We prefer to start from a glossy color print, even for our black and white announcements. We can also work from your black and white print for our black and white cards. We cannot work from negatives or Polaroids. If you wish to send a digital photo or scan, please read those sections below.

The photo you send should be in sharp focus. With babies, this requires a zoom lens. If your camera doesn't have a zoom lens, move farther away to get better focus. For best results, keep reading! This page is filled with information on how to take your photo and what works best on our cards.

Photo tips:
FILM AND CAMERA
Please send sharp focus, glossy prints. 100 or 200 speed film makes a nice sharp print. Avoid 400 or 800 speed which make a grainy photo. Use a camera with a zoom lens. Disposable cameras are not recommended.

LIGHTING
Use bright even lighting. Make sure that the whole head is lit well (not just one side). To get even lighting, use a flash and make sure there is also room light coming from all sides. Try moving lamps to dark sides. Avoid bright lights or windows behind subject. They will cause subject to be too dark.
Avoid photos taken in bright sunlight. The dramatic effect does not translate well to our cards.

POSITION AND COMPOSITION
Try duplicating the position from the sample announcement you like. Pay special attention to position of arms and hands. Hands near the face are nice, but avoid other objects in the photo, especially objects in front of the face and pacifiers. Avoid stuffed animals and other "props." They will distract from the main focus. Don't cover baby up to neck in a blanket. Leave at least chest and arms outside blanket for interest. Photos showing happy, calm or sleeping expressions work best for single photo designs. 

CLOTHING AND COLORS
Light clothing and background are preferred. Avoid bold patterns and dark colors. Please no red, navy or black! Avoid dark backgrounds behind dark hair. If you are purchasing a color photo card, try using pale clothing colors to match the card design. Avoid dark colors, bold patterns and red. Your cards will be much more pleasing with plain pale or pastel clothing.

WHAT TO SEND
For best results, we recommend you send several photos for us to choose from. Glossy finish prints are better than Matte. Please indicate your photo preferences on the photo backs using "sticky notes" or number your photos 1, 2, 3. (Please do not write on the back of your photos with a marker that might smear.) Choose your preferred photo according to your baby's expression and pose. If you do not indicate a preference, we will choose the most suitable photo.

If the baby is small in your photo, with a face smaller than a quarter on your print, it will print very soft (a bit blurry with little detail). If the only photos you send are very small, we recommend the Cameo or Expressions design. Some low resolution digital photos will not work. Please see digital photo comments below.

How to take a successful baby photo
1. Use a camera that has a zoom lens and the ability to focus at close distance (macro focus).
2. Use 100 or 200 speed film with a flash. Do not use 400 or 800 speed film.
3. Take photos when baby is sleeping or calm.
4. Dress baby in pastel outfit with no dark or bold patterns, or perhaps naked or in just a diaper. 
5. Lay baby on a rumpled pastel baby blanket or plain puffy comforter. Textured or rumpled surfaces are preferred to flat ones. Try duplicating the position used in a card sample you like.
6. Make sure baby is well lit. Pay special attention to light on the hair. Hair in shadows tends to look much darker on the announcements. Move lamps closer to baby, especially towards darker sides.
7. Check hands position. They are cutest up near face. Hands close to body work better than arms extended.
8. Don't cover baby up to neck in a blanket. Leave at least chest and arms outside blanket for interest.
9. Look through the camera and check area around baby. Pull comforter, pillows or blankets up so they fill background in entire viewfinder.
10. Take several exposures. If baby is not cooperating, try again later. NOTE: If child is uncomfortable or upset you will not get a good photo. Some of the best photos are taken on a lap or shoulder. Make the parent the "photo surface" to relax baby. Simply drape the parent with a plain blanket and lay baby on parent! (We can crop out objects that do not overlap baby around edges of photo.)

We will resize and crop your photo to suit our format. As a normal part of our production process our talented digital artists will lighten, resize, crop and remove blemishes. If your baby has a blemish you want to remain, such as a birth mark, please let us know. Unless notified, we automatically remove blemishes. Where we can sometimes "invent" more background or more blanket to fill your card, we often cannot fix missing parts of hands, ears, heads, etc. Please make sure they are fully in the photo.

Photos of an older sibling holding the baby can be a novel way to introduce the new baby, but it is challenging to get good results. The older child seated holding the newborn tends to steal the show with a big bright smile, while the newborn looks like a tiny unidentified bundle. To avoid losing focus on the baby, it is essential to have the heads close together, preferably touching.

For best results, nestle the babies together with heads touching. Avoid space between babies; the announcements look best when they are "squished" together. For triplets, consider placing babies head to head with their bodies extending out from the center like the spokes of a wheel. Please see our photo tips above for general instructions.

Due to copyright laws, photos taken by commercial photographers can only be used if we have written permission from the photographer to reproduce from their photo. Most photographers are willing to provide this release. They can fax it to 419-662-9540. Be sure the customer's name is on the release. Or, you can have the photographer sign and return the release we provide in our downloadable PDF order form.

Although we prefer photo prints, we can sometimes accept digital JPG photos. See the pixel dimensions we need below. If there is a lot of space around the subject of the photo, we may need higher resolution than noted here. Normally it takes a "megapixel" camera to take a photo we can use, set at high or highest quality. (When in doubt, send the highest resolution possible.) Please send photos in JPG format. 
-- 640x480 pixel digital photos often work for Cameo or Expressions designs, but are too low resolution for other designs.
--1280x960 pixels normally works well for any design if the subject is taken fairly close up.
-- 2048x1536 pixels works wonderfully. The ORIGINAL image or scan needs to meet our specifications. Changing the resolution of your photo in the computer to make it higher resolution would result in poor image quality. Please do not crop the image. We will eliminate unwanted objects and backgrounds when we work on your photo. You may e-mail your photo and send your order via fax or submit online. Or, mail your digital photo with your order form on a CD, 100mb ZIP or floppy. E-mail photos to mailbox@naptimecards.com. We cannot work from digital photo printouts off your computer. We must have the file. If you have your photos on CD from your photo developer, we need the highest resolution version available.

We can accept customer scans, but often receive unusable ones. If you are experienced at getting good scans from your scanner, we would be happy to accept them. If you are unsure how to work your scanner, or do not know how to change the settings as listed below, it will be better to send us a print.

If you are mailing your order, please do not send a scan. We will get better results if we scan your photo.

SCAN DIRECTIONS
In your scan preview, crop the image loosely to the way we will use it. (Select the portion of the photo that will print, getting rid of extra background and scanner bed but leaving us a comfortable margin. Do not scan the entire scanner bed. Be sure to leave some space around the subject.) Scan the usable portion of your image at 300 dpi, enlarging until the scanned usable portion is at least 6" wide. (You should be able to control what percentage you scan. Increase the percentage until your image will be at least 6" wide.) If you scan at 72 dpi, enlarge the image to 15" wide or larger. Be sure not to crop too tightly. We will be happy to crop and edit the image for you. Just let us know what you want eliminated. Save your scan as a .JPG (set at highest quality). You may e-mail your photo to mailbox@naptimecards.com. Then submit your order information online, or fax your order to 419-662-9540.