
If you’re visiting for a newborn photo shoot and you’d like to get older children involved (and why wouldn’t you?) then there’s some things to know about outfits that you might want to choose for them.
If your child or children are older, and able to safely hold your newborn, then you’ll need to think about the outfit as a whole. I prefer them to be barefoot for their pictures as shoes just look a bit bulky and socks aren’t super pretty so it’s worth knowing about that in advance.
Your choice of what they wear is down to your personal style of course but it’s great if it’s clean and ironed. For that reason, if they’re going to be staying for the session, it’s worth bringing them in one outfit and having them change specially for their photos so they don’t need to worry about getting stuff wrinkled.
Where siblings are going to be holding your newborn but they’re still pretty young, I usually suggest that we work with the newborn in a swaddle. They are easier to hold for them this way and you tend to get a better pose than when they’re dressed. If they’re still learning to hold them, it tends to be that although they are safe and supported, they look a bit crunched up in the finished images. I have wraps in lots of colours so I can usually match in with your colour scheme.
For this reason, I don’t recommend bothering with matching newborn and sibling outfits. As we want to make your older child’s job as easy as possible, we want the newborn to be super fast asleep. Swaddles help with this and undressing and redressing them can make them a bit unsettled and harder to handle. The ones that people often bring are tshirts / vests that say ‘little brother’ ‘big sister’ type things. It’s nearly impossible to pose a newborn so that the text is readable so you don’t get the full effect. Don’t get me wrong – matching t-shirts are brilliant but it’s usually better to wait until your first Joey Club session so that we can get the writing in on both kids tops and then they look super cute.
When your older child is still too small to safely support your newborn, we have two ways of working. Either with your newborn asleep on something like the basket or trolley prop and your older child seated behind but near them. Alternatively, we lay the newborn down and then their sibling joins them laying down on their back and looking up at the camera. In either case, it’s pretty much only the top half of the outfit that is going to get shown, so if it’s going to cause problems to get them to remove their favourite wellies or whatever, it’s not a battle worth fighting. Logos and character clothing will date faster in the finished images and so keeping it plain is great. Comfort is key for them so just something plain and clean on the top half will be all that’s required.
As with all of my advice, you should ignore it if it’s not what makes you happy. If you have any questions about planning for your photo shoot, just get in touch and I’m always happy to help.
Newborn Photography
A newborn photo shoot is best when your baby is between 5 and 10 days old as this is when they are at their maximum sleepiness and poseability to capture those dreamy shots. For this reason, I definitely recommend that you book when you are pregnant as this is one less thing to worry about scheduling when you’ve just got home from the hospital. We make an appointment for your due date plus 7 days and then adjust it as needed.
My newborn shoots include your three favourite digital images which you select from your online gallery a few weeks after your photo shoot – I don’t make you attend a sales or viewing session. Sessions take place in my warm and cosy studio in Crawley Down and cost £95.