Photographing your own baby at home

Photographing your own baby at home

Photographing your own baby at home can be really tricky. During Lockdown photographers aren’t allowed to work, so there is no one available to record these precious moments for you.

TOP TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR BABY AT HOME

When my children were born, I loved photography but I didn’t know much about photographing a new baby. So, the photos I took, although I love them, definitely don’t look as good as I thought they would. As a newborn baby photographer in Southwater near Horsham, I would like to give you share some top tips on how to photograph your own baby during this time. Hopefully you will then have some lovely memories of your baby to look back on. It doesn’t matter what camera or phone you have, the following can be taken on anything.

1. Lighting

My first tip for photographing your baby at home is to think about the light. If the light is rubbish the photo will be rubbish.

Firstly, when it comes to light, you do not want it too harsh! Rather than place your baby in full sunlight, find an area where the light is softer. This way the beautiful light falls on your baby because you don’t get the strong shadows. The way to do this is move your baby away for any bright spots, where direct sunlight is hitting it. Imagine you are out in the sun on a cloudless day. On the floor you can see lots of shadows and lots of bright spots. This is the type of light you want to avoid. A cloudy day is much better because the sun is covered by the cloud, so doesn’t cause harsh shadows but a nice soft light. That’s how you want it in your home.

Secondly, you want the light to coming from the head end rather than their feet to the light. An easy way to see this is to get a torch and stand in the dark, in front of mirror. Now turn the torch on and put it under your chin, see how it gives you a really scary look? This is what happens to your baby when the shadows go the wrong way. With faces you do not want the light coming from below! You can see by the catchlight (white bit) in the eyes of the baby below that the light is coming from top left.

Newborn Photographer Horsham, Baby Photographer Horsham

2. Positioning your baby

The easiest place to photograph your baby at home is on the bed. Imagine the window is on your side of the bed. To get the best light for you baby, turn them towards the window, so that they are laying 45 degrees to it. Their head should be towards your pillow and their feet towards your partners feet end of the bed. This was they are getting lovely light going across their face. When taking the photo tilt your camera slightly, so that the babies head is higher that its legs or at least level. If you have the head lower that the bottom in your photo, it feels like your baby is falling down. Using blankets and little scarves to wrap your little one will make them feel secure and stops them wriggling quite so much. Also stand slightly towards their head end, as you don’t want to be looking up their nostrils or at their private bits.

Newborn Photographer Horsham, baby photographer Horsham

3. When

Ensure that your baby is well fed and that the session fits in with their schedule. Ideally, you need them to be asleep, or at least very relaxed. You are lucky that you are photographing your baby at home so you can easily time it so they are asleep. It is also important that the room you are using is nice and warm. Ensure you also have books or things to do for siblings because they may want to become involved. Changing mats are also a great place to photograph your little one as these can be easily moved around the room to make use of the best light. Just make sure someone else is near to help keep your baby safe.

4. What to photograph

Getting close ups of your new baby are great for capturing their tiny features. Using items to show perspective are perfect, such as the wedding rings, shown below.

Wedding rings on a newborn babies toes

You can straight away see how small the features are because bands fit easily on the the babies tiny toes. Ensure the features are in focus when you take photo and if you’re zooming in be sure to keep your camera very still.

Photographinh your own baby

Close ups make wonder collages too and with phone editing software such a Snapseed and collage software such as Moldiv everything is so much easier.

5. Siblings

siblings love to get involved, whereas others hate it. By laying your baby on the bed with a lovely fluffy blanket and some pillows underneath, it is an easy way to get brothers and sisters involved. They can either just sit near the baby or lay down with them and give some gentle kisses. When kissing the baby I tell siblings to give really slow kisses. That way you have time to capture it. Otherwise they normally give the fastest kiss ever and you miss it! Another tip is to wrap your baby in a blanket, so that arms and legs aren’t flailing all over the place and they feel secure. Always ensure that another adult is on hand to assist with the baby while you take the photo. Children do suddenly get bored and offload baby.

Addition Items

Using hats, blankets, wraps and toys are a great way to record gifts that you have been given and provide you with additional ways to capture photos of your baby. By using clothing that fits properly means you get the true perspective of how tiny your baby is. Wraps or scarves are a great way to secure baby or an easy way to hide their bits, while making them look even more adorable.

Good Luck

Good luck in capturing your own memories. During a time when photographers aren’t available I hope these tips help you. If you do manage to capture any photos, feel free to share them on my Facebook page If you would rather not photograph your baby at home and would prefer to book a session. Feel free to pop over to my Newborn Section for more information. Due to current Lockdown we do not know when Claire Wilders Photography will able open for newborn sessions but feel free to get in touch. We can then get you in as soon as possible.

Take care

Newborn baby photography sessions in Horsham..

Newborn baby photography sessions in Horsham..

Newborn baby photography sessions in Horsham.

Why have a newborn baby photography session for a new baby, isn’t life crazy enough without having to schedule in a photo shoot as soon as they arrive?

You are quite right, the first weeks are crazy and therefore go past in a blur.

