Newborn Photography

Newborn photography can be a fun and rewarding business; however, working with newborns requires a different set of skills than does working with brides or high school seniors. The following are a list of suggestions which, if followed, will help make a newborn session successful.

1. Allow for more time when photographing a newborn. If your normal sessions are an hour and a half long, consider increasing the time of the session to two and one half hours. You may need to charge more for the session, but most clients understand paying more for more time.

2. Give your client instructions on dress and colors. To some degree the success of the session is determined before the client even arrives. If you have communicated to your client clear instructions on what to where what color to where the number of outfits to bring, etc, it is more likely that the client will be prepared for the session. A well prepared client will translate into better portraits and larger orders.

3. Consider purchasing a variety of different hats for your portraits. Currently hats are the rage. Babies look adorable in hats. Have a variety of styles and colors on hand. A favorite technique is to print an image where the baby is in black and white but the hat is in color. Or, give the baby a little color in cheeks and eyes and a lot of color with the hat.

4. When you shoot a parent kissing a child, instruct the parent to not pucker when kissing. Frozen on film (or digital) for the entire world to see, a pucker looks unnatural. Just have the parent press their lips to the head of their newborn.

5. Keep plenty of diaper and wipes on hand. Photographing babies is definitely unique. It should be expected that the parent (who needs to stay during the session) will change any dirty diaper; however expect a surprise from time to time. Remember the baby is nude much of the time. There is not any other type of photography in which you are likely to be urinated on (thank goodness).

Photographing newborns is a fun and rewarding challenge. A photographer who follows the above suggestions is more likely to have a successful shoot.