What age is Best to Photograph a newborn? | Kingston Newborn Photography
Everleigh was 4 weeks old when she came in for her petite newborn portrait session in the studio and she gave us both asleep and awake photographs. Many parents contact me wondering if their baby is too old to have newborn portraits taken. They might have seen on another photographer’s website that an ideal timeframe is when your newborn is between 6-10 days old. I think this puts undue pressure on new parents that are trying to figure out feeding schedules, may have issues resulting in NICU stays on top of being sleep deprived. Babies can be photographed at any age between 1-90 days old and still be considered a newborn. The difference between a brand new baby and an older newborn is in the posing and the expectations that parents need to understand for what types of poses their baby will be able to do.
It is a fact that as a newborn grows they start to move from their curled up positions (the position they were in for 9 months inside their mother’s belly’s) to a more stretched out position lying in their parents arms. I believe that once they hit the 3 week mark they start to really stretch out and have more periods of wakefulness (this time period will be adjusted based on if baby is a preemie or was a very large baby at birth). My favourite time to photograph babies is between 8-21 days old but as I’m locally known as the older baby whisperer among my peers, I often have photographers refer potential clients to me because they know I have a lot of experience with photographing older newborns up to 3 months old and creating timeless portraits that parents fall in love with.
With an abundance of information on my website on how I go about my baby-led newborn photoshoots, parents have a better understanding that I will try to get those sleeping, curled up portraits whenever I can but it may not always be possible, but they will love the portraits we create together no matter what. Having the expectations that an older newborn may not fall into a deep sleep like their brand new counterparts allows parents to enjoy the experience from start to finish without being disappointed.
You’ll notice some portraits from Everleigh below that had a wrapped mini newborn photoshoot that she mostly slept through. We still got a great variety of posed portraits for a mini swaddled session and her parents loved her photographs and so have many potential clients that say they love this first portrait in my portfolio. I do too! Have a look at some of the portraits from her session and then scroll to the bottom to see examples of other babies that are of all different ages to see what types of portraits may be possible for your older newborn at their photography session in our studio.
If you have questions at all please do not hesitate to ask! I’m happy to help and would love to create beautiful portraits of your new little one!
We had some fun creating this composite for Everleigh! She is pretty as a flower.
Here are some examples of newborns of all different ages that I share with expectant parents and new parents alike so you can be rest assured that we will create gorgeous portraits of your beautiful baby at any age. We don’t guarantee any specific types of newborn poses so we prepare all types of set ups and follow a baby led newborn workflow during our sessions.
Jennifer Willard Photography specializes in newborn portraits of babies of all ages. You can learn more about newborn photography sessions in our studio here.