This may be your first or 300th newborn session, but each baby is unique. As a newborn, you are only days into learning the behaviors and reactions of this new little angel. Be certain that prior to your session that you, or the baby’s parents, have all the information necessary to feel 100% comfortable.

There are a few things you can count on will happen during a shoot:

• A newborn will cry – don’t panic!
• A newborn will potty during the session. Be prepared for clean-up.
• A newborn will be hungry. It’s ok if baby wants to eat or just snuggle and suckle for comfort. There is no rushing. This experience should be beautiful and memorable for you!
• A newborn will sleep. Sleeping babies are adorable and at some point long photo session, a newborn will fall into a deep sleep.

There is nothing more calming than noise to a newborn as long as that noise is constant and rhythmic. There are several smartphone apps available for free, such as White Noise App, that are options if you don’t want to purchase a noise machine or Baby Shusher.

Many photography studios are warm – up to 80 degrees – during a newborn session. There is a good reason for this. Newborns have not fully developed their thermostats so regulating body temperature is very difficult. Creating a warm atmosphere increases your chances of having a sleeping baby by 90%. If you’re shooting at home, remember to warm up the room first.

This should have probably been the first tip! Newborns feel every ounce of energy that you bring to the table. Creating a calm atmosphere and leaving no room for frustration is extremely important. Keep your mind calm and don’t allow yourself to over-react if baby cries.

Getting the correct lighting is always a challenge with newborns since strobes of any sort are truly not an option because of the disruptive nature of flashing lights. Gathering as much light as possible with great lenses helps so much. I choose to use the Olympus mirrorless system because the image stabilization coupled with the amazing auto-focus allows for shooting at wide open apertures and slower shutter speeds without fear of being out of focus. Having the ability to shoot with a silent shutter is so nice for newborn sessions as well.