Parents often love to chart their parenting journey in photos and videos. Right now, this is more important than ever. Until COVID19 is controlled, it may be the only way you can share your experience with family and friends. With that in mind, here are five tips to help you make the most of those precious moments.
Photographing the pregnancy
Family and friends are definitely going to want to see key pre-birth events like the baby shower. They may not, however, be all that interested in the more everyday parts of pregnancy. Your future child, on the other hand, might love to see them.
It’s even better if you can add context to the images. For example, instead of just recording your pregnancy announcement, show your child how you researched the best pregnancy announcement ideas. Similarly, instead of just showing them a “before and after” of their nursery, explain why you decorated it the way you did.
It’s a good idea to capture your thoughts while you’re taking the photos/videos. If you don’t have a pen and paper with you, just use your phone. If you don’t like typing on an on-screen keyboard then use a voice recorder.
Remember to tag people
Tagging isn’t just for social media. It’s a way of keeping a record of who’s in a picture. There are two advantages to tagging your baby pictures/video. The first is that it means that you don’t have to rely on your memory. The second is that it means other people can look at them without you needing to be there to explain who they’re seeing.
Photographing a newborn
Once your baby is born, everyone is going to want to see photos and videos of them. This will probably include you and your baby when they’re older. The golden rule of newborn photography is to pace yourself. Being a new parent is a whole lot to handle, even if you’ve done it before. You don’t need to rush, just try to take one or two high-quality photos a day.
The key to getting the best newborn photos is to make sure that they are well-lit. The very best lighting is natural daylight. Just put your baby next to a window and photograph them there. The next best lighting is top-down lighting, preferably from daylight bulbs. Avoid uplighting your baby. The pros can make it work, but very few other people can.
Take a mixture of face and body shots and “details shots”, like their fingers and toes, lips, chin, and nose. As you take your pictures, move yourself, rather than your baby. Try taking pictures from different positions for different effects. For example take one looking “top-down” at your baby and another lying on your back, pointing the camera up at them.
Learn to edit photos and video
Any time you see a stunning baby photo taken by a pro, you can take it as read that it’s been edited. In fact, a lot of the very best photos will actually be composite shots. Sometimes this is obvious, such as when a baby is “flying”. Sometimes, however, it’ll be so subtle the average person would never notice.
There are lots of free image editing programs available online. These are fine for basic touch-ups. If you want to do more serious editing, then you’ll probably need to pay for the extra features you’ll need.
Alternatively, you could send your images and video to a professional to be edited. There are plenty of freelancers who offer photo-/video-editing services. You could also approach a local photographer and ask them if they would take on the job. If you go down this route, however, you’ll need to ensure that you communicate your needs clearly. Or you may edit it yourself using an easy video editor that comes with pre-made templates.
Storing your baby images safely
Once you have your baby images, you need to think about how to store them safely. As a rule of thumb, the more important an image is to you, the more copies of it you want to have. Even so, you will still want to do what you can to protect each copy.
Cloud drives are great for getting instant access to images and for sharing them with family and friends. It is, however, risky to rely on them as your only form of storage. For example, when Megaupload was shut down, a lot of people lost access to precious family photos and videos.
It’s therefore advisable to have at least one offline digital copy of each of your important photos. CDs/DVDs and portable hard drives are all good options for storing them safely. You might also want to print out some hard copies or have some “photobooks” created.