13 Tips for a DIY newborn baby photo shoot

Etta and I collaborated on a couple of newborn photo sessions a few weeks ago and I thought I'd pass along some tips I picked up along the way.

Now, if you're a frazzled new mom, don't trust your photography skills or you have a fussy baby, you may want to opt for a pro. But if you're like me and are comfortable with your DSLR, kind of a cheapskate (ahem... raises hand) and your baby is (somewhat) cooperative, give it a go! Nothing to lose, right?

Get the timing right

• I've read that the best age to take newborn photos is in the first 14 days, while the baby is still very sleepy. I took these photos at 7 days and 9 days. I wanted to sneak them in before her skin started peeling or she got a weepy blocked tear duct or cradle cap or all that other ugly stuff. (Elise had all of these at the same time, so I am well acquainted.) I don't know if any of them will actually happen, but why procrastinate and miss my opportunity for good photos?


• Feed the baby prior to the photo shoot. You want them to fall into that deep sleep and a full belly will help with that.


• Start out with a clean diaper. Dress (or undress) the baby in whatever outfit you may want before they fall asleep. Changing diapers and clothes will only disturb them. Keep naked babies wrapped in a blanket. This should probably go without saying, but the goal is to keep the baby calm or asleep.

Setting up the photo shoot area

• Gather all your supplies ahead of time. Blankets, pillows, props, outfits, etc. (I used woven blankets with nubby textures.)


• Choose a spot in your house that gets good natural light, then open the blinds, curtains, etc. to let in as much of that light as possible. Aim for a time of day that gets soft, indirect light; avoid the harsh shadows of the late afternoon.
  
  I did two sessions. For the first, I had great light. The second day had pretty crummy weather, so I supplemented with a flash. I just use my on-camera flash (still very much an amateur here), but I use a product called a Light Scoop. I love love love this attachment. I wouldn't use my flash without it. It's just a piece of plastic and a mirror, but it bounces the flash onto the ceiling allowing the light to diffuse over the whole room. If you've ever struggled to get well lit photos indoors, the Light Scoop will be nothing short of a revelation.
  
  
  
  
  It just so happened that the spot with the best light in our house is the kid's bedroom, which allowed me to work on top of Elise's twin bed. I put two of our dining room chairs on the side of the bed, with the backs of the chairs facing the side of the bed. This allowed me to create a sloped backdrop with a large blanket.

• For many of the shots, I used a Boppy pillow positioned underneath the blanket. If you don't have a Boppy, try using another firm pillow. (Of course, be safe. Use common sense. Supervise. Keep baby's face away from soft surfaces.)


• I also turned on the white noise machine we have in the bedroom to dampen the noise of the house and keep her calm.

Other tips

• Keep baby warm. Turn up the thermostat. (I've read other tips about using heating pads or space heaters, but I didn't do that.) If you are doing a naked baby photo shoot, keep them covered with a blanket whenever you aren't snapping photos.


• Use a pacifier. If they'll take a paci, use it. I was able to pull it out, snap a photo and give it back without her getting upset. This may or may not work for you.


• Take a lot of photos. If you take hundreds, you are bound to get a few good ones.


• Get down to baby's level. This means you'll probably be sitting on the floor. Get close and avoid strange angles.


• Be patient. I spent about 90 minutes to two hours on each session. There's a lot of time spent calming baby, shushing and slowly posing. If you wait until baby's really asleep, you'll be able to reposition them without much resistance.

Keep it simple

• This was my first time trying to photograph a newborn, so I kept it simple. Basic natural poses. No props. Nothing fancy. No baby hanging out of a bucket or a basket. Or propped on a stack of books. Those are cute and all, but perhaps too much of a challenge for a first timer.

Any other tips for mom photographers? Add them in the comments!

First day of school photo shoot chalkboard sign

My little girl started preschool last week. It's her first time at any type of away-from-mom school or daycare, so it's a big deal for all of us. Luckily, she LOVES school. (I knew she would.) It's only two mornings a week, but it's a strange sensation suddenly to have regular, scheduled time to myself. Not that I'm complaining!

It was time to start the tradition of first day of school photos. Growing up, we always had our picture taken by a certain tree. But looking back at the photos, you have to think about what year it was and what grade it was. So much easier if all that info is in the photo itself!

My friend Jodi has taking photos like this for years, which is probably where I first saw it. (It's also all over Pinterest, but has been done so many times, I can't tell who deserves the credit for blogging the idea.)

