^{Photo by UfukSaracoglu via iStock}

Newborn photography is a specialty niche of portrait photography that is enjoyable and rewarding and can also be profitable when marketed well. 

But there are some tricks you can follow to get better photos of little ones.

Here are some newborn photography tips that have proven to help maximize the rewards of this genre of creative portraiture.

Table of Contents:

• #1 Newborn Photography Tips: Keep the Baby Comfortable
• Newborn Photography Tips for Lighting
• Props, Backgrounds, Clothing
• Create Lasting Memories With a Photo Book
• Recommended Photography Gear

#1 Newborn Photography Tips: Keep the Baby Comfortable

^{Photo by NataliaDeriabina via iStock} 

The most important of all of our newborn photography tips is to keep the baby comfortable. One of the ways to make sure the child will be relaxed enough to accept your posing and all of the equipment around them is to carefully monitor the ambient temperature.

Using the air conditioner or heater is important because infants can show signs of discomfort due to being too hot or too cold. Besides making the resulting photos unusable, we really don’t want to be the cause of anything uncomfortable for the child or the parents. 

Mood is vital for good infant photographs. This starts before we choose any lighting configuration or exposure settings. Think peaceful, calming, and affectionate. Even what the child hears is going to affect the mood, which is why we’re including using hushed speaking tones in our newborn photography tips.

Going back to temperatures, the area in which the newborn is placed also should be considered. Some of the more thoughtful newborn photography tips we’ve come across include making sure the material the child is on top of is a soft, natural material. Warming a blanket to use for the newborn’s posing area is often a good idea, even if we need to use air conditioning for air temp comfort.

Making sure that the child is fed about 20 or 30 minutes before the photo session is another one of the newborn photography tips concerning their comfort level. Posing them too soon after feeding could decrease their comfort level, but about 20 or 30 minutes usually has them nicely relaxed.

Newborn Photography Tips for Lighting

^{Photo by katrinaelena via iStock}

We already mentioned creating a relaxed mood in our newborn photography tips. Creating a soft mood in the images themselves can be enhanced by proper lighting. Soft, warm light is definitely preferred, such as diffused daylight coming through a window. 

We can use lighting gear, including a softbox, warm tone reflectors, and color controls on LED continuous lights to create our own window light. There are even specialty scrims that many cinematography lighting specialists use to mimic window panes or blinds that we can adapt for our use.

You’ll notice I already listed using LED continuous lights in our newborn photography tips. A continuous light source has some advantages over studio strobes or camera flash units when photographing newborns, mostly because of the previously mentioned comfort level.  

The bright explosion of light from a strobe may startle a child, even if you’ve diffused the light. And LED lights avoid the heat issue of other forms of continuous lights while also adding in generous levels of control for light intensity and color temperature.

The actual light configuration can vary quite a bit. A standard two-light setup with a 3 to 1 (3:1) lighting ratio between key and fill lights can work well, as can advanced techniques including butterfly lighting, broad lighting, and short lighting, depending on what effect you want, from low key to high key and anywhere in between.

Many successful newborn photographers have related that one of their newborn photography tips for lighting is to use a generally flatter light ratio than even the 3:1 portrait set up. A  2:1 or 1.5:1 ratio can provide enough modeling texture to the light and help soften the mood for beautiful infant portraits. 

Props, Backgrounds, Clothing

^{Photo by VYCHEGZHANINA via iStock}

This brings us to the setting part of our newborn photography tips, what kind of backdrop, props, and clothing items to choose. Just as with the lighting tips, using soft items, soft colors, and natural materials all help contribute to a comfortable session and good images.

There are stiff, flat top beanbag types of cushions that can be placed on a posing table, bed, or floor that have some give but let the baby sink down into the material that are excellent for newborn photography.

Softer, muted colors work well. You can choose earthy tones or fun, bright colors, but if you opt for brighter colors, pastels seem to enhance a photo more than deep or intense primary colos, which can seem a little harsh. This extends from the posing blankets to include your backdrops.  

As a side point in our newborn photography tips, some of the same backdrops and props we recommend for food photography cross over fantastically into all forms of portrait photography, including these intimate portraits of a newborn infant.

Create Lasting Memories With a Photo Book

All of the already listed newborn photography tips can be used in our marketing and presentation of our portrait work to show potential clients. Photo books can be used as our portfolio, and we should also be offering a photo book to the clients we’re already working with.

Parents love having these to show everyone, and they are a lasting memento as well. Grandparents, godparents, family friends, and other extended family and friends could receive a nice photo book as a gift, or they can purchase one themselves.

Photo Book Press is a premium printer of fine-quality photo books and is the source I like to use for newborn photography. They are very reasonably priced and provide so many options for the creation of just the right book style for your client.

When considering the marketing ideas of newborn photography tips, remember to book ahead of time for some follow-up sessions. Some parents may want six-month and one-year-old portraits, while others may prefer less time between sessions.

A series of photo books is a good way to keep their cherished memories intact and is a nice source of extra income for you as the photographer. Combined with all the other newborn photography tips we’ve presented, this will contribute to your rewards and the enjoyment of newborn photography.

