The newborn days at home are a magical mix of exhaustion and incredible love, as a new family finds its feet caring for their newest member. An in-home lifestyle session is a relaxed way to document those days with more authenticity than a studio session, capturing the feel of what those days were really like for the family. Read on for ideas on poses to start with for your next newborn shoot.
Newborn essentials: a starting point for your newborn session
This prompt is a great starting point if you don’t have much experience working with newborns. These are lifestyle newborn photographs: propped photos (babies wrapped in baskets, etc) require training to make sure you are doing poses safely. Always attempt poses at your skill level.
How to use this photo pose prompt
Safety first! When working with newborns, always consider safety first in everything you do.
Be reassuring: parents may be worried that baby won’t sleep, that you won’t have enough time, etc. Reassure that they should tend to baby’s needs when they need to (baby’s needs come first). Get the family warmed up by starting with a photojournalistic approach, taking photos of what they’re doing together (especially important when there are toddler siblings involved).
Different babies will have more or less tolerance for different positions. Read the baby and parents and go with the flow.
With all newborn sessions, be considerate of the baby’s needs and the postpartum mother’s recovery: ask what’s comfortable, what she can do, etc.
Don’t forget to capture the newborn details, too.
Prompt: Newborn essentials
- Full body, ½ body and face photos are easily taken in a nest (see Sleeping Newborn at Home).
- Baby breastfeeding (check with Mum first): Mum looking down at baby, baby’s face close up, baby’s hands on breast, parents smiling at each other while baby feeds.
- Sleeping lion pose: great for Dads, put baby on arm, head in hand, bottom in crook of elbow, back leg tucked and front leg draped, lift hand to centre of chest as if doing bicep curl, other hand supports wrist. Looks great with Dad’s shirt off if he’s keen.
- Burp pose: get baby’s face by shooting from behind parent’s back while baby is up on shoulder being burped or comforted.
- Baby cradled between parents: baby upright with face close up to parents (be aware of baby being down too low and being lost in the photo at distance).
- In bassinet: get up high and shoot square on to avoid perspective problems (or fix in post, i.e. square the edges of the bassinet to the photo edges); make sure camera is secured safely to your body before holding it over baby.
- Parents kissing baby: both in profile, and be aware of how the face outlines match up and overlap (think of puzzle pieces fitting together against white space).
Creative extension
- Think symmetrically. What can you frame so that your photograph is perfectly balanced from side to side?
Tag @promptographerguide and use the hashtag #promptographerguide to share your favorite photos to capture at newborn sessions.
Want this prompt in your Field Cards set?
All the info in this prompt post is summarized onto a single card in the Promptographer Guide Field Cards, with the details given in the accompanying Guidebook. All the ideas are given on the one card so you have a rich, comprehensive tool for sparking ideas. I’ve designed it this way so you only need five to ten cards to build a whole photoshoot.
If you want this prompt in your set, make sure you include Set 7: New Baby Moments in your Field Cards.