I didn't want to spend any money on this project, so I used what I had: a piece of scrap wood and some leftover chalkboard paint. It's small and light enough that Elise can hold it without trouble, but big enough to fit all of the important info on it.

Being three, she was not so cooperative with my photo shoot plans before school. Pre-preschool jitters maybe? We did a second session after school, and they came out much better. (Well, minus the shoes. Picking my battles.) That posed smile is a new invention for her. So silly!

Photo A Day 2011 photobook: Done!

I finally closed out my Photo A Day project from last year. The last (self-imposed) step was to publish a photobook with all 365 photos.

It was a project I had been putting off for many, many months. I intended to start piecing together the photobook even before the end of 2011. Honestly, I was dreading it, as it seemed like a tedious task.

But the photo printing Groupon I bought last July was set to expire soon, and nothing gets me going like the threat of letting money go to waste. And once I actually got rolling with the design, it wasn't too bad. Going through all the photos actually made me a little sad that I didn't just continue taking photos into 2012, but at the end of the year, I was ready to be done.

I got the book printed through Photobook America. I heard about this company through the Groupon, then checked out a review on PhotoBookGirl.com before buying it.

I wanted to do a week of photos per two-page spread, so some quick math let me know I was looking at 100+ pages. (Some of the more mainstream photobook websites top out at 100 pages.) And as a graphic designer, I wanted complete control of the page layouts. This company lets you do that! You can even use your own fonts.

Upon ordering, I was slightly concerned. The only option for payment was PayPal, and the books are shipped from Malaysia. But I ordered on a Tuesday and the book was delivered the following Monday, so I guess I shouldn't have worried.

I'm very impressed with the quality of the book. The colors are true. There are no company logos anywhere. It looks like a professional store-bought book. I had a few hi-res iPhone photos mixed in, and you can't even tell which ones they are.

p.s. I realize this post reads very much like some sort of endorsement or review of Photobook America, but I wanted to let you know it's not. They didn't pay me or give me anything or ask me to do this. I just wanted to note my good experience!

Related posts:
Lessons learned from my Photo A Day project
All Photo A Day posts

Disney World Magic Kingdom birthday party: Invitations

First off, my Disney-loving husband would like you all to know that this party was not his idea. It was mine. That's true, and I'm willing to take credit. That said, he is doing a pretty good job of turning Elise and me into Disney nerds. (Yeah, it's happening. I'm surrendering.)

When I asked Elise what kind of birthday party she wanted, she would give me answers like a "house party" or a "shoes party." Basically, whatever was in front of her at the time, she would say and then add "party" to the end of it.

So with little to go on, I decided to honor her love of Mickey Mouse and Disney World. (We've visited twice in her short three years.) And the idea of a Magic Kingdom-inspired party was born.

And what better way to send an invite to a Magic Kingdom party than to send a postcard. (Well, a fake postcard.) Let's get started!

I always try to take a special photo for the invitation that no one has seen before. Not only to fit the theme of the party, but it's kind of a fun extra surprise for friends and family if they haven't already "liked" it on Facebook. It's nearly impossible to get young children to sit still for long and forget about posing. But if you take enough photos, you're bound to get something usable. I usually combine the photo shoot with a trip to the park or a run around the back yard so that everybody's happy.

I used Photoshop to add the border, the text and to tint the photo a bit so it looked glowy. Many photo websites will let you add borders or text to a plain photo print free, so something like this is not out of reach for those without graphic design software.

I got the photos printed at Target for 19 cents a piece. I normally don't do quick-photo places because I prefer matte prints, but for this, I thought the glossy finish suited the postcard concept.

For the back, I scanned an old Disney World postcard to get the logo and the castle. I used Photoshop to erase the parts I didn't want, and used it as a background for my party information.

I kind of mangled the words to the old Mickey Mouse Club theme song to suit my needs. I usually struggle with invitation wording, but this came easy.

I printed on some blank index cards (the kind without lines). They were already 4"x6" and so it was an easy, no-cutting way to create a back to the 4"x6" photo print. I think you can feed 4"x6" cards directly into most printers. Do a test run and adjust as needed.

After the ink was dry, I attached the print to the card with some scrapbooking adhesive. Easy and mess free.

The cost ended up being around 40 cents per invite/envelope. And it would have been less if I had stalked out a sale on photo prints, but I needed so few invites, it only would have saved a couple of bucks.

Update: 07/02/2012 - Get the free postcard printable!

p.s. The Magic Kingdom font is called Started by a Mouse and is free. The Walt Disney World retro logo font is called Florida Project and is free. And the scripty font I used is called Filmotype Jessy and is the only font I've ever paid for. Bought it a while ago for a yet-to-materialize project. Money well spent!

