In home and on your phone ~ Newborn Session

Well. What a week. I hope families are finding ways to enjoy the extra time together. Social distancing rules may have closed the studio but that doesn’t mean YOU can’t capture great photos!

Over the next few weeks, I am going to share some basic photography techniques. Take advantage of this time at home with your kiddos and capture great pictures!

First up. Newborn photography. My assistants for this iPhone 11 shoot are Leslie, June, Mr. Piggy and a random monkey. They are thrilled to be helping out.

Lighting

Photography is all about light. This may seem obvious but reading light quantity, quality and angle is a skill I am constantly refining. My newborn portrait style is created with soft, diffused, natural light with very few shadows. We are going to concentrate on finding this type of light in your home.

Where is this light? Often, a window facing North works well. Windows facing West are great in the morning and windows facing East work well in the afternoon. White or off-white curtains and distance from the window can also create softer, diffused light. For this mock newborn session, I photographed at 10:30am near a window that faces West. The sky was very overcast so the light was nicely diffused.

Composition

Now that you have found good light, it’s time to start thinking about what you will photograph. I like to keep the photos all about the family so I make decisions about my composition that highlight expressions, snuggles and eyes. I keep the clothing colors neutral and the backgrounds are not busy.

Unfortunately, my children do not care for my clothing suggestions and my only nice light happens to be in our very ‘lived in’ living room. To make sure the kiddos didn’t get lost in the background, I filled the frame with their faces and used the ‘Portrait’ setting on my iPhone 11 to focus on their faces and to throw the background out of focus.

Posing

Ever try to get your kids to pose for photos? Yeah. Don’t waste your time. You have to make a photo spot that creates the pose. Kids love pillows, climbing on couches, beds (especially yours) Drag the couch cushions over to the nice light spot, spread out a neutral colored blanket and let your child roll around and explore. When the wiggles have ceased, talk about holding the baby. Usually kids will let you place the baby in their arms like Mr. Piggy in Leslie’s arms.

Mom and Dad can get in on the photo shoot by holding the baby near that great light source and wrap both sets of arms around that baby. Photograph from a higher angle to capture everyone’s face. Check out the photo of June, Leslie and Mr. Piggy above.

Swaddle

Newborns flail their arms everywhere! One way to ensure that each photo you capture is not ruined by a flailing arm, I highly recommend swaddling the baby. Instead of a traditional swaddle or receiving blanket, choose a piece of fabric that is long and narrow. If you do not have fabric available, try folding a thin receiving blanket in half. I always swaddle up the arms and improvise on the rest of the wrap. Here are some suggestions.