Let's face it, getting your children's picture taken even at the cheapest photography studio is still pricey. Michael's first year alone, we spent several hundreds of dollars getting the milestone pictures. The best way to get photos done is by getting someone who does it on the side or just starting out to take them. We had our family pictures taken a year and a half ago by someone like that. They were wonderful! We got them all on a CD and didn't pay nearly what we had at a photography studio.
I decided that even though going the way we had the last time would be cheap, the cheapest way was for me to take the pictures myself. Now, I don't have the best camera out there, but I have been able get some great shots with it. Here's how we did the photo shoot with Michael, our almost 3 year old.
We decided that our kitchen bump out would be the best spot to set up because it has the best lighting in the house. I wanted the backdrop to look like Spring and wanted Michael's suit (it was Jon's suit that he wore to his parents' wedding when he was 3) to pop. I decided to use our sage green flat sheet from our king size bed. We used two of our bar stools and bag clips to hold the sheet up.
Since the sheet had been folded for some time, we had to steam out the folds with our Shark steamer.
Set up as much as we could to get some tests shots to see how the lighting looked. Michael was napping while we were setting up and all the stuffed animals we were going to use were in his room. The only thing I had to buy for this shoot were the three large eggs. They were purchased at Hobby Lobby.
Once Michael woke up, we got him dressed in his suit and added the stuffed animals and started taking pictures.
The only way we were able to get as many pictures as we could was by bribing him with Reese peanut butter cups.
This was another layout that I set up, but it was too close to the end and we didn't get as many pictures with it. The attention span of a toddler is very short. I was surprised we lasted as long as we did.
We got a total of 64 shots! As you can see by the pictures below, too much can be seen that shouldn't be there. So off to my computer I went and did the long process of editing all the pictures. I used my fairly old copy of Adobe Photoshop for most of the editing, but also used PicMonkey. Here's what we got, the first will be the original and the second will be the edited.
I think they turned at really well. We really wanted to do some outside shots, but had decided not to do them in the suit that Michael was wearing. As long as the weather is good this weekend, we might do some outside shots in a different outfit. Like I said, I don't have a professional camera or any of the other professional equipment that they use, but I think these turned out just as good. Have you tried to save yourself money by taking your own photos? If so, what all did you use? Any suggestions on how to make it even better? Hope this helps and don't forget to get creative with your pictures!
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