The Best Time to Take Newborn Photos

When you’re getting married, everyone talks about how important your wedding photos are. It’s true, they’re a valuable way to cherish the best moments of that beautiful day. But for so many families, their kids’ newborn photos hold the most special place in their hearts. After all, welcoming your new baby to the family is a life-changing experience, and the newborn stage is such a short one that you want to capture the memories before you blink and your baby grows up. So, when is the best time to take newborn photos? Don’t worry, I’m about to lay it all out for you!

As a newborn photographer, one of the most common questions I hear from growing families is when to have newborn photos taken. Is there a specific time limit when their photos need to be taken before their child is no longer technically a newborn? Are there certain ages within the newborn stage that are better for photos than others? Today, I’m answering all these questions with a close-up look at what is the best age for newborn photoshoots.

Is There a Specific Newborn Photos Time Frame?

There is a common myth that newborn photos need to be taken within a certain period of time, otherwise they aren’t “officially” newborn photos. Some people believe the limit is 14 days after the baby’s birth.

In reality, there is no set line when newborn portraits can’t be called newborn portraits. Any time in your baby’s first weeks of life will fall under the “newborn” category. In fact, a skilled professional newborn photographer can take your baby’s portraits up to six weeks after their birth and capture the sweetness of their infancy. So don’t worry, there are no newborn police putting a timer on your baby’s first photo session.

What Is the Best Time to Take Newborn Pictures?

Babies go through a lot of changes in the first days and weeks of their lives – after all, growing and changing is their full-time job! Because of this, photographing your baby can be a very different experience when your baby is seven days old compared to seventeen days old.

Each time frame in your baby’s early days has its pros and cons when it comes to newborn photography. Let’s take a look at each of these timeframes and the advantages and disadvantages they hold.

6-14 Days Old

First of all, it’s important to note that you don’t want to schedule your newborn photos any earlier than five to six days after your baby is born. For most moms, their milk comes in by day four, and this gives your baby a few days to cluster feed. By day six, your baby is full and happy, and they are on a more consistent schedule of feeding every two to three hours, so it’s easier to do a newborn session without having to stop every 20 minutes to feed again.

The common thought is that the timeframe when your baby is 6-14 days old is the best time to take newborn pictures. This is when babies tend to sleep the most, so it’s easy to get simple, sleepy poses.

Keep in mind that sometimes days 10-12 can be tricky, though. Some babies go through a cranky stage for about 48 hours when they want to be fed and held more often. It can be tough to put them down for poses when this happens. Still, I always find a way to capture plenty of beautiful portraits.

15-21 Days Old

When your baby reaches about 15 days old, they tend to spend more time awake and alert. This might sound like an advantage because it lets us take some pictures of your baby’s beautiful eyes. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get a great photo of your baby with their eyes open because babies can’t focus their eyes until they’re about eight weeks old. That means they could be cross-eyed or looking somewhere other than the camera when we take the photo.

Still, babies at this age tend to do well after they fall asleep. They may need more settling to get into different poses compared to younger babies, but I always manage to get beautiful photos eventually.

I should note that moms and dads do tend to be more tired around this timeframe because they’ve been missing out on sleep for weeks now, so the exhaustion is setting in. Regardless, I always take care to make sure that Mom and Dad look great for their photos with their little bundle of joy.

22-30 Days Old

When your baby has passed about three weeks of age, they tend to be much more alert and awake than they were in their earlier days. They usually spend more of their photo session awake compared to babies that are less than 21 days old, and sometimes they resist the simpler, sleepy poses that parents love.

By this age, your baby also may have stretched out a bit more, and they might not curl up into the typical newborn poses that are most popular. This doesn’t mean that we can’t end up with beautiful pictures – it just means that the poses may be different than they usually are for younger newborns.

On the plus side, by this point, moms have usually lost a lot of the water weight they held from their pregnancy, so moms tend to feel more confident in front of the camera. Of course, no mom is back to feeling like herself yet at this point, but I always take special care to make sure everyone in the family looks their best for their portraits.

Over 30 Days Old

When a baby has reached the one-month mark, they tend to be a lot more alert and active. You can generally expect that at this age, we’ll end up with more waking photos than sleepy ones. I’m usually able to get these babies to sleep at some point during their sessions so we can capture a few precious sleepy portraits, but not always.

Keep in mind that babies at this age tend to want to kick and move around more than younger babies. This can make it difficult to get poses of the baby naked. In many cases, most of the photos will have your baby swaddled so they are content and peaceful.

My Baby was born early and is in the NICU. Am I going to miss out on Newborn Photos? 

Not at all! In fact, your window for capturing these beautiful moments is even larger than if your baby had been born on time. You see, babies will continue to grow on the same trajectory outside the womb as they would have inside your tummy. So, instead of focusing on their birth date, we can consider their due date as the starting point for scheduling the newborn photo session.

Sibling Photos are the Most Important to Us. What if my Toddler doesn’t Cooperate?

I understand that sometimes toddlers can be a bit uncooperative during these sessions, but don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!

I have a variety of sibling poses that work well with different toddler personalities and ages. Even if your toddler refuses to cooperate, I have a little trick up our sleeve. I can always photograph the toddler alone, putting them back in the spotlight. Then, I can take a separate photograph of your new baby alone on the same background. Afterward, I can composite the two images together, just like the examples you see below.

This way, I can capture beautiful sibling moments, even if your toddler isn’t in the mood to participate. I want to make sure you have precious memories of your little ones together.

…But There are Exceptions to these Timelines…

The timeline above can serve as a guide for what to expect at each stage of your baby’s first weeks of life so you can schedule your newborn photos based on what you want from your session. However, I have specialized in newborn photography for many years and I can tell you with certainty that every baby has its own personality – we just don’t know what it is yet!

Some babies are very relaxed, mellow, and peaceful, and will let us easily pose them however we choose. Some will even hold the poses we set when they are awake. Other babies are more tense and don’t like to be posed. Still, other babies are peaceful until we start trying to move their limbs around to pose them, and then they voice their objections very clearly.

Ultimately, no one can fully predict your baby’s newborn photo session. I can make an educated guess based on their age, but it can vary based on how your baby feels that day. Many babies are relaxed and easy to pose when they have full tummies unless they have reflux, which tends to add a lot of crying to the session.

Here’s the good news, though: as unpredictable as babies can be, an experienced professional newborn photographer can get beautiful photos out of any session. It’s a matter of learning how to interact with each baby, being extremely patient, and finding a way to capture beautiful photos in between any unhappy moments that pop up.

Scheduling the Best Time to Take Newborn Photos

So, when should you take newborn photos? It all depends on the types of photos you want. The guide above can help you choose your ideal newborn photos time frame, but it’s always best to talk it through with your newborn photographer too. To discuss your options and learn more about scheduling your newborn photo session, contact my Connecticut photography studio today. If you’d like to see more of my recent work, visit my Instagram feed.