Baby's Monthly Picture Tips

Ever since my first kiddo was born in 2009, taking monthly photos of your baby has been a thing. Back then, not as many moms owned DSLR cameras, or knew how to use them, but we documented those moments anyway! Here’s my sweet baby Landon and my very best momtography skills at the time, which included direct flash and the finest 1st generation iphone photography.

So much has changed in the last decade when it comes to digital photography and the availability of online education and FREE RESOURCES for aspiring photographers! While I cherish every single image of my babies, I’m so glad I have the ability to capture my children more beautifully and artistically now. My daughter Violette was born in 2017, and I’d come a LONG way in my photography since owning a business and photography school. Check out her first year monthly grid! If you have a smartphone, you can take beautiful monthly images of your sweet babe, just follow my steps below!

5 tips for taking monthly baby photos

Taking monthly photos of your baby is an amazing way to document how quickly they change from newborns with little chicken legs into squishy, giggly toddlers. You don’t need fancy equipment or professional skills to capture great monthly images your new baby at home. Here are my top 5 tips for taking great monthly photos of your baby.

1. Pick a backdrop and stick with it for each picture. I’ve seen people use their carpet, a blanket on the floor, their master bed or baby’s crib (which is a great one to show how much more they fill it up!).
2. Keep it simple. The main subject of the images is your new baby, so try to avoid including too many items into the frame, as it could be distracting. You can use the numbered onseie stickers (I got mine from etsy.com) but you can also add in elements that add up to the number of months baby is turning.
3. Try to keep your lighting consistent. If you’re using natural light, try to put baby near a window (at about a 45 degree angle, for most flattering lighting) at a time of day that gets diffused light (not direct sunbeams) that will beautifully fall onto baby. If you can, use this spot each time you take your photos, and even try to do it at a similar time of day. PRO TIP: turn off ALL artificial light, especially overhead lighting!
4. Pick a time of day that your baby is going to be in a good mood. As they get older, their schedules will change, but a good default time to take baby’s photo is right when they wake up from a nap. If baby is not having it that day, there’s no reason why you can’t try again in the next day or so.
5. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. If you miss the monthday, DON’T call the project quits and give up. We happened to be out of the country when Violette turned five months old, so I took that photo a week later. You don’t have to take each photo exactly one month apart to see the dramatic changes in your growing baby!

Now that my boys are more like teenagers than babies, I cherish all of those images I took of them way back when even more. I promise, you’ll never regret taking your baby’s monthly photos, even if they’re not perfect. I hope these tips and images inspire you to document your new little one each month! If photography is something you’re interested in learning more about, you’ll definitely want to sign up for my FREE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS and I’d love to share everything I’ve learned with you in my Smartphone Photography Course! Don’t underestimate the camera that’s always in your pocket!