Ideas for Baby's First Photos | Newborn Girl Styling through Dainty Accessories

Sarah shares samples of the setups you can expect when visiting for a posed infant session.

A popular question I receive from parents is, ‘where do you we buy all the props we see in your photos?’ Have no fear: I provide everything for your sessions and do so with thought, creativity, and also ensuring our session is all things classic, timeless, and forever preserves this incredibly special time in your life.

Prop Philosophy | Enhance Through Simplicity

As a professional newborn baby photographer, the branding behind my studio encompasses all things natural, dreamy, and simple. The props you’ll find on hand are often inspired by my love of vintage and antique vibes, but also lets the baby shine and does not detract from your little one. Baby should be the star of the images. Props and accessories add gorgeous touches such as interesting textures, background, and rustic floor items, but simple is always best as to not take away from the beauty of a newborn baby. This approach also ensures your photos are forever timeless. I liken this to the little black dress we, as women, all have in our closet. Classic, forever chic, and never too trendy, as those trends do fade.

Handmade with Love from all over the world

Moreover, each piece you find in my Houston Newborn Baby Portrait Studio is carefully selected to curate an amazing collection for our time together! Many of my favorite vendors are sourced from all over the world such as Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, and more! While the states has plenty of neat vendors, there is something incredibly special and unique about purchasing handcrafted, small batch props that are custom designed for petite clients. As a photographer, I build relationships and repertoire with my vendors and am so happy to have many options for all of my needs.

For instance, I purchase all of my luxury little sitter props from GeorgeandAnnie, located in Brisbane, Australia. My hand-knitted, darling and precious newborn baby bonnets are from MoonlightLittleKnits, located in Milan, Italy. These beautiful photography props for newborn babes make for the dreamiest of sessions! By using handmade photography props, the quality is excellent and also unique! When it comes to my ninja wrapping newborn skills, however, I love to purchase baby headbands and wraps from ClothApothecary.

However, my absolute favorite vendor for headbands, tiebacks, and dainty, petite accessories for little ladies is Created by Carli, props for little people, located in the UK. Her items are so amazing it’s worth using the pound, ha!, and converting it over to American dollars, ha! Of all the vendors I’ve encountered, her headbands, florals, halos, and tiebacks are the perfect addition to adorn any chubby cherub baby girl.

Delicate, Natural, and Lovely

Ahhh, if you’ve made it this far I am truly excited to show you, through recent newborn baby girl sessions why I provide all styling, such as props, accessories, lighting, etc., because my studio is the perfect place for your little one’s session. Simply bring their diaper bag and leave the rest to me. A newborn styling questionnaire & posed prep guide are always provided for parents, but put your feet up, relax, and leave everything to me. During our time, I’ll ensure Baby is comfortable, safely posed, and you have a little break.

Thank you for visiting my blog to see beautiful newborn girl baby props that create stunning works of art! If you’re located in the Greater Houston Area and are perhaps expecting your own bundle of joy, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am currently accepting new clients and would love to work with you during this special time in your life.

Behind the Scenes | See what a Newborn Studio looks like Post Session

Located in Houston, Sarah Borchgrevink is a studio newborn photography specializing in custom posed sessions.

Photography Humor 101: Before & After an Appointment 

Styling newborn sessions are one of my favorite tasks! I delight in designing beautiful setups filled with curated props reflecting vintage and classic tones for a perfectly timeless final product. For instance, through the use of cozy, unique newborn wrapping and stunning baby poses I create a gorgeous gallery for you to love, treasure, adore, print as many times as you like and also share with loved ones and friends. 

Moreover, my pricing is very transparent with flat rates so parents know exactly what they're investing: no hidden fees, either. For instance, all collections are fully inclusive, meaning sibling, family and parent photos are included in your newborn session without any additional costs or add ones to your collection.

Most parents book their session in the second trimester, too, to ensure availability since I take 15 due dates per month. Once you've signed your contract and secured your due date on the calendar through a retainer invoice, we get to designing your session, often beginning with inspiration through nursery colors. Your styling questionnaire is very helpful and is where I begin at to set up. 

This brings us to the before aspect of a newborn session: session colors reflecting everything you adore! For example, for the "before" images of this blog post, you'll see all things "Tuscan teal" (which is a very popular Benjamin Moore paint color, lol) and aquamarine, light blue, etc.

Before you arrive in the studio, everything is set up and ready to go for a seamless experience! I provide all props and items - your job is to bring the baby, ha! Everything looks neat and orderly but by the end of the session things are a little messy, but this just goes to show we used a ton of props and had a huge amount of variety in your final gallery.

I enjoy sharing styling details with you because I love my job! It is a complete dream to work with little earthside cherubs and their parents. Photographing a monumental milestone, such as bringing home a new life, is an honor because the session encompasses the unconditional, true love of new parents as they dote on their baby. The little one will never be this small. You will look back on the photos and marvel as to how your baby fits in the palm of your hand.

Before You Arrive

After the session: chaos and creativity 

Final Images from these sessions

After the session takes place

When your session is complete, I help you pack up and get baby into the car. You're welcome to stay at feed or nurse baby again, too, of course! I then start the cleanup process which includes:

• Washing all textiles such as backdrops, wraps, hats, and bonnets

• Sanitizing the floor props like buckets, bowls, crates, baskets

• Mopping

• Sweeping

• Wiping down the doorknobs

• Vacuuming couch (I like it to be clean, lol)

• Running the A/C to clear the room of heat since the sessions are photographed at 77 degrees.

