Monthly baby milestone photos are a really nice memento to have of your baby’s first year.

Babies change so much in so little time, so baby milestone photos are a brilliant way to capture that fast development. I created monthly baby milestone photos for my third and fourth babies (learning a few things along the way!).

My goals for capturing baby milestone photos were to achieve a classic style that wouldn’t date, and to use a backdrop that took no extra time to set up, because I knew I’d give up the idea pretty quickly if the set-up was time consuming. Here are my tips for how to take the best baby milestone photos in the easiest, most simple way:

The easiest way to take monthly baby milestone photos

Pose your baby lying down

This is without a doubt the best and only way to pose an under one year old. A lying down shot will be more natural, and way easier, than attempting to pose a young baby in awkward positions.

It’s also the best shot for charting your baby’s growth throughout their monthly milestone photos. Adding in a small prop for scale is a fun way to show how much your baby has grown from newborn to 12 months old.

Use a simple backdrop

You want a plain backdrop so you can keep the focus solely on your baby and their cute expressions.

My backdrop was a white bedsheet – this worked perfectly as it is always ready and in place on the bed, which meant I could plop my baby down for a quick milestone photo at a moment’s notice whenever the light was right, or they were in the perfect snuggly and sleepy mood.

If the lighting fails you or you find out that the photo is not of the best quality later, you can edit the photos in a free portrait photo editor.

Use the same filter / preset for your baby milestone photos

This was one of my learning moments between the baby milestone photos I took of baby 3 and the milestone photos I took of baby 4.

Month by month baby photos with baby 3:

With my first attempt, I didn’t use a filter or preset, which meant a variety of different tones and lighting between the photos once I put them all together in a collage. I think this adds interest, so it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But with number 4’s baby milestone photos, I decided to aim for a more cohesive look between all of the monthly milestone photos.

Month by month baby photos with baby 4:

A matching style across your individual baby milestone photos can be achieved by using a filter or preset in whichever editing app or program you use. I created a lightroom preset for my monthly baby milestone photos and added that to each of baby 4’s monthly milestone photos before putting them all into a collage.

If you are using natural light (which I recommend when juggling a newborn!), adding a preset or filter also helps counterbalance the difference between winter and summer light amongst your monthly baby milestone photos.

If you are using a phone app, I like A Colour Story for filters. You can also get the Lightroom app on your phone, and there are tons of third party colour presets out there to buy if making your own feels like something you don’t have time for!

Before / After preset:

You don’t need a fancy camera for baby milestone photos

Your phone camera is all you need – and it’s the easiest thing to use as it’s always to hand!

I have several professional cameras, but I took both sets of baby milestone photos (and 99% of most of my other photos these days) with my phone. A phone will allow you to get the wider angle that you need for a full length baby milestone photo, plus editing on the go is so much easier to do with phone photos.

When it comes to my own personal photo projects, I use the lightroom phone app to edit pretty much every photo these days.

Baby milestone cards

I used a lovely bamboo set from a company called Arlo and Co. But you don’t even need to have monthly milestone prop cards, you can digitally add in the month / number afterwards in your editing program / app – this might save a bit of time in the older months when your baby will no doubt want to grab the baby milestone card as soon as you put it down!

Use simple clothes for your baby milestone photos

Another learning moment between baby 3 and 4… I prefer to use a white vest for my monthly baby milestone photos for two reasons: 1. He was always in a white vest already, no costume changes needed. 2. I wanted their arms and legs to be on display rather than hidden inside a footed babygro, because there is a lot of change between tiny curled up newborn feet / toys and a long limbed 12 month old.

Baby milestone photo ideas

I’ve seen some monthly baby milestone photo ideas where the baby is wearing a 12 month sized baby vest from the first newborn photo, which is a cool way to scale your baby’s growth in their milestone photos as they slowly fill out the vest over the 12 months.

You don’t have to do monthly baby milestone photos

You could do weekly photos if you want. Or even daily photos if you are feeling particularly up for a challenge! And you also don’t have to stop at 12 months! In hindsight, I think it would have been cool to have carried on and have a yearly photo of my children in a white vest or t-shirt to add to their baby milestone collages.

There aren’t any rules when it comes to baby milestone photo ideas. You can get as creative as your time allows for – it’s all about creating a fun memory of your baby’s development in that whirlwind first year. The perfect photo book memento.