Hiring a newborn photographer is not something to be taken lightly, this person will be holding your newborn baby and spending a few hours with you during some of the most emotional and important days of your life. Finding a good fit for your family shouldn’t be that complicated regardless of your budget.
In this article, I am going to tell you how to find the right photographer for your needs and will help you understand what goes into creating different types of newborn images so you can have realistic expectations for your style and budget.
1. NEWBORN SAFETY.
I can never emphasise enough how important this is. It doesn’t matter what type of newborn photography style you are after, if a photographer does not have at least a basic understanding of safety practices that will protect you and your newborn, PLEASE DON’T DO IT! Unfortunately, there are no current regulations or requirements to become a newborn photographer, this means that someone with no photography or newborn handling experience could set shop at any moment.
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT? As a new mom, even I had no idea of how fragile a baby could be, so let’s reflect on it for a moment:
Newborns can’t regulate their own body temperature so posing them naked by themselves on whatever space is NOT gonna work. Also, they can be easily overheated and dehydrated if the temperature isn’t being monitored.
Infants are at higher risk of SIDS, suffocation, or injury if they are not properly handled or posed.
They can’t hold their head or bodies on their own. Posing without proper support can be very dangerous.
Their immune systems are brand new.
Babies are also are temperamental little humans that, can’t tell us what bothers them.
It does not matter if you hire a beginner newborn photographer or an experienced one, if they are serious about their business, they should be knowledgable of safe newborn handling practices.
2. NEWBORN PORTFOLIO AND STYLE
When looking at your local photographer’s work, you want to make sure that their style speaks to you. It does not matter how many inspiration boards you create on Pinterest, if you try to make a photographer recreate something that is not in aesthetic accordance to their style, you might not be as happy with the end result.
3. SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR BUDGET AND STYLE PREFERENCES
Many photographers that specialise in maternity and newborns have packages or discounts to accommodate both the belly photos and the newborn photos, so hiring the same person to do both is always a good idea.
Being on a small budget doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t hire a higher-end photographer but you must plan ahead of time. If you are pregnant and you know you want to work with an experienced newborn photographer, finding the right fit for your family shouldn’t be a challenge. Most higher end photographers have payment plans that allow you to make modest monthly payments leading up to your due date, so planning in advance is key.
If your budget is firm and you can’t afford to stretch it over the course of your pregnancy, or if you simply didn’t think of hiring a newborn photographer until the baby was born, it’s ok, don’t panic. All you need to do is to have realistic expectations and your newborn family photos will still turn out great. However, you have to understand what the different types of newborn photography are and what it takes to achieve a certain style in order to set your budget:
Custom newborn photography
If you like images of peaceful sleeping babies with their hands tucked under their chin, floating in space on their dad’s arms, or laying on their tummies with their naked bumps up in the air, then custom newborn photography is what you are looking for.
Most custom newborn photographers have assistants and a studio ready with everything you or the baby would need, all you’d have to do is get to them, or find one that will travel to you.
This sounds great, but why are some newborn photographers so expensive? It is paramount to first understand how custom newborn photographers work in order to establish a budget so here is a brief description of what will go down before you get those adorable smooth rosy cheeks on print:
Newborn photo shoots aren’t exactly easy or short, these are new humans that need a lot of soothing and LOTS of patience.
It can take up to 4 hours (depending on each particular baby) to get a gallery of 20 pictures and that does not even include the editing or product building time.
Besides the time they spend with you, they work several hours “behind the scenes” making sure they understand what you want, buying props (yup, newborn photography props are not cheap and need to be replaced VERY often, you only need to imagine why…), they will spend hours culling and editing your photos and most likely they’ll offer printed products as well.
They have to constantly maintain or upgrade their equipment or purchase editing softwares, it adds up!
As you can see, a lot can go into each finished newborn digital or print. But not all photographers are equal. Make sure to do your research and prioritise what you want before setting a realistic budget for what you actually want.
Whatever path you decide to take, always make sure to communicate your expectations and any concerns you have regarding newborn safety with your photographer. I have had a couple of clients hiring me after having a failed newborn photography session and most times it turns out it was simply lack of communication both ways.
I hope this article has been of help to you. If you are interested in my services, Please visit my packages.
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