Maternity and/or Newborn pictures DIY

In this crazy actual context of Covid-19 many moms-to-be can not have their maternity and/newborn pictures professionally done as many photographers, like myself, won't be allowed to resume working right away (at least here in Singapore not during Phase 1 of re-opening here in Singapore, so not until July at best).

For family pictures it's not such a big deal since you can do them later, but maternity and newborn pictures are for obvious reasons more time-sensitive...

For these reasons I decided to put together a small DIY (Do It Yourself ;-)) guideline, to help you capture these fleeting beautiful moments in your life.

1- Maternity Pictures

So let's start with the beginning: maternity pictures.

First, the outfit.

Well pretty much anything would work, really, but of course you should choose something you feel beautiful in, but also something fitting enough to highlight the shape of your belly. Even a fabric wrapped around you can look awesome by the way (I just used a fabric for the picture on the left).

Second, the light.

You're probably going to have the pictures at home (unless you want to wear a mask...), so to avoid having to use artificial lights (that gives often a yellowish tone to the pictures), and/or flash, try to do the pictures a the brightest time of the day, in the brightest part of your home. Basically the best is to use window light and avoid artificial light.

And ideally this window light should come from the side.

Third, the settings.

You want to make those pictures about your pregnancy, your beautiful baby bump, ..., so avoid having too many things around. The best would be an empty wall.

Forth, posing.

Once again you want to show off that beautiful bump so get a little bit into a profil pose. Try to avoid keeping your legs straight, and bend a little bit your knee on the leg the closest to me camera (while having your body weight on the other leg). That will help creating nice lines.

Then you can play with your arms: both hands under the belly, one hand up one down,... You can look directly at the camera but also try to look down at your belly, ...

2- Newborn Pictures

First of all, and I can't stress that enough, the safety of your baby is the most important, so please do not try advance posing of newborn babies who may I've seen on the internet (for example the head in hands pose)!!! A lot of those poses are actually photoshop composite, and doing them otherwise would be dangerous!!

So the best is to keep it simple :-).

What I've said before for the maternity pictures concerning the light of course apply here too.

The easiest setting would be on your bed. You can remove the cover and pillows and pose your precious baby in the middle of the bed.

To keep it safe and simple I would advise to do only pictures of baby on his/her back.

You can wrap your little one in a plain fabric, if you wish.

Several pictures can be done from just one very simple back pose. You can photograph the full body, and then get closer and frame just on the upper part of the body, you can also do shots of the tiny feet, the hands, ...

To keep it safe and simple I would advise to do only pictures of baby on his/her back.

You can wrap your little one in a plain fabric, if you wish.