He will always be the cutest boy in the world to me, tubes and all. These photos represent the reality of our experience and those are the memories I want to have.
With Stella, I was hoping for those snazzy newborn photos. As I was stuck on bed rest until she was born, I had plenty of time to learn how to take quality newborn photos without ending up as a Pinterest fail. I found this awesome newborn photo tutorial and planned my shoot.
Newborn Photo Shoot Set Up
First, the set-up. At the end of my 8th month of pregnancy I was finally allowed to move around a bit. I devised this backdrop made of two dining room chairs, my son's play table, a neutral-colored blanket, and a Boppy underneath. It faced the window and I planned to take the photos in the early morning light, with the light behind me. |
| Fancy, no? |
I tried different poses with a stuffed animal, checked the backdrop, and made sure my camera was on the right settings. It was important to prepare because once you have a living, breathing, crying baby to work with, you only have a few minutes available for the actual shoot.
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| Almost as cute as my baby! |
Newborn Photo Shoot
On the day of the shoot, I waited until Stella was fed and calm and dressed her in a neutral outfit. I snapped literally 100 photos so that at least one would turn out. Here's one of the best (unedited): |
| Dreaming of eating and sleeping, her two favorites |
Then of course her big brother wanted in on the action:
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| "Wanna grab a bottle when this is over?" |
Photo Finishing
Now that I'd taken the photos, time for editing (I used PicMonkey). Here's what I did:1. Cropped so that Stella was large and in charge
2. Enhanced the exposure using the auto-adjust feature
3. Focal soften, with a circle the size of her head, making the rest of the photo blurry
Here's the result:
And now my pretty baby hangs above the couch with the rest of the family:
I ordered the canvas from Photobox.fr since I live in France, but you can find equally awesome customizable canvases from Shutterfly. I get compliments on these prints all the time but the best part is how much my kids love them. Leo constantly points at them and names each person, and even baby Stella seems in awe of the pretty babies on the wall. My kids are clearly narcissists. I wonder where they get that from.
So there you have it. If you want an inexpensive way to take nice photos of your bundle of joy without having to leave the house, it's more doable than you think. If you try it, let me know!