Tips to Get Creative Newborn Portrait Photographs

Newborns are adorable and tiny, sleep most of the day, and practically live in a world of their own.  When it comes to newborn portrait photographs, you can either go for the classic ones, or you can come up with creative ideas and get amazing newborn portraits.  Remember this will require a lot of patience and time, but the results will be more than worth it.  Here are 5 tips that will help you come up with unique and creative newborn portrait photographs.

Poses:  

Newborns naturally have extremely photogenic postures, especially when asleep.  Try and shoot as many natural poses as you can. In addition, they are completely flexible making it fairly easy to get them into practically any pose.  Wait until they are in deep sleep and then gently get them into the pose you want – on a beanbag or exquisite table, in the father’s hand, the ideas are endless.  Now shoot them in this pose from all angles as quickly as you can.
    

Hands and feet:  

Portraits of newborns’ faces are great, but try something different like focusing exclusively on the hands or feet.  Shoot just the tiny hands or feet in different poses.  You can make them even more special by having the baby’s hands or feet held in the mother’s or father’s palms or hands.
    

Outfits:  

One way to get unique newborn portraits is go for outfits that are completely quirky.  If you are using costumes, try animal or flower themes that show just their face.  Alternatively, shoot them wearing just a cute cap, hat or flower tiara, or just wearing a pair of fancy booties.  Try out different looks keeping in mind the baby’s comfort.  Do not ever try to get a newborn into tight clothes or anything that has sharp or rough edges.
    

Props:  

With props too you can get totally creative.  It could be something as simple as shooting the newborn in a theme styled crib, to placing them in a basket or large hat, or even placing unique cutouts around a sleeping baby to create a specific effect.  Again with props you need to be careful they are safe and do not hurt the baby in any way.
    

Black and white:  

Shooting newborn portraits in black and white produces amazing results.  Preferably do the black and white ones for direct facial shots where the eyes are highlighted.  These portraits have an added softness and innocence beyond that seen in color portraits.