Safely Posing Newborns – Kent Newborn Photographer

As a newborn photographer safely posing newborns is my number one priority during sessions. Upon booking my clients are provided with lots of information about exactly what will be involved during our sessions. I will shortly be launching an exclusive magazine guide where I’ve collated all of this information together, but for now I want to share what I believe will be the most important part of my guide with everyone.

Safely Posing Newborns

Whilst my intention is always to capture natural and spontaneous poses of their special time together as a new or growing family, my clients are made aware that some of the individual images of their newborn they will see in their private viewing galleries are either composites, where several images are merged together to create one – you can see lots more examples of newborn composites on my Pinterest Board – or whomever was supporting baby in a safe position has been removed from the image in the post production process.

In the comparison above you can see that Mum is supporting Tilly’s head and acting as “spotter” to ensure that she is completely safe. I’ve edited Mum’s hand out of the image afterwards, and the result is a stunning but more importantly completely safe image of beautiful Tilly.

As a mum of three and photographer of newborns I think it’s fair to say I have a decent amount of experience with tiny babies. These newborns are living, breathing tiny human beings, not props, which is why I didn’t dare try more complicated poses until I was confident enough that I knew how to do so safely. It might surprise you to know that my newborn sessions average 4 hours, and sometimes I get 10-15 usable images of baby from them because quality and safe imagery is my goal.

I’ve included a couple of examples of safe posing in this post of the baby resting their head on their chin pose. Newborn babies in general have very little head control, whilst some may maintain this pose for a second or two inevitably the weight of their head will win over and it will begin to loll to one side. If this happens they may end up rolling over or possibly off of whatever they are propped up on if there is no support from another adult in place.

A good photographer will know that baby should ideally be in deep slumber before attempting this pose, and they will be informing the parents what they intend to do as well as involving them as the session progresses by requesting assistance to support the pose where necessary.

In the picture above both Mum and Dad had one finger from either side to support little Amy’s head which were removed from the final image in post production. Amy was a sleepy baby and made this pose very easy for us!

If during your newborn photoshoot your photographer doesn’t tell you what they’re doing, you feel uncomfortable with the way that they are handling your baby or uneasy about anything please don’t be afraid to stop them and ask – babies are precious, not props!

If you would like to invest in a newborn session with me then please get in touch. Please note that the optimum time for a newborn photoshoot to obtain results similar to the ones shown here is when baby is between 7 and 10 days old. It’s best to book when you are pregnant so I can ensure that I schedule your session in accordance with your due date.

Emma Louise Photography – Kent Newborn Photographer