As photographers, we might not always know what to expect when we walk into a client’s home for an in-home newborn session. There are a lot of unknowns and we may find ourselves in a small, dark space. Even if a home normally has good natural light, the weather might not cooperate. So how do we, as professionals, take charge of the situation and create the beautiful, artistic images our clients expect from their on-location session?
Boston has provided me the perfect training opportunity for these types of challenging environments. It is normal to find myself in a space of less than a thousand square feet that only has windows in the front and/or the back of the home. My clients live in basement apartments, triple deckers, and townhouses. I’ve learned to be creative in how I shoot interact with families. And I’ve learned that I don’t need a ton of space — just one spot with good light will do.
So, what if we reframed the lack of abundant natural light or space and viewed it as an opportunity to push ourselves — to emphasize connection, emotion and creativity in a session? I’m going to show you how it’s totally possible to create a full in-home newborn session in just one room.
4 Tips for doing an in-home newborn session in one room
1. Remember your lighting basics.
Before getting flustered and cranking up your ISO, think about the basics of natural light and how you can use them at the in-home newborn session. How can you best use flat, side and back lighting? What poses will work best, and where? If you ask mom to turn, what happens to the light on her face? With the same pose, can you create a different mood by adjusting how the light illuminates the family? These questions can help you maximize the light available.
2. Maximize each pose.
Slow down. Before having the family change poses, take a good look and ask yourself what is happening and how else can you maximize the pose or interaction. What connections are taking place? Did you capture the emotion? Did you get a detail shot and a wide angle photo? Pause before moving on and try to get four to five unique photographs from each setup.
3. Use the room to add variety.
Are there any architectural elements or interesting home decor pieces that you can use to create something visually interesting? This not only helps add variety to the gallery, it also personalizes the session and makes it unique to the family.
4. Use flash if you need it.
At in-home newborn sessions, I use natural light 99 percent of the time, but every so often window light isn’t enough. For those times, I bring a flash with me. My goal with flash is to add just a touch more light. I find that angling it towards the window helps keep it looking natural because the light will bounce back towards my subject.
Here’s my session flow for in-home newborn photos in one room.
So does this actually work in the real world? Yes! I’m going to share my newborn session flow from an in-home session done in just one room. Here you’ll see how I used the room and light available, maximized each pose and added flash where needed.
For this in-home newborn session, most of the windows were on one side of the apartment, and it was also raining off and on. In the photo below, you can see the two windows behind the bed. These two windows were the only natural light source in the room. For many of the photos, I had the family angled towards window two in order to keep the light on their faces and add a little bit of shadow for depth.
First setup
I began the session by capturing the family together. I had them sit near the edge of the bed, angled towards the windows, and used this one spot to capture a variety of photographs that were playful and fun.
First, I captured the family being playful.
Next, I got a closeup, but playful, shot of the older brother.
Third, I took another shot of the family interacting. Big brother was holding his blanket — a cute personalized detail — and I asked him to show me the baby to help him calm down and focus.
Lastly, in this same setup, I took a closeup photograph of the two children in their parents’ arms.
Second setup
Next, I worked on getting images of dad and the baby. First I photographed dad sitting, then I had him stand so I could capture two different angles. The wall behind him was plain so it worked well as a minimalist backdrop.
Then, I added in mom. The windows are still to the right.
Third setup
After finishing with the images against the neutral wall, I wanted to get a few shots in front of this huge painting. As I mentioned above, I like to look for interesting elements in the room to include in the photos. I knew this painting would be perfect to incorporate into a few photos for variety.
I wanted mom’s face to be well lit, so I made sure her face was angled towards the window, which is in the left of the frame.
Fourth setup
During this session, the rain was sporadic. At one point it started to get really dark, so to combat the reduction in natural light, I added in flash. I angled my on-camera flash so that it was pointed towards the window to create a subtle fill-light effect.
In these two photos, you can see the slight difference between natural light and added flash.
Fifth setup
In these next photos, I am standing almost in front of the windows for more flat lighting to minimize shadows on the family’s faces. Since it was really dark outside (and inside the home), having the parents face the windows kept more light on their faces. The flash added light when needed.
It’s OK to use just one room.
If you are someone who needs permission, you now have it. I used to think that I needed to use every room in a client’s home. You don’t. It is totally OK to stay in one spot. Not every room will have usable light. Plus, staying in one place pushes you to be creative in the environment you are in, and helps you focus on the family that you are documenting.
Photos by Beth Ann Fricker
More newborn photography tips and advice:
How to create a full newborn gallery with just two poses
7 No-stress newborn photography tips to keep baby and parents relaxed
How to take your own newborn photos at home with any camera
12 Newborn photography safety tips every pro photographer should know
The perfect newborn photography posing flow for stress-free studio sessions
