Hi friends! Can you believe we are in April already? This year is definitely flying by! Speaking of which, our youngest just turned 6 months a couple of weeks ago! I love to see my babies grow, but his first year is going by too fast! I swear my daughter’s first year felt like two years by the time we got to her first birthday!
When I first had my son, 7 years ago, I wanted to make sure I took his monthly photo so I could see his growth through his first year. I loved those photos and kept the tradition alive with our daughter, and now our youngest.
Tips for taking awesome milestone monthly photos of your newborn!
Looking back at those monthly photos gives me so much mama nostalgia, but it’s apparent that my photography skills have also developed as much as my kids have! In today’s blog post I’m going to share my tips and tricks to get beautiful monthly baby photos of your little ones!
Background and Lighting
When my oldest was born I wanted to take photos of him with my giant stuffed bunny that I had when I was a baby. The idea was good but the photos themselves needed some work! If I could redo it again I wouldn’t have him up against the dark background of the loveseat. It creates too many dark shadows and it was an unflattering color to be propped up against! I also would have him lay down flat to get a good body shot instead of him looking scrunched up in the corner. Keep in mind the objects in the shot, as you can see I cut a part of the bunny’s head off! Of course, wiggly babies will always be wiggly babies! I realized once my oldest was able to move really well that getting a good shot on the loveseat sofa was really difficult!
As you see here, I have him laying on a white blanket which makes a much better background! To create this, I just used a white blanket that was laid out on the floor of our living room which gets the best sunlight in our house. Adjust your blinds and curtains as needed so you don’t have any harsh light streaming directly into the shot. Using a good ring light is another option if your rooms are lacking natural light. I also use editing software the help brighten up my photos a bit! Just the slightest adjustment of the light exposure brightness can make a big difference! There are numerous apps that allow you to add text to photos. I, personally, use Canva and the “Homemade Apple” font for my text.
Props
I mentioned using the giant stuffed bunny which I thought was a fun indicator of how big our little guy was growing! Props in monthly milestone photos can be a lot of fun and definitely make the photo look better if used correctly!
For our daughter, we used the monthly milestone blocks. I still think these are adorable, but I definitely could have used them better! For one, the blanket wasn’t a great choice! It was cute in real life, although it made the photos look dark and I don’t like the busy texture it gave the background. It was also a small blanket which made it hard to get the blocks propped correctly without her bumping them with her little baby movements!
This time around I decided that the monthly baby milestone photos would be themed for that particular month. I wanted to be able to look at each month and know what time of the year it was, which was something I didn’t do with my first two! For example, his 6 month was in March, so we went with a St. Patricks Day theme. Although, so far the month of December has been my favorite!
Some easy and affordable prop ideas would be using a letter board with a fun quote each month, a personalized growth blanket like THIS one, or even a fuzzy rug. Even text with their monthly milestone stats overlayed around the baby would be cute and simple! Monthly milestone photos don’t need to be extravagant! My son’s 3-month photo was just him in a onesie, socks, and a Santa hat and it’s one of my favorite photos that I have of him!
What to wear for baby milestone photos
When taking these photos, keep in mind the colors you are putting together. Whether you are doing monthly themed photos or similar outfits for every month, choosing good color combinations can really make or break a good photo!
This 10-month photo of my daughter has too many pinks that end up clashing with each other. This is where having a plain white background would have made all the difference! Also, she was going through a difficult hair stage where half of the hair was straight and the other half curly (haha!) She’s cute nonetheless, but it’s not a photo I would hang on our wall!
The outfits I’m using for the baby this time around are more centered around what month we are currently in. At first, I considered putting him in a white onesie every month to keep it simple. I’ve found that changing up the outfits to fit the month was fun and easier than I had anticipated it to be. Be creative with whatever you choose to do, but don’t get hung up on the outfits either! Keep it simple!
A few more tips to get amazing milestone photos
I was more aware of the spacing and how items are laid out than I ever was with my first two. I think the open space gives the photo a nice clean look to it. Pulling back and creating that space within the photo also allows you to capture their growth from month to month.
Fortunately, to take a great shot, you don’t need expensive equipment! About half of his first-month photos are used with an old iPhone6s Plus. I then upgraded to the iPhone 13 Pro, which takes such great high-quality photos! I can’t speak about other brands of phones, but camera phones have come a long way! No need to buy big bulky professional cameras when we have them in our back pockets!
No need to stop at monthly baby milestone photos! I love taking them throughout the year just as fun photos to look back on and my big kids still enjoy being in them as well!
I hope you have found this blog about baby milestone photos to be helpful! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
