Newborn session tips

Since I just got done photographing a sweet sweet baby girl (blog post HERE) I decided to talk a bit about newborn photography. It is super important to prep your parents so that when they arrive the baby is full, warm, and ready to sleep. And it is even more important to prep your studio for the session as best you can to make it as conducive as possible for baby to be comfortable and sleepy. Make sure your studio is warm by turning up the thermostat (if you have a separate one for your studio), use space heaters (safely away from fabrics/props), and keeping baby wrapped in a loose blanket when not posing. I also use a noise machine (well iPhone with speaker-Keri Meyers turned me on to a new app but there are tons of noise apps) and I listen to music during the session just to add noise so baby is used to it so noise won’t startle them. I burn lavender oil – hey every little thing helps right? And if the light is harsh in place I hang up a large diffuser but you can just use a sheer curtain too!

Also have a game plan-either a list of things you would like to do during the session (fabrics, props, poses) or set everything up in order of use. But, as we all know, babies aren’t exactly predictable so be ready to change it up! Sometimes my babies like to be wrapped more so I start with props that they are wrapped in otherwise I start with the bag posing. Today, Miss Emarie Grey came in full and sleepy so we got right to my first idea for the day. Safety is always top priority so if you look closely I have copied the left side of the image and moved it over to the right (also for better symmetry because I couldn’t get the blankets perfectly folded on both sides), masked the layer, and erased it off Baby Emarie to cover up the spotterThis is an easy way to clone out spotters if you have a symmetrical image such as this one

While baby is happy make sure you get several shots/orientations. For instance, I thought I would love the landscape orientation on this one but turns out I like the portrait one better!

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