Cute and Creative Milestone Photo Ideas for Baby
There is nothing quite as magical as your baby’s first year. They come home weighing just a few pounds and within 12 months they are babbling, smiling, a movin’ around like crazy! There is no better way to capture your every changing little one than with milestone photos.
We’ve gathered up some fun and creative ideas to inspire you! If you need any tips on how to take better photos or the best software to edit your photos, be sure to check out this post I wrote with how I edit all my pictures.
Tips for Taking High Quality Photos at Home
This is the foundation for any good photo, iPhone or DSLR. Natural light trumps artificial light any day of the week.
Natural light doesn’t necessarily mean DIRECT sunlight. This can lead to shadows being created (mainly on faces) and may encourage your baby to close their eyes, which is the opposite of what we want.
When it comes to flash, avoid at all costs. In my experience, it is easier to edit a slightly darker photo by adjusting the brightness than it is to doctor an overly lit photo with a flash.
In the case that your lighting isn’t ideal, check out the section below that offers details on editing!
Focus
Your iPhone is completely capable of creating a “blurred background”, you just have to learn how to maneuver it.
First of all, play around with the yellow box. When you have your camera open, touch the screen and move the yellow focus box over your desired object. Always try to move your desired subject as far away from the background that you want to be blurred. If you have your daughter stand directly in front of a flowering bush, your camera doesn’t have enough room to work with. Try having her stand 2-3 feet in front of it instead. If you have a newer iPhone, shoot in portrait mode to get the blurred background.
If you want to achieve an even heavier blurred background, see the editing section below.
Rule of thirds
Step one to mastering the rule of thirds- turn on your camera grid!
You can do this from settings>Camera>Grid ON!
The grid will divide your screen up into thirds. You will notice that there are four places on the grid where the lines cross and make a point. Aim to make one of these your focal point of the photo. For example, in the photo above, Emmy’s face is in the top left connection point.
This rule simply makes your photos more appealing than if your subject was dead center. It isn’t always easy to get kids to stay perfectly still, but when you can, aim for the rule of thirds!
Editing
Most of my iPhone photos need some sort of cropping and color editing.
My favorite tool to use for this kind of editing is Snapseed (free!!). My goal when editing photos is to make them bright, airy, and vibrant. I mainly work within the “tune image” setting. Here are some of my go-to adjustments:
- Increase Brightness
- Increase Highlights
- Decrease Shadows
- Increase Saturation
How much I am adjusting depends on the starting condition of the photo.
If you are looking to achieve even more of blurred background with your iPhone photos, you can also do so with Snapseed under the “lens blur” tool.
They also have a wonderful tool called “glamor glow”. It gives skin an airy and flawless feel. Use it sparingly though. It can easily make your photos look over-edited and very fake.
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