1st Birthday Photoshoot TIPS

Tips from a professional photographer for doing your own 1st Birthday Photoshoot!

Because of the pandemic I recently stumbled into taking 1st birthday photos for relatives in order to avoid strangers entering the home.

Turns out I learned a lot, here are some tips for doing your own 1st Birthday Photoshoot sessions!

PICKING A THEME

This is the most important step! After looking at a few examples, narrow down the colour palette you want to go with for the photos. Cohesion is key to making this look as professional as possible. I recommend picking 3 colours and then making sure all your props fall into shades of the chosen colours. One of your colours should be a bit brighter, while the others compliment it.

For example this photoshoot our palette is:

Main: Green

Accent 1: Gold/yellow

Accent 2: Navy Blue

BACKDROP TIPS

You can easily use an ironed white bedsheet taped to the wall, or order a more professional looking one from Amazon. Another tip I learned was ordering a fairly inexpensive custom image backdrop from Amazon or Aliexpress. These really enhance the whole scene and make the photographs stand out that much more! If you go with a white backdrop fill the scene with lots of balloons, props, and banners to incorporate the theme. If you use a custom backdrop I would say you don't need as much props. So in the end both options relatively end up costing the same. My advice as a photographer for setting the scene is to not make your set-up too tall. If your banners are too high it will be hard to capture all the details in the image. I'd opt for a wider background as oppose to a taller one.

PROPS

First things first, kids are difficult! Especially if they can walk by this point, good luck getting them to stay still for a few seconds. When making your set-up for the photography session make sure there are lots of items in the area to entertain the child. Make sure all the toys you use match the theme of the photo session! Or else they are going to look VERY out of place in the final photo. The most obvious things to use are balloons, pick a colour theme and blow up a few to throw around the scene. A very popular prop is the cake smash, I personally recommend taking all photos you want without the cake first. This way the mess is only at the end and you end up with a variety of photos.

Another neat addition is paper fans made from the theme colours! They are super easy to make and look cute in the final images!

SEATING & FOCAL POINTS

When you put together your scene you are going to aim tot have a centre focal point. A good tip is to have some sort of chair that you can put directly in the centre and have the child sit in it! This helps to limit the movement of the child so you end up with more in focus shots. I also found having a rocking chair to fit the theme is a great alternative and it usually gets the children laughing while they ride!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

As mentioned I'm a photographer so my photographs are all taken with a professional camera. I totally don't expect everyone to have access to one of these so I'm going to provide some tips for using an iPhone. I personally keep my camera in Live Mode. This allows me to convert any image into a boomerang, or even a little video clip later if I want to relive the memory! In order to get the best quality on a phone you need to have a lot of light already in the scene. Position your set-up opposite a window, so you can harness the natural light! If you are directly opposite a window make sure your body doesn't block the light in the scene. Another really nice set up is positioning your scene so that the window light is directed to one side of the scene.

If you are using a DSLR, Mirrorless or another type of digital camera this is my advice for settings! Children move a lot, so keeping your shutter speed at a decently fast speed will make for in focus shots every time, I like to keep it around 1/125 or higher. Although I love shooting portraits at a very low aperture, I found a good range for these photos was between 3.5 - 4.5. This gave me room for movement since the subject just doesn't stay still! To note these are the settings I used for natural light, of course they should be adjusted if using flash. I also must add that my experience for photographing kids is they love touching the camera, they are so drawn to it! So make sure you have a good clean up kit to get the fingerprints off during the shoot.

I hope these tips help you bring your photoshoot visions to life!