My Two Cents on Newborn Photography
I’ve been working with newborns and expecting moms more than with anything else lately. And in meantime, I’ve learned that all moms are cool but newborns are adorable! Newborn babies are also very challenging to work with. I will share a few photos of two totally different babies with you today. The first one is a five-days-old girl who wanted nothing but to sleep. Sleep in the position she found comfortable. Otherwise she would start crying. Luckily, she chose the cutest poses ever!
We left her to sleep the way she wanted. Her mom and I made tiny changes just by moving her arms and hands a bit.
She ate probably 10 times during the two hours session. Every time we would wake her up by repositioning her hands or head, she would want to eat. And poop. And she didn’t care is her diaper on or not but we expected that.
Unlike this beautiful baby girl, the little baby boy below was pretty stubborn. He was a month old and not only he did not want to pose/ sleep at all, he also hated camera. He was awake the whole time and he didn’t want to cooperate at all. From the photo below, can you tell he was arguing? His mom would put him one way and in a split of second he would turn the other way. It was too funny but also very frustrating.
At the end, right before he will started screaming, he gave me this look like he’s telling me he won!
The funny thing is that his sister was crying because no one was taking photos of her! She is 3 and she loves camera so I took a few pictures of her.
While there is no general rule on what works with babies, there are a few things you should consider for newborn sessions. First, every baby is very unique and what works with baby A, it probably won’t work with baby B. I always try to arrive early to parent’s house and I ask mom to make sure the room is warm enough. I set lights, backdrops, props and cameras before the baby gets to the room. I’ve also read somewhere that the first week of baby’s life is the best time for a newborn session since babies are still very flexible and you can manipulate poses. Well, that wasn’t the case with my 5-days-old model; all she wanted was to be left alone.
Finally, I don’t really time newborn sessions. While you can plan two hours, it can easily be more than that. It’s important that neither of you (mom or you) feels rushed. My advice is to talk to the mom and assure her that your mission is to get that perfect photo no matter how long it will take. Of course, you will not stay four or five hours on the location but your client doesn’t have to know that; just do your best to make them feel comfortable. The best thing to do in order to ease the situation when baby is not cooperating is to ask mom to make you coffee and offer her a 10 minutes break.
It is important to build a trusting relationship with your clients, especially if you are going to live and work in the area for a while. People appreciate that and you will certainly have returning clients. Plus, parents adore their babies, they will adore your photos as well!
Finally, one of my favorite baby models: Annabell who was born while her daddy was away flighing missions over Iraq.
What are your 2 cents on newborn photography? 
Linking up to:
Latest posts by Mira Crisp (see all)
- Creating HDR in Photoshop - June 5, 2013
- Four Cloud Options for Storing Your Photos Online - April 15, 2013
- Contemporary Portraits Meet Grainy Film - March 27, 2013
SEARCH
Photo Critique
Categories
Recent Posts
Popular Posts
Blogs We Love
Website Redesign
Archives
Rewards Balance
Current Reward
27 Comments:
By ruthiehart 27 May 2011
she is a beauty! and you have such a great talent
By Linda Makiej 27 May 2011
Your photos are really fantastic!! You have such talent!
By Kayla Sue 27 May 2011
I am shooting with my first newborn this week and I am SO nervous! From what I hear they are the most challenging! Plus I'm limited on props. Thanks for the tips, I'll have to keep them in mind!! (and that little girl is ADORABLE!)
By Jen Higgins 27 May 2011
Such pretty babies!
By Joeylee 27 May 2011
these are awesome, newborn pics are always so adorable
By deb duty 27 May 2011
Lovely newborn photos! I find photographing newborns super hard.
By Natalie 27 May 2011
You did a great job on the baby girl! I've also heard the first 10 days of life were the best time frames to photograph newborns and a lot of my photog friends will only do it in that time frame and they have fantastic results, but you ARE right, each baby is different, so it is a constant change and challenge but you stepped up! Nice work, and that little girl seems like a lil ham!
By Carrie 27 May 2011
Adorable pictures. Amen on each newborn being different. I had a screamer like your second one that was so difficult to get a calm photo of!
By Niki 27 May 2011
Such sweet pictures!
By Chic Homeschool Mama 27 May 2011
Those are absolutely adorable! I have never had the opportunity to photograph a newborn- with the exception of my own. But at the time – digital cameras didn't even really exist. I was using a 35mm point & shoot & they all came out like you would expect. I look at them now & just get so sad that I have missed the opportunity to capture those moments as well as they could have been captured.
By Jaymi 27 May 2011
great tips!I really love the first shot!
By Tiziana 28 May 2011
The first is very beautiful! thanks for your comment! ^_^
By LivingFree 28 May 2011
Such adorable shots. I had a chance to shoot a newborn not too long ago. I was really blessed at how easy he was to work with.
By Jeska 28 May 2011
Love this post. I just took my nieces newborn photos. It took much longer than I had expected! But we managed to get a few good ones. Love your photos!
By Marilyn 28 May 2011
I did a session with my daughter this week…she's not even two weeks yet, and let me tell ya it was challenging…I didn't get very many pics…I do have more I'm editing, and I started playing with adding in backdrops using my green screen… I love the shots you got they look amazing… I have noticed that babies don't care if the diaper is on or off they will poop whenever they are ready, and for me that's generally when the diaper is not on. Ava got me good this week when doing her pics, and some of my early sessions last year with Samantha ended the same way…
By Henrietta 28 May 2011
Cute babies and really hard subject. Babies are babies and they don't listen the voice of the reason sometimes;)
By Mira 28 May 2011
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences! We have to agree that babies, despite their stubbornness, are the cutest subjects possible!
By Carrie Saindon 01 Jun 2011
I absolutely love those newborn shots!
By lisa 02 Jun 2011
Each of these is absolutely precious Mira!
Your work is truly magnificent!
By Unknown Mami 02 Jun 2011
You took some excellent pictures.
When I had my first daughter a friend who is a photographer gave us 2 photo shoots as a gift. I was so stressed out about it when she came because my daughter was really grouchy. Then my friend told me that the reason she gave me two sessions was so that I wouldn't worry about getting the perfect shot the first time. The second session was a king of back up guarantee. Anyway, we ended up getting great shots so we didn't even do a second shoot. Didn't need to.
By Mira 02 Jun 2011
Lisa, thank you so much! It means a lot!
By Mira 02 Jun 2011
Unknown Mami, I tend to tell parents that we will book additional sessions if I judge we need one. Usually we don't need it. Your friend is smart!
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
By anne 03 Jun 2011
Wonderful advice! And with newborn (and children) photography, I always feel the simpler – the better! They are so interesting and animated that too many props make it look just busy. Clean backgrounds, some lovely colours and textures and and occasional purpose-prop is all you need (apart from great lighting and a lot of patience
)
Lovely pictures, I adore the grumpy little guy giving you a look, so much personality shows in all that, and I love the baby wrapped in a blanket one, the texture of the blanket makes it look so crisp yet soft and airy. Perfect!
ps. I've been having the same trouble with commenting, here I have to preview then post, otherwise it doesn;'t work
By A Rosy Note 06 Jun 2011
Your photos turned out wonderful
Those are some wonderful tips too!
By Ellie 08 Aug 2011
You have some excellent tips here. Your pictures are wonderful, you are very talented in this line of work.
By Hostels Italy 16 Aug 2011
Wow! Cutie pictures! So loveable blogs. Thanks!
By goat milk lotion 04 Oct 2011
very nice posts of the pics that are here in the web page in the same way as on many pages!
goat milk lotion