Recommended Photography Gear

Learn More:

• What to Look for when Ordering a Photo Book
• The Importance of a Personalized Wedding Photo Album
• Layflat Photo Book Buyer’s Guide

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I'm one of those folks that's guilty of having a ton of photos on memory cards, hard drives, and so forth.

I'm really good about making time to take the photos, it's just the parts after that - processing them and printing the best ones - that I'm admittedly not so good about.

That's a shame for a lot of reasons, and something I'm trying to correct.

One thing that's making me work harder to print my photos is the incredible array of unique and beautiful printing options we have available to us today.

I mean, I remember the days when the choice for consumers was not much more than "glossy" or "matte."

Not today, though.

Here's a few fun ways you and I can finally print our photos and put them on display.

Canvas

Canvas is a tried-and-true substrate that painters have used for centuries.

But it's also a great choice for photos, something that consumers have turned to more and more over the last few years.

That's because canvas is incredibly durable, and, if cared for properly, will last for generations and generations. It also looks really stinking good on your wall, as you can see above.

There's an abundance of choices when it comes to the kind of canvas you buy if you go through the right printer, too.

For example, CanvasPress offers four different types of canvas: Standard, Museum Matte, Museum Glossy, and Urth - OBA free. Each option is printed with care in the U.S. using U.S. materials. That means you get a canvas made of high-quality materials at the peak of craftsmanship.

There are three different depth options as well - .75-inches, 1.5-inches, and 2-inches. That means you can customize the way the print looks on your wall to suit your specific tastes.

And no matter what type of canvas you get, the turnaround time is lightning-quick - just two or three days!

CanvasPress also gives you plenty of choices when it comes to the border style of your canvas print:

• Mirror Wrap - CanvasPress selects the edges of the image and flips them onto the sides of the canvas, resulting in an image-wrapped look without sacrificing any important elements from the front of the image.
• Image Wrap - The Image Wrap option is best for a gallery wrap look. The image continues from the front of the canvas to the sides, giving it a continuous look. This is a great option for images that don't have important elements near the edges of the shot.
• Color Wrap - Rather than printing the image on the sides of the canvas, you can opt to have the sides printed with a single color. That means that the entire photo stays on the front of the canvas.

Recommended Tip:  Use CPTALK20 Coupon code for 20% OFF!

 

Again, CanvasPress uses only the best materials and is dedicated to the process of craftsmanship, so no matter what type of canvas you select, you know you'll be getting something that's worthy of hanging on your wall.

CanvasPress even gives you the option to get a canvas on its own, unmounted and unstretched, as seen above. And for the ones that you do have mounted and stretched, you can choose from three different styles of mounts, from simple sawtooth hangers to wire hangers to security hangers that are ideal for hanging your photos in a public space.

In other words, canvas printing isn't what it used to be...

There's a ton of choices, custom sizing available, the products are gorgeously printed, and you get the final say on all aspects of how your images look. There's even a lifetime guarantee on the product - assuming you get with a printer that offers you all those options.

If you want a beautiful, well-made canvas print that makes a bold statement, visit CanvasPress today and start printing!

 

Recommended Tip:  Use CPTALK20 Coupon code for 20% OFF!

 

Learn more about the CanvasPress printing process in the video above.

Steel Mobile

If you have traditional prints made on paper, you have more options than simply slapping them in a frame and putting them on your desk.

Instead, you can opt for a more interesting display that makes the images a bit more interactive.

Take the metal photo mobile shown above as an ideal example of this.

This type of photo display is perfect for small spaces where you need to hang your photos from the ceiling rather than having them on your desk.

And if you have a series of photos you want to show off, it's a good option for that, too.

This mobile is strong and durable, yet not overly large or chunky, so it won't seem like it's visually heavy.

Instead, the focus can be on your prints as they appear to dance around in mid-air!

Photo Stickers

If you're looking for an inexpensive and impermanent way to display your photos, photo stickers might be for you.

Photo stickers like those shown above give you the flexibility of swapping out images on-the-fly without the worry of having pricey prints stored away somewhere where they might get damaged.

Sure, the quality of photo stickers can't match that of something like canvas, but they are nonetheless a unique way to display your photos.

These stickers will stick to just about any surface, from glass to metal to a painted wall.

Maybe the best part is that these stickers aren't printed on vinyl, but are instead printed on 100-perfect post-consumer recycled fabric.

That makes them a fun way to display your photos and an environmentally-friendly one, too!

Bonus Idea: Grab some twine, some clothespins, and take a few Polaroid photos, then hang them on the wall with the twine and pins. It's a simple and quick way to make something more out of instant photos.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, I have WAY too many photos that have never seen the light of day. I'm willing to bet that you're probably in a similar situation...

But it doesn't have to be that way!

There are more fun ways to print photos now than ever before. And it's easier to get your images printed than ever before, too.

So really, there's no excuse to keep those photos hidden away on a hard drive somewhere.

Give one of these image printing options a try (personally, I'm going to opt for canvas...) so you can actually enjoy the photos you've taken over the years!

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