After you’ve welcomed your beautiful baby into the world, one of the first things you’ll want to do is snap some gorgeous photos of them to share with your family and friends. But babies can be notoriously difficult to photograph, not only because they like to wriggle around so much but because they certainly don’t pay attention to cues, making snapping family album-worthy shots trickier than you expected.

Taking photos of babies is a fantastic way to create memories that you’ll never forget. To help you take those stunning newborn photos that you’ll be proud to show off, here are our essential tips for photographing babies – unfortunately, getting them to sleep through the night is another matter!

Before taking a photo of your baby – make sure they’re content!

As all new parents know, when a baby is unhappy, they’ll make it known loud and clear. These obviously aren’t the best times to try and photograph your baby, as scrunched-up, blotchy faces and rolling tears seldom make for a treasured photograph in years to come.

Instead, leave the photos for times when your baby is settled – after feeding or waking from a nap; during bath-time or a cuddle with a parent or visitor. When the little one is relaxed and happy, and their eyes are open and alert, your photographs will simply look so much better and you may even snap a smile too.

Use your macro lens or setting when taking photos of babies.

Everything about babies is so, so small, making a macro lens or camera setting indispensable for capturing them. Going macro can also mean you don’t have to hold your camera so close to the baby, which is especially handy if you’re snapping away while they snooze.

Try making one of their body parts the focus of your photo too, such as their tiny fingers or toes, button nose or eyes, to make each of your photos more distinctive and memorable.

Set your camera to continuous shooting.

Unless they’re sleeping, newborn babies seldom stop moving and they don’t hold facial expressions for more than a few moments. For this reason, the ‘continuous shooting’ setting on your camera will soon become your ally, as you can quickly snap several photos of the baby in just a few seconds and capture them at their cutest.

In general, it’s a good idea to keep your camera close at all times anyway so that you can quickly grab it and snap away at opportune moments. Most of us have cameras at our fingertips in the form of smartphones but the resulting pictures are often of a low resolution, so for the very best photos, consider investing in an easy-to-use ‘point and shoot’ camera that will easily fit in a handbag or pocket.

Experiment with angles.

Whether it’s lying on the floor with your baby, shooting from above, or asking someone to hold them while you snap away, trying lots of different angles and camera positions is key to getting the very best baby photos.

You’ll soon discover which angles really show off how adorable your baby is, as well as which ones show a more ‘interesting’ side. After all, you may not realise in a few years’ time just how cute your baby’s ears were until you flick through their newborn photos!

Avoid the flash when photographing babies.

While using a flash when taking photos of your baby won’t do any damage to their eyes, for their comfort it’s advisable still to only use it as sparingly as possible.

As is the case with almost all photos, natural light is best so position your baby close to a window to allow the sunshine to light up their faces. If it’s a dull day or after dark, some cleverly-placed lamps can help to provide the light you need and minimise use of sudden or bright camera flashes.

Don’t be afraid to edit.

While you may not like to admit it, babies aren’t always ‘camera-ready’ – scratches, blotches on the skin, specks of dried milk and other blemishes that you may not notice at the time can become very apparent in the resulting images, especially when they are enlarged or printed. So try using cropping and a digital airbrushing tool to retouch those baby photos and remove anything from the photos that could be distracting.

Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with the colour or saturation of your photos. Transforming a colour photo to black and white or sepia can give it an entirely new ‘feel’, such as a softness and warmth, and could even save poorer photos from ending up in the digital trash can!

With the help of these tips for photographing newborn babies, you should soon have plenty of photos that are worthy of being transformed into canvas prints or photo wall art by Transform Your Images, whether to keep for yourself or give as stunning gifts to family and friends. Do you have any more baby photography tips of your own to share with us? If so, leave us a comment below!