How to prepare for your lifestyle newborn session

You’ve just had a baby. Maybe it’s your first, maybe it’s your fifth, but you already know that you want a lifestyle newborn session to document this transition for your family. You book your photographer and set a date for sometime in baby’s first month or so. Then what? Here are my tips for preparing for a beautiful, smooth, stress-less session.

Wardrobe

First, plan out what everyone will wear. And you can do this way before baby arrives to cut down on stress when you have a newborn. I like to start by choosing a color palette. My favorite newborn sessions tend to be those where everyone is in light neutrals, especially creams, whites, and light/muted colors. Here are a few examples of color palettes that would work beautifully.

One more note on colors: if the soft neutrals don’t feel like YOU, then do what does feel like you. Just make sure that everyone involved is coordinated and related in some way.

Once you have a good idea of the colors you want to include, choose a dress or outfit for yourself. A flowy dress is forgiving and photographs beautifully if you are someone who would wear a dress. If not, choose something that you feel confident and comfortable in. If you are nursing and would like photos of that, keep that in mind when planning your outfit. Lots of dresses with low necks can just be pulled down to nurse.

Once you have your dress/outfit planned, you can start picking things for the other members of the family. Remember that we want everyone to coordinate (and pull from the color palette) but not be matchy-matchy.

For a newborn session, simple is often best. That way we can keep focus on the connections between members of the family and not be distracted by someone’s amazing outfit. Patterns are ok on maybe one person in the family, but beyond that I’d recommend sticking with solids.

Newborn babies tend to be overwhelmed by clothes (it’s rare that a baby actually fits into an outfit) and my philosophy is that we want to see baby, not extra fabric. Don’t even try to fit a newborn into a 0-3 outfit (unless they were 12 pounds at birth). I love when babies have a simple diaper cover and maybe a coordinating swaddle blanket. That way we can see lots of newborn skin. A simple cream onesie would be a great option to have on hand. Accessories are fine, too, but don’t let them be distracting from the beauty of your baby. If the first thing you see on a babe is a headband, it’s too much.

Hair and make-up

If there ever was a time to hire a hair and makeup artist to come to your home, it would be this. You have enough to do to care for your newborn and help your family get ready; if you can take hair and make-up off your plate it will go a LONG way to helping you start your session as relaxed and confident as you can be. If you don’t have a hair and make-up person you already love, reach out to me and I’ll send you a couple of referrals.

Whether you hire someone or do it yourself, we want you to look like your natural self, just polished up a bit. If you don’t usually wear makeup, consider adding just a bit of color on your lips for the benefit of the camera.

And not to add another to-do to your plate, but be aware that lifestyle photography involves a lot of shots of you holding your baby. That means your hands will be featured in lots of images. At the very least, make sure you moisturize before the session. If you’re up for a little more (literal) polish, a manicure with a soft color (nothing distracting) does wonders.

What to have on hand

Besides the obvious (diapers, wipes, burp cloths, etc.), have any special items that you want captured in your photos ready to go. This may be a blanket that your mom knitted, or a stuffed animal you plan to do monthly photos with, or a handkerchief that was your grandfathers, or anything like that. Just have your absolute priorities in mind, because we don’t want to spend our whole session time on those things. Other than that, you shouldn’t need much else. Lifestyle photography is about people, not props.

Prepping your space

The last thing you want to do when you have a new baby is clean house, so I want to let you know what areas I typically shoot in so you can just focus on those. When I arrive at your home I like to take a little tour to see where the best light lives. I generally end up shooting at least a little in the primary bedroom, the nursery, and the main living area. If there’s a room you know tends to be dark, just shut the door and we don’t need to go there. But be prepared for me to at least glance in the spaces I listed above. Older sibling rooms can also be fun (I like to get shots of each kid on their own so they get a little time to be the STAR as well) if there’s decent light.

I do recommend clearing clutter from your nightstands and the floor near them to remove distractions. I’ll often edit outlets out of photos, but if there are cords coming out of them or piles of stuff on the floor, that’s not something I’ll want to spend my time doing. Have your bed made and pillows arranged the way you’d like it to look. Everything else I can usually move out of the way as I’m shooting.

Really, all I need is a good window, and I can make just about anything work, so don’t stress if you think your house isn’t magazine-worthy. I can find our good light and work with what we have to make beautiful images.

And of course, if prepping your house sounds like too much work, we can always schedule your newborn session for my studio north of Seattle. Then you don’t have to do ANY space prepping and we’ll have great light.

Prepping your kids

Plan a fun treat for big brothers and sisters for after the session (a date at the park? going for boba? their favorite take-out dinner?) and let them know that this is a special day for the whole family. And if your older siblings are still toddlers themselves and don’t get the concept of waiting for their treat, maybe have some raisins or other small, non-messy treats on hand for some instant gratification.

Prepping your MIND

Photo day is stressful, even if you didn’t wake every two hours with a newborn the night before. It’s HARD to get yourself photo-ready AND everyone else in the family. Take if from me, a mom of four: it’s no picnic. But when I arrive I hope everyone can just take a deep breath and relax. I can handle anything your family throws at me. If you can just smile through whatever chaos ensues and focus on your new little human, I will capture beautiful images.