Plan your little one’s newborn photo shoot with these great ideas and helpful tips. May contain a few helpful affiliate links at no extra cost to you.
Our sweet baby girl is here and we are all in love!
It seems like just yesterday I shared our fun gender reveal photos and now baby girl will be two months old tomorrow! She has begun to recognize our faces and will smile and jabber when we can catch her eye. I am so excited to see what her little personality will be!
This being our fifth time around with a newborn, I finally decided to do something I had never done before.
Hire a professional to take care of my newborn photo shoot.
I’ve hemmed and hawed about getting one in the past with each pregnancy but would finally decide against it. It was mostly due to the fact that I didn’t know any good photographers. I figured with a little prep work I could take some cute newborn photos by myself.
So along with all the other things you have to do to prepare for a baby, I would watch tons of youtube video and read several helpful tips on a DIY newborn photo shoot.
Shortly after baby was born, I would lug around my recently traumatized body to set up a backdrop and prep the baby to take a lot of photos. I never took pictures with myself and my baby, nor with the entire family and baby. That would have been waaaaaaay too much stress for my mastitis prone body to handle.
The pictures didn’t turn out half bad but I wasn’t utterly in love with them. I would then promise myself that next time around I would definitely hire a photographer. But then the same thing would happen yet again.
This time I finally broke the cycle. I reached out for photographer referrals and found someone’s work that I liked. I then left the unneeded stress of capturing my perfect little one on camera to the photographer. Thankfully that is one thing concerning newborns that I can delegate!
So if you are sitting on the fence about hiring a talented professional photographer, do it! Ask around to find one’s work that you like. You’ll be so glad that you did!
When you do find that fabulous photographer, here are a few helpful tips I learned for a making sure all runs smoothly.
1. Call your Photographer in Advance
Scheduling a newborn photo shoot is not as straight forward as other photo sessions. Since the arrival of baby is usually unsure, you can’t set up a for sure date to snap some pics.
Instead you’ll need to contact the photographer a good bit prior to your due date so they have a general idea as to when. After baby is born, you’ll give them a call with the happy news and then you’ll schedule a time that works for you both.
For a newborn session, the rule of thumb is to take pictures 10 days after baby is born. The reason for this is that babies are the sleepiest at this time, so it’s much easier to capture those sweet moments without all the baby squirms.
And definitely plan on some feeding times during the session to help keep baby sleepy. So dress appropriately or at least have a change of clothes if you plan on being in a few photos with a dress or outfit that isn’t nursing friendly.
If you have the photos taken in your home, the time of day will play a part in the planning. Take notice of when the room you are wanting to take it in gets the most sunlight and schedule the shoot around that time. Using natural light always makes for the best pictures. Our master bedroom gets a good amount of sun in the early afternoon, so that is when we arranged to take photos.
2. Have Ideas of Poses You Like
Your photographer can’t read your mind. If there is a certain setup or shot that you would like to recreate, definitely let them know in advance. Take a few minutes to send them the examples that you like via text or email or however.
It may be helpful to have a checklist of all the photos you would like taken. This will ensure that you don’t forget any of your favorite poses during the photo session.
I perused Pinterest beforehand to find several newborn photos that I liked. One pose in particular was with all the older siblings laying on their bellies with their face in their hands and the baby laying in front of them. So I worked with the photographer to recreate it.
It turned out being one of my absolute favorites! To help baby girl stand out in her sea of brothers, I wrapped her in a beautiful floral swaddle blanket that I absolutely adore and topped her with a little pink headband.
3. Pick your Props and Outfits
If your photographer has taken newborn photos before, she probably has several props to choose from.
But if there is something special you have in mind, definitely bring that along. Maybe you want to take a picture of your baby in the same outfit you wore as a child or with a special toy. Regardless of what it is, make sure you have that on hand so that you can.
I had a really pretty boho floral headpiece that I had worn at her baby shower and thought it would be fun to have the baby wearing it. We couldn’t make it small enough for her little head to have it look right so we opted not to use it.
When she captured some photos of baby and me, baby girl was wearing a small floral headband. The pictures were cute, but it looked like I was missing something. My photographer suggested I wear my floral headband so that we would match.
The result was absolutely perfect!
Be mindful that you won’t want to have too many outfits to change your baby into because that will disturb their sleep but you could get away with swapping out a few head pieces without waking them up.
So when I say ‘outfits’, I’m more referring to the outfits of others that might be in a picture or two.
After having a baby, there is nothing I would rather wear than a baggy t-shirt and loose, very loose shorts. But that is definitely not the look that I want to remember! So instead I opted to wear a white lace dress that wouldn’t stand out and take the focus away from baby girl, but was still lovely.
4. Declutter the Spot
Nothing distracts from a picture more than a bunch of clutter in the background! So if you are taking lifestyle photos in your home, be sure that the spaces you will be taking photos in are clean and clear of clutter.
Take time beforehand to put away any excess items that may distract from a perfect shot. You want the focus to be on your baby and loved ones and not on all the fluff!
We have a desk in the room that is partially blocking the window so we took that out the day before. We also moved our baby changing table to a different part of the room because it would have been in our photographer’s way while she was taking pictures.
5. Include the Family
This is a newborn photo shoot, but little baby wouldn’t be there without her parents! And what about the older siblings that have also been so excited to meet their new brother or sister?! It really is the perfect time to update your family photos with the newest family member.
I definitely recommend taking several photos with baby and those that love her most. When I took the photos by myself of my little ones, I never captured any photos with all of us or the baby with their older siblings or me for that matter. But I always wanted them.
And now I finally have some! 🙂
Newborn Photo Shoot Conclusion
I am LOVING the photos and so glad I finally took the time to make it happen! Did you get professional pictures taken with your newborn? What tips do you have?
A very special thanks to Anne Marie Photography for capturing these beautiful moments! She also did a fantastic job capturing our little man’s 1st birthday. If you are in the South Carolina area, I definitely recommend her services.
So cute! What beautiful photos! I wish we had done this when our kiddos were little!