How Much to Budget For My Lifestyle Newborn Photo Session?

As a parent, you already know how important it is to get those pictures taken of your little one during the most precious, vulnerable state of life, but you're unsure of how much it costs? Or what you are investing in exactly? Isn't it just as simple as taking up a smartphone and--boom--snapping a few pics of sleeping baby? Let's start by getting a better understanding of all that is actually involved when photographing a lifestyle newborn session:

What Is A Lifestyle Newborn Session? How is it Different Than Just a Regular Newborn Session?

Lifestyle VS Regular newborn session...Lifestyle tends to lean towards a more candid, natural look, with an emphasis on the connection between mother, father and baby, while a regular newborn session is more posed, with lots of props and backgrounds. Both are lovely and cute in their own way. Pricing for both styles tends to be comparable to each other.

Skill Level of Photographer

You want to make sure that the photographer you choose has had some sort of training or study on posing newborns safely. With lifestyle newborn sessions, posing the newborn is more limited to strictly natural poses compared to non-lifestyle sessions. Posing newborns can be tricky, and unsafe if done improperly. Safety is the first thing to consider when looking for a photographer for your little newborn! Higher priced newborn photographers most likely have had some training or study devoted to newborn posing safety, while perhaps some lower priced ones have not...just something to consider.

Location

Indoors? Outdoors? Where do newborn sessions take place? There are several options here--all of them are wonderful. An in-home session is a very intimate, beautiful place to have your newborn session done as well! Outdoor sessions are lovely, consider giving it a try. As a natural light photographer, outdoor settings make gorgeous newborn photos! They are also a bit more rare, compared to indoor sessions. Lots of parents opt to do indoor sessions for their newborn, for obvious reasons, such as weather concerns, is the baby going to be exposed to allergens, etc. If you are willing to take your baby outdoors for a spell, outdoor sessions can be absolutely heavenly and (no pun intended) a breath of fresh air! Location is a major price factor--some places cost more to photograph at than others, some require a permit, some don't. Make sure to ask your photographer if there will be any permit fees to pay for in addition to the session fee.

Prints, Products, Digitals

What kind of packages, products, and prints does the photographer you are looking into provide? Every photographer is different and has their own pricing menu. No two photographers are the same. Some sell only digital files (no prints or products), others sell a variety of high quality prints, products, and albums (known as boutique photographers). Some sell a combo of digital files and products. Depending on which type of end result you want (digital files or products/artwork), you will most likely pay more for artwork and prints than digital files alone.

Investment

So how much of an investment should I plan to make for my newborn session? Pricing varies greatly between each photographer, but you should roughly expect to invest at least $800--$2000 plus for your newborn session. That is quite a range, but pricing varies depending on the skill level of the photographer and the unique experiences they each will offer!