I can assure you, I wouldn't be able to create the photos on her actual birthday because I just didn't have the time. It took a few hours to set the living room up and I also had to get ready myself and get Sofia ready. Plus I was also editing a birthday video for Sofia and making her a birthday cake - so to save any stress or hassle, I recommend shooting birthday photos before the actual date. The second tip I have is to get help, whether you kindly ask your sister, mum, friend or partner - ask someone to help you. Ollie has no patience so my sister is always the perfect choice, she is amazing at taking my photos because she doesn't mind taking the time to get the right photo.
When planning the photos, I already ordered a birthday dress for Sofia, I knew I wanted her to wear a pretty, princess dress and this H&M dress was perfect. Personally, I wanted to match with Sofia so I grabbed a white dress as well. I personally prefer matching outfits because it looks good in photos. Once I had the outfits picked, I ordered the props for the photo - colour co-ordination is really important when I take my photos, I wanted everything white, bright and clean. I have silver diamante cushions in the photos so I picked up a few silver glitter gift bags from Poundland for the background. I think subtle detailing like this makes a big difference.
I ordered a mixture of ivory and white coloured balloons, just to add extra emphasis to the white theme and I think the ivory balloons added more dimension to the photo. I was worried that Sofia and I would not stand out in the photo because of how white my living room is, especially combining our white dresses and white balloons but I stood in front of my beige canvas and this really helped make Sofia and I more visible in the final photos. Flowers also played a big part in this mini photo session, I am obsessed with my fake roses in the flat so I knew I wanted them in the photo. I grabbed all the vases in the flat and put them on my living room coffee table, the fake roses just made the photo complete for me.
If you are looking for prop ideas, you can't go wrong with flowers and balloons - I'm not really a fan of glitter or confetti so I think the white props I picked were subtle but still effective and they really made a difference. When it comes to taking your photos, try a few different settings first, we tried flash vs. no flash and we actually found that no flash worked better. I sat in different positions and Rebekah was patient enough until we got the right shots. It can be very tricky taking photos with a baby but Rebekah would make funny sounds and shake a prop to get Sofia's attention. It can take a while but it is certainly worth it. When it came to taking photos of Sofia, I knew I wanted to take a few photos of the back of her dress.
It was also nice to get different angles of the living room, especially when you can see a closer angle of the birthday gift bags. The next idea I had was filling the cot with the balloons, I actually used my iPhone for this photo because my camera was playing up but and I edited the photo using VSCO - this is amazing for adding a blue tint and the grain effect is my favourite tool when it comes to making a photo look older. Play around with different filters to get the look you want, I personally wanted to keep my photos bright but I wanted a slight blue tint. I think practice makes perfect and you never know what angle will work for you, but when it comes to setting the scene, preparation really helps. I hope my tips were helpful, let me know if you have any questions! What props would you use for a birthday shoot? ♥
All of these pictures are so gorgeous and I absolutely love all of the balloons!
ReplyDeletethe creation of beauty is art.