I was chatting to another mum the other day about baby photography and during our conversation it slowly dawned on me that, having only seen the finished beautiful photos of babies on my website and across the Internet, she and many other mums out there had no idea how these images were actually created safely, so I thought a little series of blog posts might be useful. 

As we know, newborns are very delicate, they have poor muscle control and a strong moro reflex (an involuntary response to feeling unsupported) necessitating great care and patience during a photo session. They must be carefully supported at all times and certainly never left on their own. In this series of posts, I will show you how I ensure that babies are appropriately and safely positioned and supported to create some of my more popular images, and perhaps more to the point, I will show you how supporting hands are removed using Photoshop afterwards, i.e. the baby is never left balancing and remains supported throughout the shoot.

#1: The Tummy Shot

When photographing a newborn on his/her tummy, it is critical to position and support the baby to prevent rolling or lolling of the head, to reduce the possiblity of startling (moro reflex) and to provide appropriate support to prevent injury should the baby startle. 

Firstly, I ensure the surface on which baby is positioned is well padded for comfort and also I create 'wells' and 'humps' for extra support for the baby when placed. The baby's legs are tucked under to prevent lurching forward if baby does startle, and to reduce the chance of startling, the baby is placed down carefully and a hand is placed gently on baby's lower back for comfort and reassurance - this hand is only moved between shots. 

For any image where the baby’s head is resting on his/her hands, the head should be supported at all times to prevent lolling. In the example below, the final image is a composite of the two SOOC (straight out of camera) images. Also, not shown is the hand placed on the baby's bottom between shots to prevent startling (something babies do a lot!).


This technique is used for all images where a baby is positioned on his/her tummy, whether it be on a bean bag or in a prop.