Clients ask me all of the time whether they should book a fresh 48 session, a lifestyle newborn session in their home, or a posed newborn session in my studio, located just south of Denver in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. My favorite sessions are in-home lifestyle sessions and fresh 48’s… but I definitely love the variety of posing newborns, too!! Since you have to have the newborn very sleepy to get them into the exact poses you are trying to achieve, I’ve learned a couple of tips and tricks along the way.
5 tips to a great newborn session:
Definitely make sure baby is warm enough… if they are wrapped up in several layers, they’ll be fine. But if you are switching out blankets frequently and they get chilly, they’ll definitely wake up! I use a space heater in my studio to keep it extra warm!
MAXIMIZE each pose!! Here’s an example…. I posed baby in tushy up, but I was able to get several completely different looks by changing my angle and the blanket I was using!
3. Prepare for your flow through poses, but also be prepared to switch things up if baby is wide awake! I start with a womb pose, then side lying, and end with tushy up on my bean bag. After the bean bag, I wrap the baby up and move on to props! BUT, a huge BUUUUUT… if baby arrives at my studio wide awake AND mama feeds baby and is still awake, then I do the wrapped poses first and end with the bean bag.
4. I keep a white noise machine going the entire session! Babies are used to their mom’s womb being very loud, so the quietness out in the real world is a huge change! Plus, it drowns out little noises in the room or just simply my conversation with the parents!
5. When you do wrapped poses in props… pick a neutral wrap to start! Then, layer the wrap that you want to see on top of it! That way it’s super easy to move between props quickly because you never fully unwrap baby in between props. Under all 3 of these wrapped poses is a white stretchy wrap that helped keep this sweet baby girl asleep the whole time!
