Newborn Photography

Newborn photography has exploded in popularity. Working with these little wonders is challenging, fun and a fantastic creative outlet. I've had the opportunity to learn posing techniques from some of the industry's most prominent newborn photographers. I've learned how to safely pose a child, allocate assistants to achieve specific poses, and use the digital tools at my disposal to create the look I want. 

In recent months I have heard multiple stories and have seen evidence of photographers taking too many liberties with the safety of their newborn clients. In the spirit of sharing knowledge as well as promoting baby safety, I would like to share a tutorial on one way to create a prop portrait, safely.

To begin, make sure your little one is secure in or on and container or surface you place them on. Never leave an infant un attended.  Set up your pose, being careful not to push the little one too far or cause them any pain. Make certain that your assistant or a parent is nearby to steady the child's head and neck while you make your exposure. 

This image is Out Of Camera and you can see mom's hand is holding baby's head steady. Mom is less than a foot from her daughter throughout the shoot. 

Photo is post initial retouching and color balance. 

To begin the process, choose your lasso tool. This will allow you to make a selection of the right side of the photo that will ultimately camouflage the hand on the left side. 

Make the selection, copy and paste onto a new layer. 

the lighter are is the section of the photograph that has been copied and pasted onto a new layer

Flip the copied layer by selecting the copied layer, using your keyboard to choose option/command T, to transform. Then press control and use your mouse to click on the screen, select flip horizontal from the menu.

position the flipped copy to line up with the baby's face and natural head curve

create a layer mask and use a fluffy brush to erase the portion of the photo you do not want to show in the final image

layer masks

Check your mask edges and make sure you do not have anything left unblended. you can check this quickly by pressing the shift button and clicking on the layer mask.

Final image. Mommy's will always choose their baby's safety over a complicated pose. If you are just starting out, please use caution and consider taking a class that focuses on posing baby's safely. 

Disclaimer: There are a million ways to do this sort of photo work in photoshop, this is a technique that works for me and seemed perfect for this situation. Happy shooting!