Starting A Newborn Photography Business
Starting your own business is a huge undertaking, and it will be challenging. You will need to build it from the ground up, starting with investing money.
The fate of your business rest in your hands, and it will only continue if you price well. You need to know how much to charge your clients.
Dont become discouraged by the competition or that you may not make a profit for the first two years. It can be a difficult market, and you need time to get the word out.
Read the article here on how to start your newborn portraiture business today!
Sell Baby Products Online
Open an e- commerce store and sell products exclusively for babies and children.
Many baby products are specialty items and thus are not sold in local brick and mortar retail stores creating an online opportunity for you.
Get inspiration from the top online baby boutiques are buybuyBaby, Babylist and The Honest Company.
Reinvest In The Business
Once you have at least three months worth of income socked away, then you can start thinking about reinvesting it. From new lenses to better editing software, new pieces of technology can improve your product. To make wise decisions, make a list of the items you want. Prioritize the list and shop around for good prices before you spend your hard-earned money.
Also Check: How Long A Newborn Should Sleep
Top 5 Basic Newborn Photography Poses
There are five main bare baby poses.
- Womb
- Back Laying
1. Womb Pose
In the womb pose, babys feet are crossed over and curled up underneath them. A hand is tucked sweetly under their cheek. This posed is named for being somewhat similar to the position baby is inside the womb during pregnancy. In this photo, there is a little posing pillow underneath babys cheek to gently lift their head up towards the light and camera.
2. Bum or Tushy Up Pose
During the bum or tushy up pose, babys feet are crossed and resting underneath their bottom. Babies tend to love this pose. Having their knees tucked under their tummy, with their head to the side is a natural position for them when being held or burped by a parent. The tush up pose is one of the most classic bare baby shots in newborn photography.
3. Hands Under Chin Pose
The hand on chin pose is a parent favorite as it focuses on babys face. Babys hands are folded sweetly and placed under their chin. Your photographers goal is to have babys face in focus, as the body goes into a soft blur, or bokeh.
4. Side Laying Pose
While the side laying pose can be more of a challenging shot during a newborn photography session, we think it can be one of the cutest too! In this pose, baby is laying on their side with their hands tucked underneath their cheek. Again, the babys face is in focus, as the body goes out of focus.
5. Back Laying Pose
Make Your Portfolio A Resource
Another secret for how to get more photography clients is to make your online portfolio a source for useful content. For example, you can write some blog posts about photography tips and tricks, or provide a list of links that will be useful to clients.
If you do a lot of newborn photography, write some blog posts about how to take better pictures of infants, or a guide on how to make a photo session with a squalling baby go more smoothly. If youâre a wedding photographer, include some links to things like venues, florists, and limousine services.
Providing useful content makes it more likely that visitors will spend time on your portfolio. It also demonstrates that you understand whatâs important to them, and itâs a way to show off your photography knowledge at the same time.
This same idea can also be applied to your promotions on social media.
Read Also: How To Help A Congested Newborn
Find A Good Website Builder
Thankfully, there are website builders designed specifically for artist portfolios. They can provide all the tools youâll want, without the stuff you donât need. This makes it as easy as possible to get your online portfolio website up and runningâand helping you get photography clients. One thing to keep in mind: you should choose a website builder that offers a free trial so you can see if it works for you and your needs. For some help, check out our guide on how to build a photography website.
What Is The Best Age For A Newborn Session
If you have children, you may well remember that newborns sleep a lot, at least through the day, and seem able to sleep through pretty much anything too. But that changes really quickly, and by week three babies are waking more easily, and spending more time awake each day. You cannot pose a baby that is awake, so a sleeping newborn is what you need, meaning you need to aim for under two weeks, and under ten days is even better.
Sleep isnt the only issue that dictates though. Newborns are gorgeously squishy, floppy and bendy under ten days old, which, coupled with being sound asleep, makes them perfect for gently posing into those adorable positions parents love. Much after two weeks and they begin to gain muscle tone, which means they lose the flexibility that makes such posing possible.
So that covers not doing a session too late, but you need to know why doing it too early isnt good either. Newborns dont usually look their best after birth, and it can take time for their faces to settle. Also, feeding needs to be established because until a baby is feeding well, he wont sleep well. My advice would be dont do a session under 5 days of age.
Recommended Reading: Why Is My Newborn Breaking Out
Dont Be Afraid To Ask
This one final piece of advice is something I wish I had the confidence to do right from the get-go. Ive found that the biggest gains in my time as a professional photographer have been when I asked. Even people who know you dont know everything you need, so reach out and see if they can help you out.
Asking is what ties the previous points together. May I come along to the gathering tonight? I really need some advice, could I get you a cup of coffee and ask you a couple of questions? Im looking to go in a new direction with my portrait photography, would you mind being a model for me so I can do some tests? All of these are situations you can get yourself into by simply asking for the things you need. Asking is what has got me to every photograph in this article, and most of the highlights of my career thus far.
Honestly, what is the worst that could happen? You might get your feelings hurt. Thats the absolute worst that could happen.
