With the outbreak of Covid-19 and our baby arriving in early June, we knew we’d have a no visitor policy when she was born and this also meant that we would be taking our own newborn photos. With my older boys I had hired newborn photographers to capture this precious stage the first week of their lives. It is recommended to take these pictures during the first 10 days while they are still sleepy and easy manipulated for photos.
(Top: robe and swaddle MilkMaid Goods)
Knowing that this would be a DIY project this time around, I scoured Pinterest for inspiration and came across a few poses that I really liked. As with most photo shoots, you take hundreds of pictures but really only end up framing a few. So being a novice, I tried to pick only one or two easy photos to recreate.
Here is the Pinterest (left) vs. DIY (right). I think they turned out great.
The picture on top was taken by my husband standing directly above our baby and her older brothers using his Sony DSLR camera using these setting: 1/60 sec at f/2.5, ISO 250, 24mm (E 24mm F1.8 ZA) ILCE-6500.
However, I also took some from my iPhone X like the one on bottom using Portrait Contour Light setting.
The real magic happens during editing. Sometimes a picture just pops with the right preset. I downloaded a preset directly to my Lightroom Mobile App to edit these. See the difference in the before and after?
This preset is called Stardust preset from Nicole Digi Shop and everything is edited the using the Lightroom Mobile App.
(Right=Before, Left=After)
As for props, we used this Etsy Flower headband and swaddle from Amazon. I also used a sheepskin rug from Ikea .I love playing with textures in photos between rugs blankets and baskets. The basket we used also doubles as a changing table in real life.
Hope this helps all the new moms out there looking for a DIY newborn photo shoot during this crazy time.
Xo
-Kim