----------------------------------------------

See more Magic Kingdom party details!

Decorations	Activities

Favors, Part 1	Favors, Part 2

Photobooth photo wall art

OK who likes photobooth photos? Everybody? Thought so.

But they are kind of hard to display, you know, other than tacking them up on a cork board or refrigerator.

I wanted to include this one on my bedroom gallery wall, but they don't make long and skinny frames for photo strips.

I decided to go homemade and scrounged up a long and skinny piece of scrap wood in my stash. Weirdly, the size was exactly 1.5 times the size of the photo strip and perfectly proportional, give or take a couple of sixteenths. Sometimes things are easy.

I scanned in my photo strip, enlarged it to the dimensions of my piece of wood and printed it out in two segments (since it was longer than could fit on one piece of paper). After the ink was dry, I sprayed the printed photo with a water-resistant clear sealer. (This is so the ink won't run later when the photo gets decoupaged.)

I painted the piece of wood black, trimmed the photos and used Mod Podge to adhere the photo. A pretty straightforward decoupage job. No tricks!

Framing trick: Shrink a mat opening with ribbon

I've been framing gobs and gobs of things for our bedroom gallery wall. (More on that soon!) I'm trying my best to keep the cost down, and that means framing some photos I already have. 

This was a photo card Elise and I gave Dan last Father's Day. It supposedly was 5"x7", but once I got it behind the 5"x5" mat opening, it was a smidge too small. Not small enough to drop it down a frame size, though. Time to do some doctoring.

I found a piece of black grosgrain ribbon in my ribbon scrap box. It was about two inches wide, so I sliced it up the middle. This wasn't necessary, but I'm thrifty even with my scraps, and this allowed me to use half as much ribbon.

I flipped the mat over and taped the ribbon to the back side around the opening, leaving about half an inch showing through the window. (Yes, it looks a little ragged, but no one is going to see the back of the mat.)

When I was doing my corners, I folded the ribbon in a way that shows a mitered corner on the front side. I promise you this is super easy to do, but a wordy explanation is going to make it sound harder than it is. So I'll try to show you with photos. This is a recreation sans mat because I didn't think to take photos of this process before I taped everything down.

1. Lay the ribbon vertically.
2. Fold the ribbon 90 degrees to the right, creating a 45 degree angle.
3. Fold the ribbon back over to the left, but keep a straight edge.
4. Done!

Obviously, if you need to create a corner in the opposite direction, you just reverse the left and right in the directions. And tape it down to the mat as you go so you don't have ribbon flopping everywhere.

Even if you don't need to alter the mat size, this is a cute way to customize a frame without spending much (if anything). And a use for all those ribbon scraps!

Reusing thrift store picture frames

How many times have you been at a thrift store and seen framed art like this? All the time, right? And although pieces like this are usually only a dollar or two, you pass them up because the art is old or ugly...

Stop doing that! You can liberate that weird artwork and reuse the frames. It's super easy. Let me show you.

If you're piece has glass (or a clear plastic film acting as glass), hooray! Gently pop out the back. Don't be afraid! Sometimes they are glued, but even so, it's usually easy to do.

Insert some art or a photo to fit and reassemble the frame. You may need to use glue or some sort of adhesive to secure the backing; use a couple of drops. Don't go crazy. This frame was plastic and popped apart and back together easily without any glue.


If your frame doesn't have protective glass, don't fret. You can still use it like a normal frame.

First, pop out the back. Then find some art. If you print a photo from your inkjet printer like I did here, you'll need to take an extra step to seal it.

Before using them in a project, I always spray my ink jet photos with a water resistant clear acrylic sealer. Do not skip this step! Without the water resistant clear sealer, applying other products like Mod Podge to the photo will make the ink from an ink jet print run. So now you know. Don't skip that step unless you want an inky runny mess.

I wanted a more durable seal (i.e. one that I could dust and not worry about ruining the photo), so I applied a very thin coat of Mod Podge to the surface of the photo and let it dry.

Sandwich the frame back together and secure with tape or a tiny amount of craft glue. I wanted to reserve the right to swap out these photos in the future, so I used scotch tape here. The frames and contents were very light and naturally sort of wanted to stay together on their own, so I didn't need anything stronger here.

Feel free to use duct tape or packing tape in lieu of glue, if the situation can handle it. No one's going to see the backs once the frames are on the wall.

So what do you think? Is that enough photos of Elise for you? There's more where that came from.