We recently had the pleasure of inviting Stephanie Bennett, a Minneapolis newborn photographer to do a guest appearance on our blogs! As fellow newborn photographers, we share the same love for our little newborn clients while creating beautiful Heirloom portraits for their families to treasure for many years to come. As an expert in her field, Stephanie Bennett Photography offers an amazing newborn portrait experience for her clients. In this blog, she answers the golden question of "Should I hire a professional newborn photographer?", which is often asked by new moms, or even second, and third-time moms. Keep reading below to find out whether hiring a professional newborn photographer is the right fit for you!
Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer? | 10 Reasons You Should Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer
As newborn photographers, we often asked an important question, why should I hire a professional newborn photographer. There are a lot of reasons to hire a professional newborn photographer. Let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons why you should hire a professional newborn photographer. There are a wide variety of benefits to hiring a professional newborn photographer, from the experience all the way to the quality of images you receive of your sweet newborn baby.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Newborn Safety
As parents to a new baby, your baby is the most important thing to you. You’ve invested plenty of time and money into things to keep your newborn safe. From car seats, safe sleeping solutions, baby monitors, water thermometers, new parent classes and books, selecting a pediatrician, and all of the other baby safety items you have bought or been gifted for your little one. Your newborn’s safety is a priority to you in all areas of your life.
Safety should be a priority for your newborn session too and a top consideration when you hire a professional newborn photographer. Established professional newborn photographers keep your newborns safety a priority. Professional newborn photographers form their session poses around newborn safety. Many popular newborn poses, like the froggy pose, are done as composites. This means the photographer will use multiple images photoshopped together to give the illusion your newborn baby is in a pose on it’s own, when in reality the baby was safety supported the entire time. During the session your newborn baby will be completely safe in the hands (and poses) of your professional newborn photographer.
Most newborn photographers also take preventative steps to keep clients safe. From being up to date on immunizations and seasonal concerns like flu shots. As professional newborn photographers, babies are our business and we take all steps necessary to ensure your sweet newborns are safe during their time in our studios. When you hire a professional newborn photographer, you are investing in the safety of your newborn photography session.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Experience and Education
When you hire a professional newborn photographer, you are also gaining their experience and education. On top of the safety training professional newborn photographer have, they also have a lot of experience with babies and families. Some newborn sessions run smoothly, the baby sleeps the entire time. Other sessions are much more eventful. The baby refuses to sleep, might cry more than normal, baby has dirty diaper (and sometimes they don’t have a diaper on at the time), baby doesn’t cooperate with the planned poses, equipment fails, siblings have a wild day, or anything else can happen. Having experience means a lot when photographers are faced with hurdles during the session. Experienced newborn photographers are able to improvise and adapt to unique challenges that may happen during a professional newborn photography session. They will have a plan B, C, D, or more. This guarantees that you will have both quality images from your session as well as variety.
For example, I had a session last summer where the studio lost power. Mom was panicked that we would have to reschedule the session. After realizing the whole block was out of power, I explained to mom that I just needed to make a couple quick changes, and we could continue. I easily transitioned the session from using studio flash lighting, to shooting the rest of the session with natural light. Mom was still worried about the quality of the newborn session images, but as I showed her samples of my images on the back of my camera, I could see her physically relax. After she saw the final images from the session, she was thrilled I was able to finish the session and her favorite images from the session were ones shot during the power outage. When you hire a professional newborn photographer you are assuring your session will run smoothly based on experience and knowledge of newborn photography.
Why Should I Hire a Professional Newborn Photographer | Props
A common concern for moms at newborn photography sessions, and something they always think of when they hire a professional newborn photographer, is what will the baby wear, or what props are available. Let us take care of all of those concerns for you. Professional newborn photographers have a collection of props available for sessions. That means as parents to a newborn, you don’t have to worry about bringing things with for the session. Of course, if you have something special you want to include in your newborn photography session please bring it. We love incorporating personal items into sessions.