However, by planning ahead, while you are pregnant, you will appreciate being having had a newborn baby photo session booked in. t They will last a couple of hours but the memories will be there forever. Babies grow so fast in the first couple of weeks and you very quickly forget how tiny they looked when they first arrived home.

This session allows you to capture those gorgeous features forever while having a few hours to sit back and relax!  Some parents have even been known to fall asleep because the studio is warm, they know their baby is in safe hands and finally they are able to relax for a few minutes.

How to book?

We are know due dates change so we book your newborn baby photography session for your due date.  When your new baby arrives we can then confirm a suitable date, ideally within the first 14 days.  We aim for that because this is when your baby still loves to be curled up, which makes posing easier.  You can still book a session after this date, some poses may just take a little longer.

Your baby is MY priority so the session is completely baby led!  If they need feeding or cuddles, we stop for a break until they are ready.  The session normally takes around 3 hours because your little one normally needs a few rests in between.  I also love to capture a few photos of you as a family so feel free to bring siblings along too.  

If you would like more information on booking a newborn baby photography session do not hesitate to get in touch or visit my Newborn baby page HERE

Reveal Wall

Reveal Wall

New baby photo sessions As a photographer it’s obvious that I love to take photos..  They reckon about 1.2 Trillion Photos are taken each year  but that’s as far as it goes, they stay on a phone, maybe end up on social media but they very rarely get printed. Beautiful new baby face wearing a hairband I however, love to see them in print.  The day the photos arrive I still get excited! Don’t worry I’m like the rest of you, I don’t print every photo, I still have tons that sit on my phone but I still love to print some of them. I started doing photography because I wanted other people to be able to have beautiful photos of their children and families, just like I do.  I started off only providing galleries for clients, where they could view the photos in the comfort of their own home and look at their photos at their own leisure but still not see a print.  Sleeping newborn baby The next stage would be to purchase prints or photos on a USB stick… but again, rightly, or wrongly, photos would not printed and they would stay safe on the computer or USB. This is why I decided that I wanted to start doing a reveal wall. 7x5 inch reveal wall prints What is a reveal wall? A reveal wall is photo set up of all your edited prints.  Once your session has been completed I edit your photos and then print them ALL off as 7×5 inch mounted prints.   This enables us to meet up and allows you to see EXACTLY what your photos will look like.  You can see your beautiful gallery up close and decide easily which photos you would like to purchase. Your photos look great on a computer or your phone but they will look stunning when you can see them in your hand.  The other great thing about the wall is that if you decide you like the 7×5 inch prints you are able to purchase them and walk away with them that evening. Photography Reveal Wall If you have ANY questions about the reveal wall please do not hesitate to leave a message below or contact me for more details. [contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form]
Sharing the love of the beach.

Sharing the love of the beach.

Meeting Katie for a newborn photo session part 1

 

Close up of little girl, newborn, sussex newborn photograhy

It was such a pleasure meeting Katie, as I work with her mum in my day job, so being able to capture some beautiful images of her daughter was very exciting.  What made it even better was the fact that we share a love of the beach so I was able to do my first themed photo session.  When I set this up I was so excited

Newborn photography Billingshurst

and I couldn’t wait for the day to come round when little Katie would come to my studio.

After lots of feeding we were able to settle Katie very well for her session but she did something that really made me work… she LOVED to sleep with her tongue sticking out.  It was a very endearing look and a memory that will make them laugh in years to come (I know because my own daughter used to stick her tongue out in the wind and we lived on Anglesey where it was ALWAYS windy so she constantly had a lizard tongue ????????) However, as cute as the little tongue was we decided we didn’t want it in every photo as it would be nice to have some of Katie looking beautiful without her tongue out.

Newborn girl sussex photography

And we managed it.. We were able to poke it in just long enough to grab some peaceful photos before she put it back out.  It’s definitely made a funny session as we couldn’t stop laughing every time she’d poke it out, it was like she knew the camera was there and wanted to have some fun.

For this session I did it in two parts as Katie’s big sister was away so we did a family session at a later date and I’ll add the photos as soon as possible..

Beautiful baby of Billingshurst

Beautiful baby of Billingshurst

newborn baby, window lit baby boy, baby in basket, billingshurst, west sussex

This little baby boy was just a dream..

It was such a pleasure to be able to capture his first memories and he just slept so well.

newborn photo session, big brother with baby brother, sussex, horsham, billingshurst

His big brother was very proud of him and just to give him lots of cuddles.

newborn baby photography, baby photo session, billingshurst photo session, horsham photography. sussex photography

billingshurst photography

 

 

Now taking bookings for Newborn Baby sessions….

Now taking bookings for Newborn Baby sessions….

Sara Green (10 of 35)

Now taking booking for Newborn sessions… I only work 2 weekends a month so spaces book quickly.
Feel free to contact me for more information on how I can provide a relaxed photography experience for you and your baby…

newborn photo session, family photos, billingshurstSessions start from £30…
A free 10x8in print when you book, if you mention this blog.

 

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]Newborn Photography

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