Do’s and Dont’s for Studio Posing

Studio posing for family and newborn sessions is the most vital part of making sure the session you are investing in goes as smoothly as possible!

This is my guide on how to pose in the most authentic way possible!

When posing during your portrait session in studio, it is always important to have trust in your photographer to provide easy but gorgeous poses that will encourage you, the client, to absolutely LOVE your images!

The images above are from the same exact session, within moments of each other. while the image on the right is adorable in every way because it is raw and real, typically my clients wouldn’t be excited to get that image printed to be hung on their walls and enjoyed for years to come. This has nothing to do with their appearances, skin texture, expressions, or color scheme but everything to do with the DONT’S of posing!

Mistakes happen and little movements sometimes lead to a frame or two looking awkward, especially with little ones!

It is important to not panic, but take a breath and remember you come into my studio to have fun and capture beautiful moments.

You can see in the image on the right, the mother holds baby girl slightly leaning into dad, which causes baby to get trapped and feel awkward, making her seem unamused with the situation.

I noticed this right away and asked mom to hold baby more upright and instead of leaning into dad for support and help holding baby, act as a tripod or triangle, with a strong back and core, allowing baby to feel more secure and dad able to support both baby and mom. The image on the left is the outcome of this posing technique.

How to achieve the “Froggy” Pose in Newborn Photography!

The Froggy pose is not a pose that we are always able to achieve, so it is important to let your photographer know you would like to prioritize this pose if possible.

Froggy is done as a composite of a series of images spliced together in Photoshop! It is NEVER safe to keep baby’s head unsupported by themselves in this pose, newborns are resilient and typically still, but they twitch, yawn, stretch, cry, etc just like we do! You wouldn’t want to leave an area for potential injury for baby.

This girl’s sweet as pie momma snagged this behind the scenes image to show how amazing her girl was doing in froggy!

If baby has a serious case of FOMO during the session, I do not attempt froggy pose!

I like to use the liquify tool to adjust little hair issues and use AI technology on Photoshop to adjust expression if it looks natural!

This could be your end result or we can get even more fancy by photoshopping baby into different digital backdrops!

Emily’s Maternity to Newborn Journey

The most amazing gift a new mother can give to her photographer is a beautiful, healthy baby to photograph. When a client decides to book a maternity AND newborn session with me, it gets me emotional, every time, without fail! The prospect of life forming that in just a few short weeks, I’ll be posing into bum up and swaddling into a little potato is the most amazing thing about this carer.

Emily and I went to HS together, bonding over rhythms and song choices in choir class. If I’d found out in a few years we would be celebrating her little burst of light in my studio, I’d be shocked, to say the least.

I want the women I serve to feel supported in this journey to motherhood, especially when posing for photos sometimes half or fully naked!

My art isn’t ‘affordable’ to everyone, it’s a luxury item to yourself and family. Though, I never want moms to feel that they can’t celebrate their beautiful creations the way they’d like to, which is why I offer a complimentary maternity mini for full newborn bookings and/or a $200 upgrade from my cozy sessions.

That is one hot momma!