When we last talked about Jacob's baby photos I told you all about how I planned out his first 52 weeks and first holidays.
Today I'm going to tell you about how I actually take his picture. I'm definitely learning as I go, and (I think) my pictures are getting better. As of today, I've taken his picture for 11 weeks now.
First up our supplies - we use a point and shoot camera (CanonSX510 HD), his quilt, and occasionally some props.
As I mentioned in my first post, I got this idea from YHL. They take their kiddos picture on a day bed in their sunroom in the early evening. This way it's nice and bright, but there's no direct sunlight causing big shadows.
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| photo from Young House Love |
In the beginning I was taking Jacob's picture in his nursery. It faces the front of our house and gets the best light in the morning so that's when I was taking the pictures. I laid his quilt down on the floor, set him on top of it, and leaned over to take the picture straight on.
The pictures ended up pretty dark and needed lots of editing to be what I would call 'passable.' It was also hard to get a good picture because Jacob hated laying on the flat floor. I would take 100 pictures hoping to get just one where he didn't look miserable.
Sometime around week 4, I tried laying the quilt on top of his turtle rug because it is nice and soft and he likes laying on it. That worked better, but the lighting still wasn't great.
Finally, I waited one day during week 7 till Dan was home and had him drag our ottoman out on the front porch in the early evening. (Thus mimicking the daybed in the sunroom during early evening from YHL)
I draped the quilt over it and plopped the baby on top. Voila! Much better (and more natural) lighting.
In the beginning, it was easy to take Jacob's pictures. He moved very little. In fact, I would sometimes have to sit and wait for him to move his arms or make a different facial expression. Around week 9 I started needing Dan's help to hold his attention. Dan would stand next to me with some kind of toy and rattle it around to get him to look up at us.When we got desperate, we brought out our little dog, Leo.
Week 11 he started to get too big for the ottoman. I would have to zoom out enough to get all of him in the screen thus showing the quilt hanging off the edges of the ottoman.
It wasn't anything that couldn't be cropped out, but it made me think about what we would do in the future when the ottoman wouldn't be big enough. So week 11 I dragged out his mattress from his crib (he isn't using it yet anyways) and that worked a lot better since it's the same width as the quilt.
So that's our current set up - mattress on the porch, covered with his quilt, and baby on top!
You'll notice in this post that all his pictures start out with just a plain white onesie. The numbers and weeks get photoshopped onto his photo after I've chosen a final shot. In my next post I'll show you how I do that and finalize each photo!
Week 11 he started to get too big for the ottoman. I would have to zoom out enough to get all of him in the screen thus showing the quilt hanging off the edges of the ottoman.
It wasn't anything that couldn't be cropped out, but it made me think about what we would do in the future when the ottoman wouldn't be big enough. So week 11 I dragged out his mattress from his crib (he isn't using it yet anyways) and that worked a lot better since it's the same width as the quilt.
So that's our current set up - mattress on the porch, covered with his quilt, and baby on top!
You'll notice in this post that all his pictures start out with just a plain white onesie. The numbers and weeks get photoshopped onto his photo after I've chosen a final shot. In my next post I'll show you how I do that and finalize each photo!
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