A Guide to Newborn Photography Poses: Capturing Precious Moments

Your expecting, life is exciting and you can’t wait to meet your new bundle. The journey begins to find a newborn photographer to capture all the freshness of your newborn, those fingers, toes, lips and those super cute poses. But wait how do I know what to ask for or what I want? We newborn photographers have our own weird language when it comes to the names of poses. Today I would like to try and demystify the names of poses and what they are.

Newborn photography is a special and heartwarming niche in the world of photography. It’s a field that allows photographers to freeze the fleeting moments of a baby’s early days, preserving memories for a lifetime. While the technical aspects of photography are crucial, one of the most vital components of newborn photography is posing. Posing newborns requires both skill and a gentle touch.

Bag/Table Posing: Creating Timeless and Peaceful Images

There are wrapped poses and bag/table poses. Depending on your session choice in most cases I start out with bag/table posing of newborns. I use a specially designed bag, essentially a large, very full bean bag with a frame. This bag provides a stable and comfortable surface for the baby, allowing me to control the pose while ensuring their safety and comfort. The frame allows me to secure backgrounds and fabrics, creating a versatile backdrop for your images.

While the resulting images may depict serene, sleepy babies, achieving these poses can be challenging. Newborns, even when they appear calm, may require a lot of patience and soothing to mold them into the desired positions. It’s essential to handle them with great care and gentleness, ensuring they remain comfortable and relaxed throughout the process.

Wrapped Posing

Wrapped newborn poses involve swaddling or wrapping the baby in a soft and stretchy fabric or blanket, creating a cozy and snug look for the photographs. These poses are a popular choice in newborn photography for several reasons. Swaddling the baby can make them feel secure, similar to being in the womb. This sense of comfort often results in a calm and content baby during the photoshoot. Wrapping the baby allows me to focus on the baby’s facial features, expressions, and tiny hands and feet, as the background is usually kept simple. I usually do these detail images when newborns are posed for the Flokati pose shown below. Using wraps is an easy way to transition baby to different props as well and just changing the color of the top wrap so baby isn’t disturbed.

Newborn Froggy Pose

This pose is probably my parents favorite pose. I usually start my sessions with this pose and once I get it parents are so thrilled and can sit back and relax the rest of the session knowing the hardest pose was achieved.

The “Froggy Pose” is a popular and adorable newborn photography pose that mimics the position of a frog’s legs. This pose is characterized by the baby being positioned on their belly with their head resting on their hands, and their legs are extended outward and bent at the knees, resembling a frog’s posture. The baby’s fingers are often delicately supporting their chin, creating a cute and heartwarming image.

Tushy or Bum up Newborn Pose

The classic “tushy up” newborn pose is a popular and adorable pose in newborn photography. This pose is often used to capture the sweet innocence and those awesome wrinkles of a newborn.

Chin on Hands

In this pose, the newborn is typically positioned on their belly with their head resting on their hands, creating an image that showcases the baby’s face.

Side Lying Pose

The “Newborn Side Lying Pose” is a popular and charming pose in newborn photography that showcases a baby lying on their side. This pose is favored for its ability to emphasize the newborn’s delicate features and natural, peaceful sleeping position.

Womb Pose

Many photographers have several different terms for this pose. I personally call this pose Womb Pose because to me it is a very natural way that newborns were lying in the womb. Babies fall right into this pose and in most cases I will get the best smiles in this pose.

Props

Props offer more textures and dimension to your gallery of images. Often we newborn photographers will swaddle newborns or use knits such as jammies on baby for these images.

Potato Newborn Pose

This might be newborns favorite pose because they are so swaddled and it gives them that security of being back in the womb. If baby is fussy or awake this is my go to pose for them it instantly makes them content. My daughter also calls this hatching egg, which I can see.