10 Tips for Taking Adorable Baby Kiss Photos

This popular Pinterest baby kiss photo is a bit harder than it looks to capture. Follow these tips to make your photos turn out perfectly adorable!

If you have been perusing Pinterest these days, chances are you have seen this cute picture of a baby with red lipstick kisses all over him. I think I pin him to my Valentine’s board every year. 🙂

This past weekend we visited my family in Wisconsin and my sister asked that I help her recreate the shoot with her 6-month-old son, Landon. (Aren’t his blue eyes dreamy?)

We ended up doing it twice and learned a few tricks on how to execute this well. Hopefully they help you if you want to do the same shoot!

How to take baby kiss photos

When kissing your baby, reapply the lipstick after every kiss. This keeps the kisses consistent and bright.
If possible, have multiple people do the kissing. This makes the application fast and less time for the baby to smear the kisses.
The kisses shouldn’t be perfect. Put them everywhere.
Because Landon is at the stage where he flails his arms a lot, we had my brother-in-law hold his arms while we kissed him. This helped minimize smearing of the kisses.
Whatever surface/blanket you put your child on, lipstick will get on it. We used a cream blanket so it was easy to spray some stain cleaner on it and toss it in the laundry. If your little one can sit up, consider getting a simple paper photo drop like these.
Your baby will likely smear the lipstick, so have a warm washcloth on hand to remove the lips and reapply, as necessary. (You’ll still probably miss some smears, like we did on Landon’s arm in the top picture. It doesn’t have to be perfect to still be adorable!)
Do the shoot after nap time or a feeding, when your baby is happy and alert.
Don’t do the shoot by yourself. I focused on taking the pictures and my sister focused on making Landon laugh, fixing smeared kisses, etc.
Diaper your child using a white diaper or diaper cover if possible.
Have fun!