Newborn photography is a very popular genre because it represents a major emotional milestone for any family. Overall, babies are easy to photograph, compared to toddlers, for example, but there are a few points that I keep in mind to improve the images and the photo shoot experience (which is probably at least as important for the young family as the photos themselves):
- The best time to for a newborn portrait is within the first ten days of their life. After that, babies lose their natural curled-up posture, which makes iconic images of a sleeping child so cute. The first couple of weeks are also some of the busiest for the new parents, so it’s good to plane the shoot in advance.
- It’s important to keep the room very warm (barely comfortable for adults) – babies get cold very easily.
- Babies’ eyelids are very thin, so the flashes can disturb their sleep. The opportunities to capture the “sleeping baby” photos may be few. Of course, there is an option to shoot with natural light, if there is a large window in the room.
- Post-processing is a must. Baby’s skin is not a smooth as we are used to think. In fact, it is spotty, scaly and translucent, showing all the tiny blood vessels. It is also very red, compared to an adult’s skin tone (I am talking about a white baby here – different races would have their own differences).
Overall, I think newborn portrait are a lot of fun, particularly because of the opportunity to capture the emotional connection of the adults and the newest member of the humankind. Taking this king of photos always feels like a privilege.
