Top 6 Key Things you must know in Newborn photography
Newborn Photography is such a cool aspect of photography for photographers who have a thing for kids. It’s not all photographers that have the flair for snapping kids.
However, as a photographer, you can decide to go into newborn photography. But before you do so, you must know some or all of the things I have to say in this article.
In my years of experience as a newborn photographer or as a kid or children photographer, I have gathered a lot of experience which I must share in this article with you.
Also, I’ll share some tips for DIY newborn photography techniques to help you achieve the most for a newborn photo shoot while waiting for a professional shoot.
So, in the next Paragraph, I will start dishing out all that you need to know. I mean those important things that will make your newborn photography stand out. It’ll always work for you whether you’re a Pro photographer or not.
So, let’s dive into the first one:
Things you must know in Newborn photography
- Location
Choosing a good location in your home for your newborn photo shoot is key. First of all, you can consider using nursing or the master bedroom. Getting ready for the shoot, you must clear the clutter in the room before your photo shoot. If you’re using the nursery, it’s good you use one blanket and then have it draped over the crib.
Using the master bedroom, it’ll be nice if you clear off the nightstands and make the bed look very fresh using a white or light-colored quilt. Also, you can use a duvet and fluff the pillows.
2. Using a Good Light
Getting a good light for your photo shoot is very important because of its impact on your photos. Light plays a very big role in photoshoots than other things you can imagine.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using the best type of Camera, but if your light isn’t good enough. If you don’t use good light, pictures taken with a low-price or quality camera or phone but with a good lighting setup will be better.
You can find the best time that your nursery or the Master bedroom has the best type of light in it. Once you notice the type of day that has the brightest light, that’s the time to do your photo shoot. But if you have enough lighting set-ups with Strobes, you can shoot any time.
So, how then, you can get a good light to use? What you need mostly is a soft bright light. Most photographers love using north-facing windows.
However, if the light is not shining directly into the room, you can use it. You should take seriously the nursery and master bedroom to know the times and the day you always have bright light.
You can get the best of light if the sun gets directly overhead; let’s say around 12 am to 12 pm.
To get more light, make sure that your window blinds or curtains are open so wide to let in as much light as you will need. Most time when am shooting without the windows or curtain open lightening isn’t always enough.
But the amount of light that enters the room or studio when the windows are open is always enough to shoot your images. It’ll give the best natural light and also avoid color casts from white bulbs.
3. Camera settings
In your newborn photography, you must ensure that your camera settings are to get the best of shots mostly when you’re using natural light. Also, ensure that you’re steady as you take your pictures and wait for the baby to sleep so he/she can be calm.
However, if you have a squirmy baby awake you can have some blur in your images. This blur will come because of moving and low light.
If you’re using your phone, especially an iphone, make sure you tap on the screen where you want to focus. When you do that, you’ll see a sun and box come up the screen.
Tap the sun and slide your finger up or down to adjust the exposure. For those using an Android phone when you tap the screen for a focus, you can slide left or right to decrease or increase the exposure.
4. Types of Props
In most types, the use of Props can define or redefine your newborn photo shoot. I use Props a lot to show the essence of the shoot. But you can use a swaddle blanket as a very common prop for newborn photography.
You can choose the style you would love to use for newborn photography. But if your crib sheet or bedroom has a pattern, it’s better to use a solid. So, whichever one you decide to use is OK. No style is wrong or right; it depends on the result you want to create.
You can put your baby in a white Onesie.
This will give your baby a classy look that won’t look outdated for a long time.
In addition, the white will help clean light onto the baby’s face.
Shooting in the Crib
In the Crib, start your first pose using the Onesie I recommended above. Lay the baby in the crib facing up the room. Most babies prefer to use a particular side of their body. If you can’t just make them have their heads up the room, you can try turning them around in the Crib.
Different Types of Shots for Newborn Photography
- Overhead shot
- The Adorable toes
- Shot from the side of the face (through the rails)
- Getting the full shot of the baby in the crib.
- Getting the baby shots from different angles.
5. Shooting in the Master bedroom
While shooting in the bedroom, I recommend using swaddling methods. You can set your baby quite close to the foot of the bed in the middle. Then, having artwork over the bed will be nice too.
Kinds of shoot with the Swaddle
While shooting your newborn using swaddle wraps, you can get several shots such as:
- Shooting vertically
- Horizontal
- From the top
- Using a letter board and shooting from the top to show everything.
6. Adding a Pet to a Newborn Photography
Before you consider adding a pet to your newborn photography, do consider a calm dog, and don’t bring it too close to the newborn.
If you want to shoot a newborn with Cat be as fast as possible because the cat can pop in at any time.
How to edit your Newborn photographs
When editing your newborn photos, Lightroom is highly recommended for the job. You can easily get it from the Adobe app store. It’s no longer a secret that most photographers use Lightroom to edit their photos instead of Photoshop.
