A Full Newborn Session and What All of the Images Look Like Unedited Before Processing

Many clients ask what a full session looks like at Chandra Lee Photography. It’s an important question to ask when looking to hire someone to photograph your newborn for baby’s first photo session.

It’s always a good idea to call around and speak to many different photographers and listen to what they have to offer. Each one of us is different in our own way. There’s no question that there’s a lot of amazing talent out there!

Newborn safety should be the most important aspect of a newborn session. It’s good to know that the photographer taking pictures of your baby is using spotters and composites while photographing any suspension images, prop poses or images such as baby holding head up pose or any other pose where baby “appears” to be free standing. This means that baby is being held onto by a spotter and the images are layered together in Photoshop in post processing to remove the hands supporting baby.

While prop poses are being captured (when baby is in a bucket or trencher bowl, etc.) there should be a spotter within arm’s reach of baby at all times.

The second important question is what will you be receiving from your newborn session? How important is the number of poses you will receive. How important is the quality of the images?

In this post I share screen captures of all of the images taken from a recent newborn session here at the studio. It’s important for me to capture beautiful images of your baby that are never rushed so perfect posing can be captured while keeping your baby safe and happy at all times.

I know that my clients love variety when coming for a newborn session and it takes time to photograph lots of variety.

You should be able to see the quality of a photographer’s work before booking. Things to look for are the workflow from beginning to end that show you the transition of poses. Many breaks are taken throughout a newborn session for baby to spend time with mom for feedings. Feeding times vary from baby to baby and can take anywhere from 15 minutes to close to one hour. Each baby is different and some babies take longer than other babies to feed.

You should also be able to view a photographer’s work and see a consistency in colour balance. There should not be a great difference in colour between images. When shooting on different colour backgrounds and blankets, the colour may vary; however, from one set to another set, the images should be the same unless the photographer has made changes to the brightest or darkness of the subject and/or background. This is all controlled with our camera settings including shutter speed and aperature settings.

An experienced photographer will know how to control light throughout their photo session.

It’s important to choose a photographer whose work you love and be informed before making your final decision.

Multiple images are taken throughout a newborn session of each pose. One image is selected from each set-up resulting in 30 to 40 final edited images to choose your favourites from.

Below you can find 2 screen captures of all of the raw images taken from a recent newborn session. It shows the progression from beginning to end. This little guy was just 7 days new when he attended for his session. He was able to do 6 prop poses because he was very sleepy at just 7 days. We were also able to capture lots of variety on the posing pillow. You will notice that baby was supported when we captured the baby holding head up pose. Mom was spotting her baby for this pose.

3 of the final edited images are displayed so you can see the result.