Face up close, window light

Light solves almost everything

A newborn photo does not need equipment, it needs a window. Daylight, diffused, keeps the skin's real texture. A phone flash flattens the face, erases the eyelashes and startles her on top of that.

Where to put her

• Lay her on her side, a metre from the window, with the light coming across her face.
• An overcast day is the best day. Direct sun makes hard shadows and makes her squint.
• If the light is strong, hang a thin white sheet over the window. It becomes a diffuser.
• Turn off the ceiling lights: they mix two colours of light and turn the skin greenish.

Get closer than feels right

The photo that moves you later is the one that crops the rest of the world out: just the face, or just the mouth and chin, or just an ear. Frame in very close, and take a wide one for context too. The two are good for different things.

What nobody photographs and later misses

• The face asleep, with the mouth still moving.
• The swirl of hair, seen from above.
• The ear, which has a pattern all its own and changes shape in the first year.
• The birthmark, if there is one. They tend to fade and disappear.