Newborn photography is usually recommended within the first fifteen days, when babies still sleep deeply and curl into the shapes they held in the womb. But plenty of families arrive later than that — a difficult birth, a stay in hospital, a season when nobody was going anywhere.
Missing that window does not mean a baby can no longer be beautifully photographed. It means photographing a different baby.
This is what I have learned photographing babies at six weeks, which I call oldborn sessions. It is written for other photographers, but if you are a parent wondering whether you have left it too late, the short answer is no — and the rest of this will tell you what to expect.
What does "oldborn" mean?
A newborn session is up to about thirty days. A baby session starts at around three months. Oldborn is the stretch in between: roughly one to three months old.
It is a real stage with its own character, and for a while I treated it as a compromise. I no longer do. There are things possible at six weeks that are simply not possible at six days.
What is better at six weeks
They smile for real. Up to about a month, most smiles are wind. From the sixth week they are a response — to a face, a voice, a familiar smile. They last longer, and they arrive when you invite them. Parents adore these photographs above almost any others.
They can focus. A six week old baby can hold a gaze, and prefers human faces to anything else in the room. You can use your own expression to hold their attention.
Eye contact becomes possible. In a photograph, eye contact is everything. At two weeks you are photographing a sleeping baby beautifully; at six weeks you are photographing someone who is looking back.
What is harder, and how to work around it
They get bored. Without new stimulation an older baby becomes fussy quickly. Move between set-ups faster than you would with a newborn, and have the next one ready before you need it.
Their arms are everywhere. Excited babies wave. At wide apertures a hand drifting in front of the face will take your focus with it. Ask Dad to hold the hands still — gently, just out of frame.
They do not sleep on demand. A newborn often arrives asleep and stays that way. A six week old may not. Rather than spending the first half hour trying to settle them, start with set-ups that work with a baby who is awake. Very often they fall asleep by themselves afterwards, and then you have both.
How to hold their attention
Look for a high-contrast black and white patterned soft toy. If you have none to hand, hold the black lid of your lens at camera level against a white blanket — as a newborn photographer you have no shortage of white blankets.
How to get the smile
Ask the parents to stand directly behind you. Not to your left, not to your right: your shadow. A baby who smiles at a parent standing beside you gives you a photograph of a baby looking off-frame. A baby who smiles at a parent behind you gives you a photograph of a baby smiling at the camera.
Posing a baby who no longer curls up
In the first fortnight babies keep the curled positions of the womb. By six weeks they are stronger, straighter, and much more inclined to stretch. If you want them curled, ask the parents to help hold the position — and let their hands stay in the frame. Parents' hands in a photograph are not a compromise. They give the picture scale, and in ten years they show exactly how small this person once was.
When a baby does fall asleep, usually after a feed, work quickly. Older babies sleep less deeply and for less time.
- Start on the back. By this age it is the position most babies settle into best. Reflexes can wake them, so use a wrap and hold it firmly — this is another job for Dad.
- Change lens, not baby. A wider lens and a close-up lens give you two entirely different sets of photographs without moving anyone.
- Take the macro shots. At six weeks lashes are thicker and fuller, and baby acne has usually passed, so the skin is smoother and needs far less retouching. The detail photographs at this age are better than at two weeks.
- Then move onto the tummy. The tightly curled poses no longer suit most babies, but simple ones do.
- Leave the nappy until last. I finish on a black backdrop in Dad's hands. If there is an accident, the session is already over.
If you are a parent reading this
You have not missed anything. The photographs from an oldborn session are different from newborn ones — more awake, more eye contact, more smiling — and many parents prefer them once they see them.
If your baby is between one and three months old, this is a good moment. You can see what a newborn or oldborn session involves and what it costs, or simply send me a message and tell me how old your baby is.