I have made the difficult decision to not book an indoor newborn photo sessions right now do to Covid-19. I would love to photograph your new baby outdoors this spring or summer. For now though, I hope these tips help you take some newborn photos of your own at home.

Find light for newborn photos

Walk around your house and see which room has the most light.  This will be where you want to take newborn photos.  If you don’t have a lot of light in your house, you can open up a door or stand closer to a window to get more light. If there is too much light coming in you may need to take a step away from the window to get even light on your faces. Be sure to turn overhead light and any lamps off. These artificial lights give off an orange light. You will want to just use window light.

Head toward the light

When taking photos of your baby laying down on a bed or a blanket on the floor, you want your baby’s head to be toward the window.  If you face the baby’s feet toward the window, then the light goes up the baby’s face. this gives you the same type of lighting that you would get if you held a flashlight under your chin. That’s not a look any of us want 

Remove distractions

You want your photos to focus on your new addition. Move all that baby stuff to the side to get a clean background.  No one needs to know that right next to you is a pile of stuff you pushed to the side. Shooting downward can also help eliminate distractions that may be in the background.

Try different angles for newborn photos

Move all around your baby taking photos.  You will want to remember them from all different angles.  Different angles can add an interesting element to your photos.  .  Use different angles to capture all the little details of your baby.

Get in the photos

The first few weeks of motherhood can be difficult in typical circumstances, but add in a pandemic and I can’t even imagine how hard things are right now.  Those first few weeks I often didn’t shower and was exhausted, but I am so thankful that I got in some of the photos with my daughters.  So, hand off that camera to your partner for some photos or lean the camera up on something to get the whole family in a few shots; your future self with be glad you did this.

I hope these tips were helpful.  Now go have fun taking newborn photos of your new little one.  For anyone who books a spring baby session, I am happy to set up a brief phone conversation to talk you through taking some photos of your baby at home. I will edit 10-15 of your photos for you!!!

For those visual learners like me I created a little video with two of my daughters and their baby dolls to show you these tips.

You can see more newborn photo sessions here