When you welcome a new baby into the family, it’s natural to want everyone in the photos. So when people ask whether siblings and parents can be included in the newborn shoot, the answer is emphatically yes.
How we approach it depends a lot on the age of the older children though, so it’s worth knowing the thinking behind it before you come.
If your older child is around four or above, they’re generally fine to come along for the whole session. It’s worth bringing things to keep them entertained though, as watching newborn photography happen is not exactly gripping television. One practical note: the mobile signal at the studio is not great, so if you’re planning to use phones or tablets to keep them occupied, download whatever you need before you arrive.
For younger siblings, particularly two and three year olds, I’d strongly suggest not bringing them for the full session. It’s a fairly boring and confined environment with nowhere to run around, and they’ve just had a significant change in their family life. Watching the new baby get all of the attention for an hour is unlikely to bring out their best side. The chances of getting good sibling photos drop considerably once they’ve spent that long sitting around getting restless.
The approach that works much better is to have one parent bring the newborn to the studio while the other takes the older sibling to the park or soft play for an hour, then they join in towards the end of the session when they’re fresh and the whole thing still feels like a novelty. They walk in, we get the sibling shots and some family photos, and they walk back out happy. I find this roughly triples the chances of getting good sibling pictures. Two year olds don’t come with guarantees, but it’s the best approach we have.
When it comes to how we actually do the sibling shots, that also varies by age. For younger siblings I don’t ask them to hold the newborn, partly for safety and partly because it rarely looks great in photos even if they can manage it. Instead we either photograph them all lying down on the rug and shoot from above, or we put the newborn into the miniature bed or trolley and have the toddler sit behind it. In both cases there’s always a parent just out of shot and close at hand.
For siblings who are a bit older, around four or five, they can hold the newborn sitting on the floor with a parent nearby. This works much better when the baby is swaddled, as a wrapped baby is easier to hold and less likely to startle. I only attempt this when the baby is well settled.
With older siblings it’s generally straightforward, though I still usually work with everyone sitting so I can position the newborn properly and make any adjustments easily.
All children are different and you’ll know yours better than I do. But hopefully that gives you a clear picture of how we approach it.