I have seen posts in local mom groups where new moms are panicking to find items to bring to sessions after learning their newborn photographer has limited props available for the newborn photography session. If you would rather take the approach to your session where you simply show up and let your professional newborn photographer take care of everything, don’t worry we have you covered. From backdrops, headbands / bonnets, outfits, props, and more professional newborn photographers have a large selection available. These include both internationally make props, handmade artisan props, and unique vintage and antique finds. Professional newborn photographers invest time and money into sticking their studio with props that fit newborns well, are safe for babies to pose in, and that give our images a beautiful style that compliments your newborn baby. When you hire a professional newborn photographer you also gain access to their huge prop collections that have been curated over years.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | A Stress Free Experience
When you hire a professional newborn photographer, you are hiring someone that specializes in giving you beautiful images and in a way that is easy and stress free for the entire family. A professional newborn photographer will have a plan in place for the order of images at the session, props and color set ups that are easy to transition through, and lots of tips and tricks to make the session as easy on your family as possible.
The choice to hire a professional newborn photographer gives you a photographer that can produce consistently good images, gives family members posing guidance, has props available, and offers you amazing heirloom and wall art options of your images.
You basically just need to show up, and let your professional newborn photographer handle the rest. In most of my sessions, I focus on family and sibling images first. Then everyone buy baby is able to relax. In my studio that means watching Disney +, enjoying snacks and drinks, a fun selection of toys for little one, and lots of lunch options near by if one parent wanted to take siblings out to lunch as a special treat.
A professional newborn photographer lets you sit back and enjoy the entire process, from start to finish. As a new parent, you are exhausted. Hire a professional newborn photographer and let them give you the best experience at this special for your family. So many of my clients stress the value of me taking on so much of their responsibilities related to the session. When you hire a professional newborn photographer, you get a photographer that makes your session as easy for you a possible.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Attention to Detail
From the first contact you have with them when you hire a professional newborn photographer, they focus on details. From planning the session, executing the session, and your prints, your professional newborn photographer will be paying attention to all the little details.
Moms love that I will take the time to ask if they have a side they refer to be photographed on, fixing rouge hairs, adjusting clothing to best fir the pose, small details like which way to lay bonnet ties or ways to add dimension to images with layers and wraps. All of these little details are things that can change the look and feel of a session. A great example from newborn sessions to illustrate the important to hire a professional newborn photographer is baby’s fingers. Newborn fingers are my obsession – really, it can be bad. If a baby has a hand curled up into a first, the baby can look tense. Taking a few moments to check the details and make adjustments can be huge. Once baby’s palms and fingers are laying flat in a pose, the newborn baby looks much more relaxed and flattering. Details related to props are important too, and you get that when you hire a professional newborn photographer. We work hard to build a collection of props that will complement baby, like this adorable knit romper, and chunky knit layer and headband from Wrinkle In Time Photography Props.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Editing
One common thing with babies that end up in the studio for newborn sessions is they almost all need some edits on their skin. Babies can be a variety of colors in those first days. Some are very pale, and their veins are easily seen through the skin. Some are jaundice, and have a yellow appearance to their skin and even eyes. Others have baby acne, bruising from delivery, and other things happening that can impact their skin color. A professional newborn photographer will even out your little one’s skin coloring, remove imperfections, and give your baby a natural glow.
It is important to keep baby’s skin color a natural, and professional newborn photographers spend time in photoshop hand editing your baby’s skin in your images. While there are a number of photo editing programs out there, there is no filter that can adjust the colors the way that a professional newborn photographer can with their extensive editing background. When you hire a professional newborn photographer you are getting images that are true to who your family is, minus a few imperfections that are cleaned up.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Quality Images
One of the most important reason to hire a professional newborn photographer is knowing the quality of images you will receive from your sessions. Professional newborn photographers have a large portfolio of images for you to view. These portfolio images show you the photographers understanding of flattering light, flattering posing, editing, and more. Professional newborn photographer sessions will provide you with quality images that can be printed and displayed in your home, photographs that flatter your family, art that displays well in your home for years, and images just like images in their portfolio.
