Preparing Your Home

Have a walk around your home with all the curtains open to see which rooms we may want to photograph in. These rooms are generally the bedroom, living room and baby’s room (if they have one). I shall do the same when I arrive for the photoshoot. I will choose the areas that have the best light. Please declutter these spaces as much as possible. Floors, beds, tabletops, bed side tables should be clear. I recommend just putting everything into the kitchen or spare room if you can and you can put it back after the shoot.
If you think we will use the bed please put on clean linen. A neutral linen works best. If you have off white linen (for example creams, ivory) please choose this over pure white linen as it looks better in photographs. Please don’t use bright colours for the bed linen as this colour will dominate the photographs.

Choosing Your Clothing

The most important thing is that you feel like yourself and are comfortable in your choice of clothing. There are some do’s and don’ts when choosing what to wear which I go through below so you can consider what is important to you. It’s also good to note that the colour of clothing can set the theme for the shoot, for example if you like more earthen colours or more muted colours, choose those. Something else to consider is if you want to get your photos printed and framed on your wall. Are all your walls white? Or are they dark? What clothing goes well with the overall colour scheme of your house. How would it look in a print on the wall?

Do

Wash your hair the day before.
If you like to wear make up, natural makeup looks the best in these photoshoots.
Choose clothing that is not overly bright in colour, or black and white. These colours and shades will dominate your photos. The purpose of these photos is to capture you and baby in their home with their families and we want the focus of the photos to be on baby and family. Earthen and neutral colours photograph really well.
Clothing with textures photograph really well, for example, knits, corduroy, one tone cotton with a pattern knitted into the material.
When choosing outfits for yourselves consider how they all look together. Choose colours that work well together. If someone wants to wear a pattern, make sure that not everyone is wearing a pattern. Choose a colour from the pattern and have someone else wearing that colour.
If you like to wear a flow dress they usually work well for newborn photoshoots. Your body is amazing and you have just grown and birthed a tiny human. Dresses can feel comfortable and look great on in photos when you are recently post partum.
Take off any chipped nailpolish/reapply if necessary. (I don’t photoshop chipped nailpolish as part of the digital package. It is a very time consuming process and would be charged at a by the half hourly rate).
Consider accessories. What jewellery, if any, do you want to wear.
Prepare your feet to be photographed, obviously not close up but bare feet look better in photos than wearing socks or shoes.

Avoid if possible

Please avoid wearing black or bright colours, especially red or bright pink in your photoshoot. I can photograph them but your photos will look better without those colours. They dominate the photograph and take away the focus from you and baby.. Shades away from black are fine and do look good, for example, charcoal.
Please do not wear any clothing with logos on. They are difficult to photoshoot.
Avoid patterns that are very very small or difficult to look at. This includes mens shirts with the tiny tiny checks.

Please note that it is really important not to stress over the preparation for your photoshoot. Follow clothing tips if you can but ultimately choose what you are comfortable wearing.

Choosing Clothing for Baby

When choosing clothing for baby, it’s good to think about what colours are you wearing? do you have a favourite outfit for baby? what tones would you like to appear through the photos? Do you have any blankets or wraps that you want to use and do they go together? what is baby comfortable in?
I do have some outfits, wraps and blankets which I can bring along with me. Otherwise for lifestyle photoshoots it’s nice to have outfits that are special to you to record how baby was when small.

If you need me to help with clothing choices when I arrive I will happily help.

The Day of Your Photo Shoot

Your house If you haven’t had a chance to declutter your home or tidy. Do not worry. You have just had a baby. I can help by moving anything to the kitchen/spare room/study/cupboard. Check that the bed has clean linen on. In the rooms we will be photographing in please warm the room, especially if you would like some photos of baby with no cloths on.

For Baby you know your baby the best, so there are a couple of options where we can start the photoshoot. I recommend bathing and feeding baby before my arrival, or you can wait until I arrive so I can capture some photos of baby being bathed and then fed. These make beautiful documentary photos for you and your family. If you do bath your baby please do not put any creams or oils on baby’s skin or hair as this can make them very shiny and not photograph as well. After baby’s feed, put a nappy on and then dress your baby in your favourite outfit, or a keep warm in a loose blanket if you are wanting to wear one of my little outfits. All my sessions are relaxed and baby led. If your baby doesn’t like anything I don’t do it. This means we leave extra time for feeding and cuddling during the session if baby needs it.

Room Temperature
Once you have decided which rooms in your house will work best for you, please think about the room temperature. Please make the rooms we will use warm for baby.