Having a cute bundle of joy wrapped in your arms can be the most precious sight for any mother. Those cute puffy red cheeks and tiny wrinkled fingers can be a blissful sight. It only makes sense to want to capture these precious moments before your kids are all grown up and mature enough to make their own decisions.
That’s why having a photoshoot for your baby can be a great idea, so you can cherish these special memories. As parents we want the best for our child but, professional photoshoots can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. However, there are tons of inexpensive DIY ideas to have a baby photoshoot at home, and they’re just as good as hiring a professional photographer.
In this post, I’ll go over 10 great DIY ideas for a baby photoshoot at home for your newborn or toddler. I’ll go over some tips on how to set up the environment and some professional photography tips you can use to make sure your little trouble maker is the star of the show. All you’ll need is your mobile phone, some common household items, and a whole lot of creativity.
10 Ideas for Baby Photoshoot at Home
Let’s dive a bit deeper into some great inexpensive DIY ideas for your baby photoshoot.
1. Baby Basket
Many homes have a basket lying around from a picnic years ago or as a specially wrapped gift from loved ones. A basket can be a great place where you can place your baby and take a beautiful photo. All that you’ll need is:
- A blanket or some towels to cover the bottom of the basket
- Some toys or feathers to add to the aesthetic of the photo
If you don’t have a basket, any container that is deep and wide enough to support your baby such as a cardboard box or wooden crate will do. If you have a baby girl you can add some flowers in your basket hanging from the sides to give it a more feminine look.
2. Baby Cocoon Blanket Wrap
The easiest and least time-consuming photoshoot idea for your baby would be to snuggle them up in a blanket. This photo idea is called the cocoon wrap as the blanket wrapped around the baby resembles a cocoon. All you would need for this DIY idea is a soft stretchable blanket.
Once you get your cloth, wrap it gently around your baby. With your baby tightly wrapped and secure in a warm blanket set him/her on a bed or in a basket and take the photo.
You’ll need to be calm with this one as your baby might struggle or cry when you are tucking them in the blanket. This is totally normal but, if your baby seems in too much discomfort it might be better to try a different technique such as leaving the arms or legs out.
3. Get Creative with Cloths and Towels
There’s a high chance you have a lot of clothes and towels hanging around in your closets. A great way to express your creativity for your baby’s photoshoot is to collect and place these towels on a bed, place your baby with it and take a photo from the top.
This DIY idea usually leads to some fun illusions that you and your child will have a laugh at together when looking back at these memories. You would need different colored fabrics to make up a proper environment for your baby’s photo. If you don’t have different types of fabrics you could just use what you have and let your creativity take over.
Here are just some of the many ideas you can take inspiration from.
4. Take a Step Outside in Nature
If you’re dealing with a toddler taking a step outdoors and letting your baby play in nature can really ignite their curiosity. Be sure to get your camera ready as this new environment can give you an opportunity to capture some great snaps.
You might see your child digging his hands into the soil, rolling around in the grass, or expressing great emotions from shock to intrigue. Taking pictures of your baby outside might cause some issues as your baby would be moving a lot, exploring, so you might not get the best angles.
Sun exposure, intense lens flare, and awkward shadows might ruin some of your shots but you can always tweak your photos to make them better. You can use our free BunnyPic editor – which is an online Photoshop tool to make these edits.
Read Also: 10 Photoshop Tools to Improve Your Photography
5. Seasonal Photos with your Baby
Different seasons give us different vibes and it can be a great idea to celebrate the season with a seasonal photoshoot of your baby. There are 2 ways you can go about this.
Firstly you can create an environment where the season is illustrated so for example, for Christmas you can have a backdrop with Christmas trees and use cotton as snow.
The second way you can do this is by dressing your baby up in some seasonal clothing like a Santa outfit or as an Easter bunny.
6. Add Toys and Plushies to the Mix
If you’ve gotten your baby some toys and plushies to play with you can definitely bring in their favorite ones in your photoshoot. Laying the toys around them can be enough for a nice photo but it’ll be better if you can capture a few shots when they’re playing with them.
If you are going for toys you can add a few little ones and when it comes to plushies big ones like a teddy bear will give the photoshoot a cute, innocent vibe.
7. Animal Themed Photoshoot
Babies aren’t cute and innocent all the time and nobody would know this better than mothers themselves. A photoshoot that shows your baby’s adventurous side will be a great fit for your photo album.
There are a number of ways you can go about this:
- Animal face painting
- Animal themed clothing
- Jungle backgrounds
If you have a newborn baby that is under 1-2 years old it might not be a good idea to do face painting as they might get uncomfortable. Face paintings look great on older children and can be exciting for them as well. If you think your baby is getting too upset to participate in face painting you could move on to the other ideas.
Putting your baby in animal clothing can be a cute way to play dress up with your child. Headgear such as rabbit ears and shirts with animal patterns such as tiger-prints can definitely bring out your child’s inner wilderness.
Finally for a DIY photoshoot the background/backdrop is very important. A way to illustrate the wildlife can be to have a dessert or grassy background. You could go old school and print out a safari background online or you could place different colored fabrics to show a wildlife theme.
8. Baby with Book
Babies can be really sharp so why not show the world how smart your little genius is by taking a photo of them with a book. When setting up this DIY photoshoot idea you might get a few interesting shots.
If your baby actually picks up the book then that can be a really special snap otherwise placing an open book beside your baby can give you a nice photo as well.
9. Baby Ballerina
A common choice for many parents is to place their baby girl in a tutu with a flower headband for their photos. No wonder they do so because they look adorable as baby ballerinas.
The most common color is blue, pink, and white for a ballerina outfit however you can choose whichever looks good to you. I would suggest that you stick to light pastel colors as too bright or dull colors won’t look good.
10. Tag in a Sibling
If you were fortunate enough to have more than one child then why don’t you consider tagging them along? Brothers and sisters can get along to really bring life to your at-home photoshoot and you might get some exciting clicks of them playing with each other.
To set it up it would be best to give your sibling an activity they can do together such as playing with a ball or some toys. You can also try any of the above ideas as most of them would go well with siblings.
Conclusion
Looking into the sweet innocent eyes of your baby would want you to capture these precious moments you have with them forever. Having a photoshoot for your baby can be a solution but professional photographers can charge hundreds of dollars. In this article, we discussed 10 great DIY ideas for your baby photoshoot at home which can save you the costs and still capture your baby’s beautiful clicks.
