7 Tips for Taking Great Monthly Photos of Your Baby

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Maggie 11 months

I can’t believe we’re officially done with our babies’ monthly photos! I took them both up through 12 months and I figured that was an accomplishment enough. 😉 But we learned some tricks during all those photo sessions, so I’m sharing 7 tips for taking great monthly photos of your baby! It’s easier than you think to accomplish, and if you follow our tips it really doesn’t take much time at all. Here we go!

Tagteam It First off, you need another adult. Don’t try to do it by yourself or the kid will end up crying or falling off a chair or you’ll drop the camera trying to catch them or some awful thing. Save yourself the chaos and wait until you have a partner to help you.

Stage it First Before you get the kid into the space where you’ll be taking photos, get it all set up. You don’t want to waste any time after the baby is there. So make sure all of the junk is out of the frame, set up any props that you’ll use, and have your camera settings all ready. Once you plop the baby down in the picture you should be ready to roll.

Pick Their Best Time If your baby is fussy in the mornings, for crying out loud don’t take photos in the mornings! With Henry, morning was his good time so we would always take his pictures first thing. Maggie always had a really cheerful couple of hours after her second nap, so that’s when we would do hers. Watch your baby’s rhythm and go with their flow.

Keep Things Simple Elaborate backdrops and photo setups can be fun, but really these photos are just about documenting baby’s growth and making sure you have a snap of them at a certain age. So don’t kill yourself going overboard. Also, keep in mind that once your baby is mobile, they’re probably just going to want to rip down anything hanging or chew on anything that they can grab. So plan your setup accordingly. If you are into the backdrop idea, here’s a great one that you can reuse and move anywhere you need it. This one also comes together super fast and is really fun and colorful!

Have a Continuing Theme It doesn’t have to be anything major, but it’s kind of fun to set the kid into the same surroundings every time, so that a theme is carried through. With Henry, we always put him on the same blue chair. With Maggie it was a yellow couch. I usually had them in a white onesie, or something similar. It’s also fun to include a number every month so you know right away how old they are. We always used the same little number tags and pinned them to the chair. It was very simple but very effective, and looks really fun when you line all the photos up, like this:

Maggie 11 months

Props are Good Giving them something to do makes for great photos! We usually start with just the baby and no props, and them give them something to play with about halfway through. Let them chew it, throw it, hug it — whatever they want to do. Kelly made these adorable number pillows for baby Arlo’s photos and they’re such a great idea! They convey the month and they’re a fun prop for him to play with for the photo session. It can also be a good idea to keep a couple of their favorite toys off camera and hidden from the baby until you need him to look right at the camera. Hold a toy up behind the camera and try to get them to look and reach for it.

DIY Crepe Paper Wall Photo Backdrop

Keep it Quick Don’t torture the little cuties — try to get your photos done quickly and efficiently. Don’t push. If they’re done, they’re done. (Unless you’re fond of photos of red-faced, crying children.) To be honest, we’ve gotten our monthly photos down to a science so that we really only are shooting for about 2 minutes and then it’s all over. But you’ll know when your baby is ready for her session to wrap up.

Hope these tips help you document your little cuties! Be sure to pin the image below to keep our tips handy. And if you use any of our tips to photo your babes, tag us on social media with #thelovelysquad! xoxo

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