Tips on how to take the best family photos with your newborn baby

To get the best pictures, you need to be spontaneous and capture the best moments as they take place naturally. Taking baby photos is an everyday occurrence for most parents - knowing how quickly they grow up, we want to immortalise the time they were crawling around or even sooner, when swaddled in their blankets. As the children get older and our memories fade, our photos will always be there to remind us of how things used to be. However, we also want to take original images of our little ones, and it’s becoming harder to achieve that as techniques and technology changes. But that’s not even the biggest problem. The main problem is that today’s parent generations don’t seem to know what exactly makes a good baby photo, or family photo session. Here we discuss what makes a good family photo and what are the best ways in which you can immortalise your baby starting their life journey.

Be prepared and spontaneous at the same time To get the best pictures, you need to be spontaneous and capture the best moments as they take place naturally. Nothing beats a natural moment captured in all its splendour. Years from now, you’ll be able to tell whether or not what’s happening in that photo was staged, and the value of that memory will change. On the other hand, it’s also important to prepare ahead of time and not let everything to fate. For example, to take a great selfie of the whole family, you first need to have your family all gathered in one room. You can do this simply by organising more family dinners and making family time a more prominent part of your life. Once you get your perfect shots, your aunt and uncle might start wondering why they stopped getting invited to dinner all of the sudden. Late or early, never midday Midday photos rarely turn out great because the light will mess up the exposure. More than that, the ambient atmosphere is just not compelling for great family photos. Taking the pictures either early in the morning or later in the afternoon, or even evening, will provide more dramatic lighting and will ultimately result in fantastic photos that will have more personality. It will also be a lot easier to get attached to them, so you’re going to hear yourself say things like, “Nope, let’s do it again” a lot less. The background plays a huge role As you might have suspected, the background of your photos plays a huge role in how these photos turn up. But aren’t family photos all about spending time with your family? Of course, it’s about family time…And getting great pictures. The latter can only be achieved with the proper background so keep that in mind when you’re preparing for the photo shoot. Instead of a predictable living room session, consider going outside or going to a nearby park. In fact, you can hop in the car and go as far as you need to to get that perfect setting for your family photos. Ditch anything extra The background and the lighting details should be the only things that matter aside from the actual family members when it comes to what gets put in the photo. Any other sort of prop or toys should be left aside, as it’s not about that kind of thing. When you look back on these moments years from now, you’ll want to see as much of your family as possible, without being distracted by unimportant things all around the people in the frame. Sure, having your baby hold their favorite toy or something like that is no biggie, but you shouldn’t go out of your way to create an entire prop-based environment for the photo. Also keep in mind that as part of our previous tip about being spontaneous, people might be caught with minor things in their hands. Don’t waste or miss the opportunity by having everyone drop what they were holding. Simply take the picture. Those items will, in fact, bring out the photo’s character more precisely because they weren’t planned.