Why have your newborn portrait session in the studio?

Gorgeous portraits with expertly applied lighting

Studio lighting is simply gorgeous. Your newborn studio photographer will carefully apply lighting which will flatter you and your newborn. The best thing about studio lighting, other than making you look good, is that we can photograph whenever we like as we are not reliant on the amount of available light outside. This means that we can photograph your baby in the morning when they are calmest even if it’s very dark and cloudy outside.

No need to tidy your home

When you bring your baby home from the maternity, you’re likely to be exhausted, sore and may feel like there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do everything. Honestly, I never imagined how quickly the laundry piles up when you have a newborn in the house!

Most clients want photos with clean backgrounds, without any clutter, but the reality when you are a new parent, is that very few rooms will be clutter free as babies need lots of “things” and these little things introduce themselves bit by bit. The last thing you want to do between having breakfast and getting everyone ready for the portrait session is clean and declutter your home before your photographer arrives to take your newborn photos.

By choosing to hold your newborn portrait in the studio, there’s no need to clean or declutter – you just need to get yourselves ready and, once you arrive, there’s nothing for you to do but relax and enjoy yourselves while I take gorgeous photos of your newborn.

The safety of your baby is the most important and the studio is setup with this in mind. There is plenty of room to move around and the studio is, of course, cleaned between each portrait session and all the newborn accessories are disinfected before and after use. Any wraps, cloth backgrounds that your baby lies on and outfits used are cleaned with sensitive newborn laundry liquid so as not to irritate their delicate skin.

Climate controlled environment to keep your baby nice and warm

Your baby has just come from a very warm environment and have been born into a cold, strange world. This is why your baby will spend much of their first few weeks dressed very warmly, even if it is hot outside.

My studio is heated to 26-28 degrees Celsius so that your baby feels nice and warm during their portrait session. This is especially important if you’re looking to have photos where you can see their beautiful skin. You could warm your home up to this temperature but it would take you a very long time to do it and you’d be very uncomfortable as it really is very hot.

Access to all the studio accessories and gowns

When you hold your newborn portrait session in the studio, you can choose from my collection of gorgeous dresses for mum and wraps, outfits and props for your precious baby. I have a large selection of options, much more than can fit in my car, and the newborn stand is large (over 1m wide) for the comfort and security of your baby. 

Why newborn portraits in the hospital maternity aren’t ideal

While hospital newborn portrait sessions aren’t as prevalent as studio or at home sessions, they are still possible in some hospitals. While it may sound convenient, I believe that the hospital is not the best moment or place to photograph your newborn.

The biggest inconvenience for me is that you don’t know when the hospital photographer is coming as they tend to go room by room so you can’t prepare yourself in advance (very important when you’re sleep deprived and perhaps not looking your best) or have the rest of your family present (unless you’re lucky enough that they just happen to be there at the right time).

They are reliant on available light which is not always the most flattering and props and accessories are limited or non-existent making the resulting photos look very different than studio portraits.

You also tend to be very busy during the first few days learning about how to look after your little one as well as the visits from families and friends so it doesn’t leave much time for your portrait session.

Even if you are lucky enough to have a private room and you don’t have too many visitors, you can count on being interrupted on a regular basis by the medical personnel who need to check up on you and your little one, check-ups which are likely to interrupt your session.

Less disruption and stress

Holding your newborn session in the studio ultimately comes down to less disruption and stress for you. Everything is ready for you when you arrive so you can just relax and enjoy the experience.

When portrait sessions are held in your home, your photographer arrives around 30-45 minutes early to setup all their equipment. They also need to pack up so you need to allow for 3-3h30 for your 2hr portrait session. If you have plenty of room in your home, this might be ok but if you have a small place, and your photographer will need a fair bit of room to setup, it could get pretty cramped fairly quickly. This situation will be exacerbated if you have family visiting (as so often happens when you have a little one).

You’ll also need to make sure that all the decluttering and cleaning will be done before your photographer arrives…

I hope this has helped you better understand the benefits of holding your newborn session in the studio. In the end, the location you choose will be a personal choice and it’s important to be aware of the different options to enable you to make an educated decision.

Your baby will grow so very quickly and the days and weeks pass at the blink of an eye (although some days will feel like they never end) and before long your baby will be running around and going to school. It’s amazing how quickly you will forget just how tiny they are when they’re newborn – I know I find it hard to remember what my 5yo looked like when she was a baby and it wasn’t that long ago! Thankfully I have photos that I can look back at and remember what she was like.

Want to know a little more about newborn portraits?

Please visit my newborn portrait page to find out more about newborn photography and to peruse my portfolio.

When to reserve your newborn portrait session

It’s best to reserve your newborn portrait as soon as possible and definitely no later than the 3rd trimester to ensure you don’t miss out. Babies are photographed in the morning as they are much calmer then and tend to sleep better. This means that timeslots are limited as only one newborn portrait session can be held per day.

Newborn sessions are scheduled to be held approximately 1 week after your scheduled due date and the date is adjusted, if needed, once your baby is born. Visit my blog article about what age to photograph your newborn to find out more about when is the best time to photograph your newborn.

Reserve your newborn portrait session

Your baby will grow so quickly that it will soon be hard to remember just how small they were when they were born. Contact me to book your session, or to ask me any questions you may have, by sending me a message via the contact form or by phone on 06 67 71 65 28. I’d love to hear from you!

Next blog article

I hope you enjoyed reading about the advantages with photographing your newborn in the studio. My next blog which will feature an adorable baby and his wonderful family who came in to the studio for his newborn portrait session so come back in a couple of weeks to check it out.