What Age Should Newborn Photos be Taken? — Kailee Riches Photography (2024)

FAQs

What Age Should Newborn Photos be Taken? — Kailee Riches Photography? ›

I'll come over in the morning when your new baby is 2-6 weeks old. Sessions last 1-1.5 hours and are very relaxed and baby led. Babies are usually swaddled, skin to skin, and in a well fitted onesie. We'll usually take photos in the living room, nursery, and bedroom.

For newborn photography, I recommend either 7-10 days after their due date, or the baby's six week milestone.

2 – 6 weeks old: You can absolutely do a newborn session. The earlier the better!

Both older newborn and three month baby photographs will capture incredibly precious times – newborn photographs will likely focus on how tiny your baby still is, and your connection with them. At three months the photographs will be able to capture your baby's expressions and smiles too.

The suggested age for newborn photo shoot is typically between 5-14 days. I usually suggest that my clients book their newborn photo shoot before their baby is born (typically around your 20 week scan). A lot of newborn photographers will only photograph newborns up to 2 weeks old, and there are a lot of reasons why.

Clients who have chosen to have professional newborn photos have never regretted it. Spending a few hours with a specialist newborn photographer to capture your baby's early days will be one of the best investments you will make, the joy you experience looking back at those images will grow with each year that passes.

The best time of day for in-home newborn photos is 10 am.

By 10 am the light indoors is beautiful. It isn't overpowering nor is it still too dark of those early morning hours. Later in the day the sun is too far overhead to provide nice light inside.

Newborn Posing

Certain poses can cause harm to your newborn baby if not done correctly. Some poses need to be done as a composite. By this, I mean that the image is taken twice, one where the baby is supported under the head, and one where the baby is supported at the top of the head, and then edited together.

In fact, it's also ok if your baby is two or even three months old! Listen, I get it. Life is chaotic. Maybe you never got around to contacting a photographer while you were pregnant or you didn't think you wanted a photo session until after you brought your baby home or until they were a few weeks old.

It is especially important for me, to capture newborn images with parents. This is the best visual reminder of how little they were at the very beginning. Newborn sessions can also be a nice escape for parents too.

Is 7 weeks to old for newborn photos? ›

5-8 week old babies

I love photographing 5-8 week old newborns. This gives you more time to rest and recover from birth. Babies have woken up a bit and are more alert, meaning there is a good chance you can get photos of your baby's open eyes.

I recommend to all my clients to start baby off in a white onesie. It keeps the focus on baby's face and their features. Then we typically will swaddle them for the second half of photos for another look. If you have a special heirloom outfit you want photos in we can do that at the end of the session!

Lifestyle newborn photography can really be done any time in the first 12 weeks, although it's most common for these sessions to take place in the first 6 weeks after birth.

Newborn Baby Photos

My expert advice is that it's best to have your baby's first photographs taken within the first 2 weeks of their life. When babies are born they are generally very curled up and you can really see how they were in the womb.

It is not until 18 to 24 months of age that children prefer upright to inverted pictures (DeLoache, Uttal, & Pierroutsakos, 2000) and point at depicted objects rather than manually explore them (DeLoache et al., 1998; Murphy, 1978).