Sarah Borchgrevink Photography, located in Houston, shares how to photograph an alert newborn in a posed studio setting.
Dylan's Petite Posed Newborn Session | 12 Days Fresh & New
Hi, gang! Welcome and greetings! I'm glad you're here to read about ways to photograph a newborn who may not be interested in sleeping during the posed newborn session. As a newborn photographer who specializes in posed studio work, I am always really excited when a brand new baby visits my space! In fact, for this particular baby boy named Dylan, I already had the honor of documenting his parent's natural light maternity session so take a peek at that post if you'd like to more information on creating meaningful pregnancy portraits. Today, however, is all about working with babies who are alert.
Before we begin, it's important to note that newborn sessions take place in the first 14 days of life. I offer three options for parents to consider, so click on over to the full pricing guide to see a mini, petite or full newborn collection. Dylan's parents chose my petite newborn collection, which is a lovely option! Featuring all things cozy wrapping, a handful of naked bean bag posing, vintage inspired props, and family/parent images this session is a remarkable and authentic way to preserve this incredibly special time in your baby's life. Once you've notified me of baby's earth side arrival, I send you 3-4 dates to consider that take place in the first two weeks. You're also given a detailed prep guide on how to have a successful newborn session and also how I keep baby content during their posed studio session.
Nevertheless, despite prepping baby and visiting my Houston Newborn Portrait Studio in the first 14 days, some babies are simply more alert than others. They are all individual people and it's important to treat each baby with respect. They have their own autonomy. I can spend hours soothing, rocking, feeding, and providing a calm environment, however, sometimes baby is just a nap fighting champion.
Here is my studio policy on alert babies:
*If baby is already close to the 14 day mark, we spend the 2 hours capturing what we may capture. If your baby is 4-5 days old and is just cluster nursing non-stop, we will bring you back in on day 7 to try again if we've spent 60 minutes and baby is crying or seems unhappy.
Let's get started, shall we? :-)
Cozy, Sweet Potato Sack Wrap
Potato sack wrap is the best way to keep baby asleep when they're feeling alert. This is because the wrap is snug around baby's joints and reminds them of being back in the womb. Paired with white noise and an 80 degree environment, it's sure to help them go to sleep. At this point, you can take advantage of baby sleeping. Take this opportunity to take images of baby with a hat, without a hat, on their side, sitting up, in a floor prop, etc. The trick to working with an alert newborn is making sure you make the most of each and every set up. Newborns are challenging! Even the most laid back newborn session can take around 2 hours to photograph. However, by starting with potato sack wrap, you're sure to keep things running much more smoothly than if you began with a naked bean bag pose.
Floor Props & Keep Baby Snug
Another trick to working with a newborn who's not sleepy is to utilize different floor props. If baby finally falls asleep, try not to disturb them. Keep the heat close so they're content and very carefully wrap out hats, wraps, and floor prop items. All of my floor props, for example, are low to the ground and also keep baby safe. For this session, Dylan was ready to party and while he is super duper handsome, he truly made me work, ha! I pulled a classic wooden trench bowl, antique metal pail and a simple, rustic weaved basket to provide variety for his parents.
Moreover, to create more variety in your sessions, don't be afraid to experiment with different colors and textures. While baby is wrapped in very similar styles, I used texture to ensure each set up looks different, despite being in three different wrapping styles. Since his parents chose my petite gallery, I needed to come up with 30 images that are all different. Thankfully, I am very experienced in posed newborn portraiture and am comfortable working with alert newborns, however, three years ago I may have felt a little frazzled.
This brings up another point: don't get stressed. I know it can make newborn photographers feel anxious when you have a baby in studio who is not sleepy. You have a game plan in your mind on what you want to accomplish and you also are eager for the parents to love the photos. Newborn photography is truly customized and a special art because it takes someone with patience, skill and attention to detail to truly create beautiful baby images. Keep calm. Remember your newborn training and mentoring. You also may go over on time a little bit and that's okay: don't forget parents have invested in these images and while it's great to stay on schedule, if you spend an extra half hour in order to achieve the look you need, it is well worth it!
Dylan made me work but he is just so handsome!
Tootsie Style of Newborn Wrapping
After floor props, I moved Dylan into tootsie wrap style. This is the foundation for all my macro images from his session. You'll see those below. Once I was able to get him back to sleep, I moved him to bean bag and pulled the most lovely, charcoal grey color scheme featuring a matching wrap, back drop, and bonnet. I did have to rock him for a bit and rub his eyes, but his Dad was very helpful and kept the heater really close and moved my white noise machine so baby would sleep even deeper.
The sweet smiles make the whole session worth it for me! His parents will truly treasure his adorable little smirk and stunning features. Even on the most challenging of sessions, I am happy to be with babies. Each baby is also a learning experience and way to better yourself as a newborn portrait artist.
Don't forget your precious macro images
Since Dylan is already wrapped in a precious tootsie style, I took this as an opportunity to capture his macro details. This is an example of making the most of each set up during your time with baby. Instead of moving him and risking him waking up, I delicately adjusted his body so he is parallel to my light and photographed his darling characteristics such as his brand new, curly toes, sweet profile, his lips, nose, cheeks and eye lashes. He did not want me to touch his hands so I kept his hands inside of the wrap, but we still achieved enough variety for a petite newborn gallery. I ended up showing his parents around 80 images! I call that a successful newborn session, even if baby did not want to sleep. :-)
Get Creative With Your Sliders in Processing
The final tip I suggest is to be creative with sliders in post processing of images. All of these images were photographed on a blue back drop, but by adjusting my sliders in Lightroom, which is a post processing software professional photographers utilize, I was able to give his parents 4 different colors. So, for each image shown below, I gave them a grey, green, teal and blue version of the photos plus a black/white edit.
Thanks for stopping by my blog to read ways to work with alert newborns, even if they are the ultimate nap fighting champions, ha! I hope you enjoyed seeing styles of wrapping, vintage floor props, and tips for a successful posed newborn session. If you liked this post you may enjoy reading about the other topics such as:
- Setting Your Business Apart with Top Notch Customer Service
- Creating a Natural Light Look Through Studio Lighting
- Three Safe & Easy Ways to Pose Dad with Newborn Baby
Specializing in posed baby portraits, Sarah Borchgrevink Photography is a Houston Newborn Photographer serving the surrounding areas including Houston metro area, Cypress, Katy, Spring, The Heights, Sugar Land, West University, Bellaire, and The Woodlands, TX. In addition to breathtaking newborn images, Sarah also offers stylish natural light family photography as well as dynamic outdoor maternity sessions for expecting couples.