Of course, there are hundreds, if not more, of considerations that go into starting your photography business, and these four small points just scratch the surface. For more information on how to start your photography business from attaining a business license to selecting a business name and building your business structure check out Pye Jirsas Photography Business class!
Camera Lens And Sd Card
If you’re already a photographer, chances are you have a camera that will work well for newborn photography. I currently use the Canon R6 and this 24-70 Canon Lens. The 24-70 is perfect because you can stay nice and close to baby, which is essential for baby’s safety unless you have someone else to help during the session. It also allows you to use a nice, open aperture. I typically shoot around F3.2 or F3.5. Use an SD card with a good amount of memory and a decent write speed. I really love these 64 GB Sandisk cards.
Read Also: How To Get My Newborn On A Sleep Schedule
Get To Know Your Client: The Newborn
This should really be tip number one. You need to first and foremost know how to handle a newborn. You will need to know what a newborn needs throughout their portrait session.For example, a newborn feeds every two to three hours if not more. After feedings, a baby needs to be burped.After that, either the parents keep them awake or they fall asleep again. Youll have to be comfortable both with a nursing mother and a mother who bottle feeds.If you have a studio, buy a comfortable chair. The mother can feed, rock, and have time with the baby during the portrait session. This will avoid any disruptions in the babys schedule.Always keep the parents close by. Never let a baby be posed alone if they are not laying down. Keep hands close to hold babys head, arms, or back in place. Youll edit this out later.Be aware that the baby may relieve themselves on set. Have dog training pads on hand. Or use a mattress protector on your posing pillow to avoid stains and bacteria.The more experience you have with newborns, the more comfortable you will be. If you are not comfortable handling newborns, be honest and upfront with your clients. Tell them that they will be the ones posing and handling the baby during the session.Be aware that germs spread easily and can affect a newborn baby. Youll need to sanitise the area as well as your hands and equipment. Do this before and after each session.You can never wash your hands enough with baby-safe soap. Trust me.
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Read Also: When To Do Newborn Photos
Build Your Portfolio To Create Marketing Materials For Your New Business
As with any new business, youll need something to sell. As professional photographers, we are selling our future work and so we need to have past work to show. If a coffee shop simply promised you they could grow coffee, would you put your hard earned cash on the counter in the hope they were telling the truth?
You have to show what you want to be hired for, and that means you need to create that work. Reach out to friends and family, in the beginning, to see if anyone can help you with procuring subjects for your photography. If a family member needs editorial portraits of his workers for a promotional series, offer to make them. Maybe your best friends latest home-brew has reached the levels where hes selling it to local bars, see if you can shoot some promo posters. Do whatever it takes to create the work you want to be hired to do. This is also a good way to start networking and meeting potential clients.
Get your 12 week road map to launching a photography business. Learn more.
The majority of my clientele are visitors to Korea. They are here for a short time and are looking to make pictures during their stay. Its not lost on me that it takes a huge leap-of-faith to make a bank account deposit to a person youve never actually met or spoken with. I need to show the right work, and have the right attitude to gain peoples trust. Any business owner needs to do this well.
Warm The Space You Will Be Working In
Now, you are ready to get to work. But there are a few things you still have to do. The most important is to heat the room you will be photographing baby in. Newborns can not regulate their body temperatures as well as older children or adults. So you will need to keep your space comfortable, cozy and warm. This is especially important during bare baby poses. You can use a space heater if your shooting area is usually cold.
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Make Safety A Priority
Attend a workshop or training session with an experienced newborn photographer, or take a course to get certified on the ins and outs of safety for newborn photoshoots. For example, you will want to leave the flash at home, and rely instead on soft, indirect window light to protect the infants eyes.
Babies have positions they like and ones they dont, which varies based on the child, so pay attention to body language and follow the newborns lead. Keep in mind that many of the popular poses you see in newborn photography are composites done in Photoshop including the froggy, where the head is resting on the hands.
Team Up With Charities
Farren uses other unique techniques to grow her business. For instance, she teams up with charities that run high-end silent auctions.
Not only are you getting your name in front of wealthy people, but in most cases, the clients will purchase much more than the free prints that come with the package they bought at the auction, she says.
Read Also: How To Get A Newborn Into A Sleep Routine
Why Does A Session Take So Long
The average session is 3-4 hours, and you will soon realize why when you have done a couple of your own. The session is taken up by everything BUT taking photos. When I do a session my camera is in my hand for less than ten minutes the entire time. The session will involve settling, cuddling, reading baby, soothing for sleep, and gentle posing. They baby runs the show, of that there is little question, and as each baby is different, so is each session. Try to rush it and clock watch, and youll put yourself under huge pressure, and babies pick up on stress, which could cause you to have an unsettled baby on your hands. As a general rule, most newborn specialists will do just one session a day.
A Quick Note About This Guide
This is a really long article and is separated into two parts:
If I had this guide when I started my business, I wouldve done two things with it:
- Read the entire thing through beginning to end
- Print it out and refer to it often
Also Check: How Many Times Should I Feed My Newborn