Newborn Photography: Which Style is Right for You?
I love love love newborn photography (almost as much as I love birth photography - though they honestly fit together). It is such an honor to meet these tiny people when they are so fresh and squishy and to be invited to crash your new baby party for a few hours (yes, a newborn session takes that long because the baby runs the show and babies need a lot of breaks).
I want to explain a little bit about the two main types of newborn sessions: so-called “lifestyle” and “posed” - both sessions help document this tender stage and it really comes down to personal family preference for which style most fits your desires.
Each style of newborn session is my favorite for different reasons. A lifestyle newborn session is more casual (the images on the left/top are from lifestyle sessions), where a posed session (like the images on the right/bottom) is more elaborate. For lifestyle sessions, I arrange the baby in a more spontaneous and less controlled setting where their fingers might ball into a fist or their hands rise to block their face. A posed newborn is more particular, and I arrange the baby more intentionally (to draw attention to a tiny curl, or to emphasize how recently a baby could fold their body into a pretzel, for example). In both sessions, the safety and the comfort of the baby is my primary and only parameter. Not all babies feel like doing every pose.
Many times, a family wants to photograph a new baby with other family members, whether older siblings or parents. Those photographs are possible with both styles - they just each have a different look. Again, the lifestyle (on the left/top) is more impromptu, whereas the posed session (on the right/bottom) is more deliberate.
Both types of newborn sessions can incorporate elements of importance to families (such as blankets or objects) - but a lifestyle session (on the left/top) is more candid and potentially more interactive (capturing real life with a new baby, such as first bath, for example), where a posed session (images on the right/bottom) often draws more heavily on my own props and accessories (many of which I’ve hand-made, and my collection of which is constantly evolving) and I invite parents to select those from my style guide for the aesthetic that resonates for them.
Both styles of newborn session are best done within the first two weeks of a new baby’s life, before they start to wake up and unfold too much. If you are having a new baby soon and want photographs to help you remember these fleeting days, click the buttons to see more or get in touch now…