You just had your precious baby and forgot to hire your newborn photographer! And now you’re trying to figure out how to take some baby basket photos. Totally understandable considering how much you’ve been anticipating the arrival of a new life! You probably spent all of your time and mental energy decorating the nursery, researching the latest baby gear, and thinking up a birth plan.

Don’t worry. You can take your own baby basket photos at home in the meantime. Let me give you some tips on how to create beautiful and interesting photos to remember this time.

Some of my favorite newborn photos are outside at sunset. On top of the sweetness of baby cheeks and smiles, a beautiful sunset glow makes your newborn photos really pop! The orange light sets a calming mood and makes everyone’s skin look beautiful and healthy.

Putting your baby in a basket for newborn photos is an easy and natural way to add interest and dimension. On top of that, you can just let them sleep peacefully and decorate around them. If you need anything as a parent of a newborn, it’s “easy.”

So here are my tips for creating your own baby basket photos at home after your baby’s born, but before you get to meet up with your professional newborn photographer.

Get Outdoors for your baby basket photos

For the most beautiful lighting, go outside one hour before sunset. Put your baby basket on your front lawn where golden sunlight will be hitting part of it. Make sure that when you take your photos, you love what you see in the foreground and the background. Choose an angle that won’t show off any unsightly objects.

Style Your Baby Basket

Choose a swaddle that you love and wrap it around the Moses pod inside of your basket. Make sure to tuck the edges under so it creates a nice, neat, beautiful background for your precious baby.

If you’d like to purchase the baby baskets that I use, my deep basket is the Design Dua Malaika Bassinet and my shallow basket is the Design Dua Changing Basket. They’re perfect for baby basket photos, beautiful, and functional! By the way, I do not receive any compensation from Design Dua. I just love these baskets.

Style Your Baby

Pick out a little outfit for your baby. At sunset, whites, light pinks and light blues look really nice. Select a blanket that you love and that will pair well with your background swaddle. You can swaddle your baby in it, loosely wrap your baby, or just plop it right on top for him to play with and chew on. You can also hand your baby a favorite doll or simple toy to play with and chew on for the photos.

Add Some Florals

If you really want to create some beautiful depth in your baby basket photos, put some floral arrangements in the foreground or the background. place the florals as close as possible to your baby basket for a nice composition. In these photos, I used some faux plants I have around the house.

Choose Your Lighting

There are two ways to take beautiful sunset pictures.

• 1. Have the sun to your back for a golden glow on baby’s face or nice even lighting if you babe in deep inside of the basket.

• 2. Take your pictures with the sunlight behind or to the side of your baby for beautiful glowing pictures.

Edit Your Photos

To edit your photos on iPhone, you can use iPhones photo editing software or download Lightroom Mobile to your phone. Generally, I assume you’ll have to raise the exposure of the photo and decrease the saturation of some of the colors. You may also have to play with the white balance of the photo to look natural.

Now Call Your Newborn Photographer

Now that you’ve got some quick beautiful photos, book your newborn photographer so that you can be in the pictures, mom!

Share your DIY baby basket photos with me on Insta. Tag @cynthiaknapp.photography

To check out my baby basket photos, visit my website. If you’re looking for a Fort Worth photographer for families or newborns, you can find information for booking on my website.