The 4 Styles of Newborn Photography

Your new little member of the family will soon be arriving and you know that those precious Newborn days will flash by in the blink of an eye, so you are trying to prepare and research into the best photographer to document this sweet fleeting time for you! I have made a guide for you to facilitate this decision & show you the different styles of Newborn photography, so you can choose which is best suited for you!

If you were to look at Newborn Photography on a spectrum – you could imagine it like this:

Documentary – Lifestyle – Posed – Fine Art.

They are each beautiful in their own way, and photographers styles may include more than one of these.

Documentary

If you’re looking for photos that are absolutely authentic, and that depict the real life of the first few weeks of Newborn life – then this style may be the choice for you. For this type of session, your photographer will be like a fly on the wall, documenting all of the candid moments with you getting to know and taking care of your new little bundle. Feedings, changes, the first bath, pumping, and every other little moment in between that may not seem as significant now but will tell the story of what those first few weeks of parenthood really involved. When you look back on photos of these types of sessions you won’t look back on the perfectly posed moments with the perfect studio lighting, but really the essence of new parenthood and everything it entailed. This style of photography is as real life as it gets – no need to worry about having a spotless house before the photographer comes, no need to look perfect and rested – because what new parents REALLY look well rested!

Lifestyle

Next up is Lifestyle. This style is similar to Documentary in that it is in your home – showing the natural moments with you, your partner and baby, while the photographer keeps composition & lighting in mind. There may be a bit more help with positioning your family & baby to maximize the best lighting in the home, or the best way to hold baby to get some of those sweet shots, but it is a very relaxed session. You don’t have to pack baby up and leave the home, you get to stay comfortable, right where you are. No worries about the deep cleaning before having company over. The photographer will expect to see the bottles, the pump, the breast pads, and just the real life of being at home with a Newborn, and it will all be captured beautifully to tell your own story of the first few weeks with your new family member

Posed

These sessions are often done in a studio, with studio lighting and can include sweet little props to put baby in and can include different outfits/accessories. You can expect these photos to be perfectly lit, and very precisely posed. This style of photography can take a bit more time, as a good Newborn Photographer will work completely on your Newborns time, transitioning into each pose while keeping your baby completely comfortable in the process. There are many different poses you can research and choose from – “Bum-up pose, froggy pose, taco pose, chin on hands pose,” to name a few! Your sweet little newborn will be the focus of these sessions, and you will be delivered some beautiful portraits that you can hang on your wall. Parents can sit back – relax and enjoy a photographer that has a lot of experience handling newborns soothing, changing and posing your brand new babe.

Fine Art

If you were looking at Newborn Photography on that spectrum I was talking about before – this would be on the opposite side from Documentary. This style of Newborn Photography involves a vision of the photographers – or a combined vision of the photographer and new parents. It is completely thought out before hand, and these photographs are meant to create art that evokes emotion and expresses a feeling.

On the Newborn Photography spectrum – I would say that Kindred Memories Photography lands right in the middle, maybe slightly more towards Lifestyle. I want my photographs to depict the real life of having a new baby. The feedings, the excitement and maybe even the small nerves of getting to know & learning how to take care of this new human being. I do however love to include creatively styled shots of baby in a natural kind of prop, because I think it is beautiful having baby alone as the main focus of the photograph, cozy and curled up naturally as they would be in the womb, in a beautiful prop like a basket or a wooden bowl with natural, earthy tones. I work completely on babies time, with their comfort my main priority for the entirety of the session. I have recently included Macro Photography in my sessions because I think the tiny details that are sometimes hard to capture on your camera or smart phone can be forgotten as time passes by – so I want you to have these photos and be able to preserve the memories of the smallness, the dry flaky baby skin, the wrinkly little feet, the curl of your babies soft newborn hair. I want you to be able to show your babies one day when they are all grown how absolutely beautiful every detail of them was to you. I want to capture it all!

Have any questions about these different styles of Newborn Sessions? Send me a message and I would love to chat & answer them for you!