Professional newborn photographers will cost more. There is always the option for new newborn photographers that are cheaper. A risk with brand new or inexperienced newborn photographers is the chance you will not like your images, they will not be technically done well, or other issues that can come up. I recently had a new mom in the studio for a newborn session. While we talked, she mentioned that she had hired a photographer for her oldest child that was very cheap. When she finally got the images back, she was disappointed. The baby looked uncomfortable, when she printed the image they were blurry or printed with noise (when photographs have imperfections that show up as a bunch of dots in printed photographs), and the edits on the images made the baby look orange. She reached out to the photographer when she saw the images and was disappointed in them. Only for the photographer to tell her the baby was now too old for a reshoot of the session, and that the images were similar to the portfolio of the photographer and the client got exactly what was promised.
My heart broke for that poor mom. She had multiple babies, and said she won’t even hang images from that session on the wall of her home because of how bad they are, and she feels bad that one of her kids doesn’t have newborn pictures like their siblings. She regrets not taking the time to really research who she was hiring for pictures, the quality of their images, and really have a good understanding of what she was going to get from the newborn photography session.
Having a newborn session is similar to a wedding in a couple of ways. The moment captured in these events can’t be repeated, and they require specific knowledge to execute the session well. It truly is one of those situations in life where you get what you pay for. When you hire a professional newborn photographer you know you will have high quality images that will stand the test of time.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Heirloom Prints and Products
Your professional newborn photographer will not only take beautiful images, but also provide you will amazing prints and products that are sure to become family keepsakes, and offer unique items that can’t be found at other printing labs.
When you are investing in newborn photography, those images deserve to printed on the best quality products possible. It’s a huge disservice to the amazing images of your family if you have a bunch of digital files on your computer or phone. Decorate your home with the people you love, and let them find value in you loving them enough to have their faces on all of your walls. Be sure to ask me about all of the products available in the studio, and my goal to make printing pictures normal again. When you hire a professional newborn photographer, you are also getting the best quality prints and products from around the globe. We work hard to give you only the best products to display in your homes.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | You’re Exhausted
My husband and I often joke about how we don’t remember what our kids looked like as newborns. But it’s partly true. We were exhausted new parents with my daughter, and when my son was born we had the added challenge of him being colicky. There were days when I felt like I was in survival mode, and functioned around what baby needed, and then trying to get some food and sleep myself when I could.
I truly believe that our body and brain prioritizes things when we have a newborn, and remembering all the cute details of our babies in those first few weeks is pretty far down on that list. Setting aside a few hours to hire a professional newborn photographer will give you physical documentation of your little one. Your professional photographer will document your baby in prints, albums, wall art, and more. You will have beautiful images to look back on for years to come, and be able to jog your memory into remembering all of those adorable new baby details. When you hire a professional newborn photographer you get an expert to walk you through the session, take on much of the responsibility, and listen to exactly what you want from your newborn photography session.
Why Should I Hire A Professional Newborn Photographer | Give Yourself The Gift Of Memories
We live in a world that’s documented through cell phone pictures and videos. Most of those are taken by mom of baby (and any siblings), their partner and baby, and some baby and mom selfies. I am all for documenting your family any way you can. I also want moms to be in pictures with their kids. A newborn session lets you get into pictures, in more than a selfie. Let a professional newborn photographer capture the love of your growing family, with you in the pictures.
As moms we often put the family before ourselves, with parents just wanting updated pictures of the kids. I encourage you to remember that these images are family heirlooms your children will treasure. After losing my own mother, I sat looking through old pictures wishing I had more of her. Your kids want pictures of their family. Your kids want pictures of you.
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