Followed by this, I back your images up into the cloud for safe keeping. Your final product is delivered 2 weeks (or 10 business days) after your appointment takes place. Your prints are also immediately ordered, too, so you may enjoy the tangible products!

Thanks for stopping by to see information on what a newborn photography session looks like before & after the baby. I take great pride in my attention to detail, providing amazing and breathtaking set ups, while ensuring a great experience for all my clients. 

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Creating a Soft, Natural Light Look through Artificial Studio Lights

Update: as of June 1st, 2019, Sarah is in a new commercial space and no longer utilizes the space below.

Houston Newborn and Baby Photographer, Sarah Borchgrevink, uses artificial light in order to create soulful yet natural looking portraits. 

Artificial Lighting Tips for a Natural Light Look

Greetings, friends! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I'm really excited you're here because today's post is all about using artificial light. You see, as a Houston Newborn Photographer, one of which specializes in professional baby portraiture, I work with light on a daily basis, but in the beginning of my photography journey, I was really intimidated by studio lighting. I did not understand it or how to work within these perimeters. However, have no fear! I am excited to talk to you about the type of lighting I use, how I set it up, the camera settings and gear you'll find, and why artificial light is truly special. 

First things first: please allow me to introduce my studio to you. It's 400 square-feet over everything you need for adorable baby and newborn studio sessions from props, a huge wood wall, a plethora of prime lenses, and a huge array of hats, bonnets, head bands, and vintage inspired pieces. 

However, many times clients are truly shocked to know there is absolutely zero natural light in my Houston Newborn Portrait studio. It's simply a dark room. In fact, artificial light is the only type of light source I use and over the years, I've learned how to create soft, diffused lighting during my newborn sessions in order to be super consitent and manipulate the light to suit my tastes and style. 

A few reasons I enjoy using artificial light are:

• I can take sessions any time of the day, no matter the weather. If there are clouds or stormy skies, there may not be enough light to shoot. Also, this allows me to work at night and accommodate clients travel and work schedules.

• Consistency is very important when working as a professional newborn baby photographer. Clients must receive what they see on your website. Artificial light allows me to have the same lighting in all of my galleries.

• Zero stress. Because I know how the light will look, I can also focus more on posing, wrapping, working with clients, and perhaps putting energy where I am needing to improve. I know the light will be nice no matter what I am doing.

Light is Light, no matter the source.

When I first began photographing newborns, full time, I thought I needed a huge natural light studio. While this is nice if you happen to have an unlimited budget, north/south facing windows, and many other factors, now that I've been working with artificial light, I would never switch over. Light is light, no matter the source. I don't even use an expensive or complex set up. I am currently using constant lighting, which means they're not strobes. They have several bulbs which are always on. It does make my studio a little bit warmer, but during newborn sessions I want the room to be 80 degrees so this is not a huge factor to me. 

In my studio, I have 4 lights. They are inexpensive and I purchased everything from Amazon. 

• I purchased (2) sets of these at $164.95 and removed the softboxes so I could use bigger ones

• I purchased (4) Black and Silver Reflective Parabolic Umbrella with Neutral White Diffusion Cover

I placed the PLM (references above) on the lights linked above and bam, instant lights.

In my studio, I have 20x20 feet of space, thus giving me 400 Square feet. It's just a big white room. 

I had a 5" PVC Pipe installed across the ceiling and use these curtains to diffuse all of my light. The lights are behind the curtains at all times and diffuse the light to create soft images, shown below. I purchased about 30 pairs of these inexpensive, Ikea curtains. 

When I am not working, the lights are off and it's pitch black, as there is not a single window in my studio space. 

How to set up artificial light for back lit sibling portraits 

Sibling photos are often requested by parents. I have three little girls so understand completely how precious it is to see your babies together! As a mama, it makes my heart sing to have photos of my own kiddos taken, so believe me: I want these images to be magical! Back-lit family or sibling images are my favorite to do during your newborn sessions. 

To set up artificial lights so they look like natural light is very simple:

• Make sure your lighting set up is diffused behind curtains, like the sheers I linked above. This will mimic windows, thus resulting in a natural light look.

• Lower lights via your stand so they're close to the ground. Child will be sitting on the ground.

• Place whatever type of rug underneath child, in this case, a white flokati rug I have.

• Photograph little one and encourage them to interact/pose newborn however suits your taste. Since this blog post is about lighting I won't bother you with how I wrap newborns for their sessions, but we'll talk about that next month I'm sure, ha! For now, let's stick to lighting.

When working within my studio, I use professional grade equipment, so the settings I am going to list are based off the type of equipment I use such as (2) Canon Mark iii bodies, a professional grade 50 mm lens, 35 mm lens, 24 mm lens, and 20 mm lens, plus a 100 mm macro lens.

For these particular shots, my settings are typically 1/200 (to allow light in), f/2.0 (with the focus point on baby's face), and then ISO 1/800. This is with 2-3 lights, depending on how large I want my set up to be.

Then I raise my lights again when I move to family or parent images, but use the same settings of course. That way the background is blown completely out and when we get into processing, there is very little work to do on the actual image.

For side-lit images, my settings are a little different. As you can see from the photos below, the curtains are still there diffusing the light, but the subject is standing perpendicular to the light set up. My subject is always around 3-4 feet from the actual light.

These sets up are typically photographed at ISO 400, F/2.5 and shutter speed of 1/160.

And that's it! Creating a natural light look through the use of constant lighting kits does not have to expensive or difficult. I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit of my creative process and how I set up for your newborn sessions! If you're a photographer, feel free to let me know how these worked for you, too! 

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