How to take pictures of a newborn? - The basics

A newborn is best photographed between 5th and 15th day of life. At this age, the newborn gives the best curly positions from the mommy’s belly, and will sleep most of the time, giving you the advantage to change poses easily.

After about 3 weeks, they start to stretch those limbs out, and it’s really hard to get those poses, where they are tucked in.

In newborn or baby photography, think security first! Never leave the baby alone, keep him warm, in a safe place, away from sharp objects.

Secure your equipment to make sure that it can’t fall on the baby.

You also want to take your time and not doing any sudden movement.

For that, you need to get the parents involved. They will be holding the baby, keeping him safe, and making sure that he is comfortable.

One important thing about newborn photography, is that you want to shoot the baby while he’s happy. I like starting the photo shoot after a good feed, a good burp, when they are sleepy and calm.

If the time is not right, you just need to be patient and wait.

The most simple way to get nice pictures done, is to take natural poses: Put them on the bed, capture dad or mom snuggling them, or a sibling giving them a kiss. Those are great images that are so meaningful.

There are plenty of more advanced poses. We will go through them in an other article.

You can’t really count on the baby to do anything but sleeping :)

If you get lucky enough, you will be able to get open eyes baby shot.

A newborn will sleep average 75% of the time of the session.

My favorite shots are the close up! Baby’s hands, feet, nose. I find it particularly cute, and I think that details are beautiful.

Lightning: You don’t want any hard shadow on the baby’s face. So you will be using soft boxes, or natural light if your studio or house allows it.

It will avoid the harsh shadows, and it’s gonna give the newborn a beautiful soft skin.

Flashes are proved to be safe and absolutely harmless for the babies eyes. A flash (no matter its power) is actually no more harm than the sun light.

A photo shoot with a newborn is a great way for a family to spend some good time watching the baby :)