Newborn photo for your birth announcement: how to take it at home
Take the photo for your birth announcement next to a large window, out of direct sun, with your baby on a plain blanket and a step further back than feels natural. Then upload the original file from your phone or camera: a copy sent through WhatsApp may have been made smaller. A card needs far fewer pixels than a poster. Below are the light, the background, the timing and the numbers.
Where is the best light for a newborn photo at home?
By a window. Three card shops that publish photo tips agree on it. The Dutch shop Blijkaartje, in its 10 tips for a lovely baby photo, prefers natural light and suggests a spot near a window, with your child out of the sunlight and without shadows. Rosemood, a French stationer, says the same in its tips for birth announcement photos, with the reason: sun falling straight on the face risks overexposing it. The Dutch shop Kaartje2go, writing with newborn photographer Brenda Olie, suggests one large window without harsh sunlight.
A few refinements from the same pages:
- Keep the light even. Rosemood suggests turning your baby so the light falls evenly on the face, so that one half is not much darker than the other.
- Do not shoot into the light. Blijkaartje says all the details are lost against the light, and suggests having it behind you instead. Light from the side, it adds, can give lovely effects.
- Leave the flash off. According to Blijkaartje, a flash sometimes gives "hard edges" around the outline and a shadow rim appears more easily.
- Soften a bright window. A sponsored article on the German family site familie.de suggests a window with a white curtain for diffuse light indoors.
Which background works on a printed card?
Rosemood wants a clear background with nothing that pulls the eye away from your baby's face, and calls a light-coloured sheet ideal. Its list of what to watch for is very domestic: objects on a sideboard, the cord of a lamp. The shops differ on how light to go:
| Source | Background advice |
|---|---|
| Rosemood | A light-coloured sheet is ideal; nothing in shot that draws attention away from the face |
| Blijkaartje | The trend is a light background with perhaps a few touches of colour, such as a thick white knitted throw or a sheepskin |
| Kaartje2go | A nice throw or blanket under your baby, but preferably not bright white, because that draws a lot of attention |
| familie.de | A neutral background, such as a plain white fabric or soft pastel colours |
Clothes follow the same logic. Rosemood suggests light clothes, or clothes that match the colour of the card, and, if you use several photos, ones with similar tones. familie.de prefers single-colour clothes and warns against strong patterns or intense colours that pull attention away.
On our side, each of our 24 photo designs comes in four colourways, so you can pick the one closest to the blanket and clothes in your photo.
When should you take the photo?
Give it time. Blijkaartje points out that the first day or days after the birth are often hectic and unpredictable, and that some babies' faces are not yet smooth after the delivery. Its advice is to give yourself time rather than expect the perfect photo straight away.
Planet Cards, a French card shop, puts the ideal age for a newborn photo session between the 5th and the 15th day after the birth. familie.de calls the first ten days the ideal time for a newborn shoot. A card can wait for its photo: Kaartje2go notes that it is quite normal these days to wait a little longer for the birth announcement. When the card goes out is up to you, and our guide to when to send birth announcements covers the timing.
How close should you get to your baby?
Close enough that the face carries the photo, with some room left around it. For a card photo, Kaartje2go suggests photographing just the face, and says it is fine if your baby is awake, because then you see their eyes. Blijkaartje says to make sure the eyes are always sharp. Kaartje2go adds that if your camera lets you choose exactly where it focuses, you should focus on the eye nearest you.
Rosemood warns against shooting too close: a photo that is too zoomed in cannot be "zoomed out", while one taken from a little further back is easy to zoom into in its design tool. The same holds for ours. Our editor can zoom into your photo up to three times, and its crop view shades the strip along the edge that is trimmed off when the card is cut. Our card print files carry a 4 mm bleed on every side, the trim Gelato asks for.
A photo taken from a step further back can be zoomed in later. One taken too close cannot be zoomed out.
How many pixels does a birth announcement photo need?
For a card, fewer than a 12-megapixel phone photo holds. Gelato, the print company that prints our cards and posters, asks for images of at least 150 dpi and at most 300 dpi at their actual size. Our editor checks every photo against the space it fills: from 240 dpi it says "Sharp – perfect for print", from 150 dpi "Good for print", and below that "May print slightly soft". A soft photo is never blocked, but before you order, the proof asks you to tick a separate box saying you understand it may print less sharp.
Here is what that means for the largest photo area in our photo designs, trim included. The photo sizes are width × height of an upright photo, and a photo needs at least that many pixels on both sides. The last column is a 12-megapixel phone photo of 3024 × 4032 pixels, used whole:
| Product | Largest photo area | Photo for "Sharp" (240 dpi) | Photo for 150 dpi | A 3024 × 4032 photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flat A6 card | 113 × 156 mm | 1068 × 1475 px | 668 × 922 px | 656 dpi, sharp |
| Folded A5 card | 156 × 218 mm | 1475 × 2060 px | 922 × 1288 px | 470 dpi, sharp |
| Framed poster 30 × 40 cm | 308 × 408 mm | 2911 × 3856 px | 1819 × 2410 px | 249 dpi, sharp |
| Canvas 30 × 40 cm | 398 × 498 mm (wrap included) | 3761 × 4706 px | 2351 × 2941 px | 193 dpi, good |
| Framed poster 45 × 60 cm | 458 × 608 mm | 4328 × 5745 px | 2705 × 3591 px | 168 dpi, good |
Zooming spends pixels. The same photo at twice the zoom prints the folded card's largest photo area at 235 dpi, just under "Sharp", and the 30 × 40 poster at 125 dpi, in the soft range.
So upload the original file. When a photo is small for its size, our editor warns that photos sent through WhatsApp or saved from social media are made smaller, and that the original from your phone or camera prints sharper. In a test described in an iDownloadBlog article first published in August 2023, WhatsApp's Standard setting downscaled images to 960 × 1280 or 1600 × 1200 pixels. A 960 × 1280 copy would fill the folded card's largest photo area at 149 dpi, just under our "Good" line.
If you want the photo in black and white, convert it before you add it. Rosemood suggests black and white when a photo has small flaws or when the colours of several photos do not match.
Once you have a photo you like, you can try it on the Yara photo design in the card editor, which shows how sharp it will print before you order. Wondering which card to choose first? Our comparison of folded and flat cards sets the two side by side.