The Voice of Mom

When you have kids, you want to mark everything – every day, every hiccup, every milestone – with a photograph. It’s tempting to hit the nearest photo studio for a quick semi-pro session, but in these tough times, that can be too much for the budget to take.

What’s a mom to do? Well, you can take awesome photos at home with a little know how and a good camera. If you haven’t been an avid photographer in the past, it’s okay. While you might not be able to pick up a camera and get great shots every time, you can learn to take great pictures.

We asked professional photographer Carrie Sandoval of Captured by Carrie, of the Nikon Look Good in Pictures podcasts (check out her latest with Carson Kressley — it’s all about photographing a 10-day-old baby!), to offer our readers some advice.

The Voice of Mom: Pictures of parents and the newborn outside the hospital are often taken by new parents, but they tend to leave mom looking bedraggled and tired and often have a big car seat between mom and dad. How can the new parents capture a great, happy photo that won’t make mom groan when she sees it?

Carrie Sandoval: Well, first step. Take the photo *before* you put baby in the car seat! Avoid taking the photo in direct sunlight as this will accentuate shadows under Mom’s tired eyes. Instead, have the parents stand in open shade with baby. After you get a shot of everyone looking at the camera and smiling, have the parents adoringly look down at baby. Not only will it disguise tired faces, but it brings the focus down to baby and that’s a good thing!

TVOM: Moms love to photograph their new addition to the family. But some moms have little experience with cameras. What’s a good camera to start off with to get great photos of baby?

CS: While I love compactness of a point a shoot camera Nikon Coolpix lineup, I really love the speedy shutter of a DSLR such as the Nikon D40 or D60. You will especially appreciate not having that shutter delay when you are trying to capture those first smiles, or better yet, when they start crawling… and walking… away from you!

TVOM: How can a mom with limited photography experience find a personal style for photographing her kids?

CS: Carry your camera with you as often as you can and use it a lot. That is the beauty of the digital age! I have also found that there are many “photography play groups” and online children’s photography forums.

TVOM: Taking self-portraits of mom or dad and baby are tough, at best. How can a mom get a good self-portrait without cutting off heads or getting funny colors? That’s a tough one! I always seem to be behind the camera, but I have done this a few times and it has a lot to do with LUCK unfortunately. I set my camera (on self timer mode) on my dresser, composed my husband and children on our bed on their bellies, hit the shutter and took my place on the bed. The kids were fascinated at the flashing red light and amazed that the camera took a picture “all by itself” that they are all looking a smiling in amazement at the camera! Your own pictures are so valuable, but it is always nice to treat your family to a custom professional photography session. Let the photographer worry about that stuff so you can look relaxed and into your children!

TVOM: Black and white photos of babies are beautiful. How can moms take good digital photos that are appropriate for B&W formats?

CS: How you light your subject and expose your portrait is the main key. On-camera flashes are too harsh for my taste, so I always turn it off and put my subjects close to a large soft light source (a window with indirect sunlight, open shade under a tree, etc.) Converting a color image to black and white is a fine art but there are Photoshop actions out there that can give your images that extra punch. If you don’t have access to actions or Photoshop, I would simply desaturate the image and play around with contrast, curves and levels in your photo editing software.