Stuck for Newborn Photo Ideas?

Lifestyle newborn photos give us a peek into baby’s everyday life, thereby telling baby’s story of their early days without words.

For that reason, the potential for variety is endless and only limited by baby’s routine and environment.

With help from our fabulous CLG grads, we’ve come up with 101 different lifestyle newborn photo ideas you can try…

1. Baby with Mum

Pro Tip

Shoot from multiple perspectives and vary your framing to get loads of varied images of the same pose without having to move anyone. Try these:

• Close ups and wide shots
• Up high looking down
• Down low at eye level
• Shoot straight on
• Behind over the shoulder

 

 

2. Baby with Dad

Pro Tip

Seek out natural window and door light and use it to create directional shadowing. So position subjects with side light (45 to 90 degrees in relation to the source) and get beautiful, gentle shadows which add depth and interest.

Related: Directional Light Portraits

 

3. Baby with Both Parents

Pro Tip

Shooting through partially open doorways is a great way to convey intimacy in lifestyle newborn photos. Compositionally, include enough of the door so that it doesn’t look accidental, but not so much that it becomes distracting.

 

Pro Tip

Include fur babies if safe enough to do so, but be ready for a little chaos! Consequently, you’ll need a fast shutter speed to freeze their motion.

 

4. Baby with Siblings

Pro Tip

Lifestyle newborn photography is fantastic for reluctant little ones because it’s such a relaxed approach. With that in mind, capture their natural interactions instead, and look out for opportunities to photograph them playing alongside baby. 

Related: Posing Guide for Toddlers & Newborns

5. Baby on a Bed

Pro Tip

If you’re faced with low light and can’t control the location, embrace ISO. Don’t be afraid to push it beyond what you think is acceptable. Firstly… exposing properly or overexposing at high ISO will reduce the effect of grain; and secondly, grain isn’t all that bad. It’s only the enemy when it gets so bad it reduces clarity and sharpness.

Related: How to Use High ISO for Better Results

 

 

6. Bathing & Dressing Baby

Pro Tip

Most older siblings love to be included in baby’s routine, and for that reason bathing and dressing is one of the best ways to capture siblings in photos with their new baby brother or sister.

Related: Lifestyle Newborn Photography Guide

 

7. Feeding Baby

Pro Tip

Clear the clutter. Lifestyle newborn photography is very close to environmental portraits, meaning you don’t need a clean white backdrop to make it work. You want elements of their life in the background for context.

But there’s a line… what you don’t need cluttering up the shot is a pile of dirty laundry, that morning’s dirty dishes and 3 weeks worth of newspapers competing for attention in photos.

So before you start shooting, take a look around, and move anything that isn’t adding to the story.

Related: Clearing the Clutter to Isolate Subjects

 

8. Baby’s Sweet Details

Pro Tip

Don’t forget the small details… in lifestyle newborn session, these shots are a key part of the story. I’m talking baby’s fingers and toes, special items, the nursery, cute displays.

Get in close and choose a wide aperture to really isolate small objects. To capture a room, use a wide angle lens such as 24mm to include as much in the frame as possible. Make sure the camera is straight (as in, not tilted up or down) to minimise the distortion of the wide angle as much as possible.

If you have a macro lens or macro extension tubes, this a great time to get them out!

Related: Macro Newborn

Free Newborn Photography Class

We hope you enjoyed our tips for beautiful newborn photos! If you want more, watch our FREE CLASS with talented newborn photographer Megan Browne:

3 Beautiful Set-Ups for Newborn Photography at Home

Click HERE to watch and you’ll also get access to a step-by-step newborn editing video Megan has recorded for you to show you how she transformed the image below!