Photo Information & Tips

When to Photograph:
Well rested and happily full babies make the best subjects. If you are having a photographer take your photos, try to coordinate a time when your baby is most content, perhaps after a nap. If you are taking the photos yourself, you can easily take beautiful photos with a few tips.
 
 
Lighting and Environment:
A sunny day works best, as natural sunlight is the softest and most flattering light. Having your baby on a blanket (solid colors work best) near a window or in a very well-lit room will give you the best light. If you have to use a flash, make sure there are other lights in the room that are turned on as well to even out the light in the photo. Try to have the least amount of shadows possible and make sure the photos aren't too dark.
 
 
Baby's Clothing:
Solid colors, simple styles normally product the best photos for announcements.   Or use no clothing for those 'oh so natural' photos.  Remember, your baby and not the clothing should be the focus so minimal is key.
 
Digital Camera Settings:
Use the highest possible resolution setting on your digital camera.  This is normally the "Fine" setting.  If you are unsure, please consult the manual before taking your photos. Three megapixel cameras and above set at the highest settings are recommended. Also, please make sure the date stamp is turned off.
 
Framing and Focus:
Your beautiful baby is and should always be the focus of your announcement, so please remember that when taking your photos. Get up close to your baby, making sure to focus on his or her eyes when taking photos of the face. Experiment and have fun! Get on the floor with your baby and take shots looking up at him or her. Take photos of their hands, feet, ears, lips. You never know which ones will capture your heart or which ones you'll want to use in your announcement, invitation or holiday card.
 
Make sure that your photo is in focus. A blurry photo cannot be sharpened, even with the greatest photo-editing software. Also, take lots of photos! Move around and take them from lots of different angles.
 
Photo Don'ts:
Do not upload a low resolution photo. Even if you love the photo, you will be disappointed if the quality is not what it should be.
 
Do not take a low resolution photo and turn it into a high resolution photo in an imaging program. The photo must be taken in high resolution format.
 
Do not take photos with a throw away camera or a cell phone!
 
Do not crop or resize the photo before uploading.  Even though the photo may look very large on your computer monitor, these larger images are needed for quality printing.  (If you have specific cropping requirements we suggest you crop a copy of the original and upload along with the larger image as an example for your designer.)
 
We highly recommend you do not photo edit your photo at all before uploading.  The more a photo is edited/revised on the computer the lower the quality will be.   If you are comfortable with photo editing and prefer your designer to leave the photos just as they are when uploaded please specify in the text field of our upload page.