8 Great Tips for Photographing Your Baby

Few things in life can be as fulfilling as photographing babies. Here are 8 great tips you can follow to take the perfect photo of your baby.

1. Use Natural Light

When you start trying with natural light, you will see how much it improves your photo. Moreover, turning off your flash will make your camera less noticeable open more chances for candid moments. Search for indirect natural light. When light shines beside your baby, you will observe interesting soft shadows adding new dimensions to your composition.

2. Avoid Automatic Settings

Automatic settings do not always allow to capture the best moment. Here are some tips for knowing your camera better-

Learn how to turn off the flash. Natural light is far better than your flashbulb light.
Learn how to manually change its aperture settings. Try to focus only on the primary subject and blur the rest of the background softly.
Learn how to change the shutter speed of your camera. For a sleeping baby try slow shutter speed, and for a running toddler try fast shutter speed.
Learn how to adjust the ISO of your camera. Use high ISO only if adequate natural light is not present. You can avoid using flash light by increasing the ISO if you want.

3. Take Candid Shots

Posed photos are good, but candid shots are better. Be patient and wait for the precious and genuine moments.

4. Click a Lot

Babies are unpredictable. Don’t be afraid to keep the camera shooting rather than waiting for that perfect pose or moment because somewhere in 30 consecutive shots will be one winner. Presuming you have a good amount of natural daylight, choose an ISO of 100-400 and use a wide aperture (f/2.8-f/8) for a shallow depth of field. Use continuous shooting mode on your camera to capture 2, 3, 4, or 5 photos in a couple of seconds.

5. Check the Background

Have you ever shot something brilliantly only to notice later that there’s dirty laundry or some other distracting element ruining the background? So before shooting the photo make sure that your background has nothing unpleasant. Simple baby shots are usually the best; there is no need for cluttered or overly bright backgrounds. A great way to get a photo that looks professional is to get some white, grey or beige cloth and lay it over two chairs. Spot meter on the baby's face and focus on the baby's eyes.

6. Be Close

Getting down on the ground to take photos will change your perspective and help you see your child’s world from their point of view. You will have a better chance of getting your child to look straight into the camera and the surroundings you capture will reflect their world.

7. Engage in Activities

To take extraordinary pictures try to capture the baby engaged in an activity, or with family and friends. Get their siblings playing together, eating or simply interacting as friends. Keep back and don’t try to force friendliness – let the children do what they do. Try to take the photos from far, so as not to interrupt them. Seat the kids in a neat and clean area that has lots of natural light.

8. Hire a Professional Photographer

There’s a big difference between a casual snapshot and a carefully taken and composed photo. You can hire professional photographers on different occasions, for example when your baby turns 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. A newborn photoshot will always be special in your memory collection. The ideal time to have your newborn photographed is within this first two weeks of life, when they are at their sleepiest and most cooperative and can be curled into beautiful poses. It’s better to hire photographers for birthday and concept/theme based costume photography because they are experts in this field and you will get some good quality photographs to cherish your memories forever. Lastly, we want to say that, you don’t need a very good camera to start photographing your baby. Just start with whatever you have right now, and capture as many moments as possible. Babies offer a great opportunity for creating beautiful and treasured photographs. Don’t forget to be open, friendly and playful while photographing. Happy clicking!