Tips For Photographing Newborns
Every day I come across darling peaceful images of newborn babies. I literally want to reach into the image, scoop up the sleeping baby and snuggle it. We all know that to get one precious sleeping shot a lot more goes into the image besides laying the baby down in the perfect position.
Newborns and their parents can be some of the hardest clients photographers have. Photographing a newborn is not for the faint of heart. A newborn session can be long, exhausting, and draining.
In order to help those photographers just starting to photograph newborns, we turned to our business partners for their advice and best tips on photographing newborns.
Tips For Photographing Newborns
1). Have Patience.
2). The session will take longer than expected but should not take more than 2 hours.
3). Expect the baby to have an accident or two especially when being photographed naked.
4). Use a space heater (indirectly) or a heating pad to keep the baby warm. Warm babies=sleeping peaceful babies
5). Use a waterproof stadium blanket as a pee proof barrier. Lay it down first and cover with baby blankets.
6). Take a fan with you or download white noise from iTunes to help keep baby calm.
Tips For Photographing Newborns
7). Photograph baby within the first 10 days of life. They haven’t started stretching out yet which makes it easier to pose.
8). Avoid flash if at all possible.
9). Use natural light.
10). Expect delay especially with first time parents.
11). Do not book another session immediately following the newborn.
12). Ask the parents the babies schedule. Shooting after a feeding is usually the best time for sleeping pictures.
13). Start with the baby wrapped or swaddled for the perfect shot in the first 15 minutes. Then start working towards the naked baby images.
14). If the baby takes a pacifier, use it to soothe the baby. Pull the pacifier out of the mouth and take several images immediately to avoid only having one image with ‘pacifier mouth’.
Tips For Photographing Newborns
15). Photograph the newborn session in the hospital. Baby is still extremely sleepy and easy to pose.
16). Lastly, take a change of clothes for you.
What is your best advice or tip for photographing newborns?
Thank you to Elise Ellis of Elise Ellis Photography for allowing us to use some of her newborn images for this post.
