How to PREPARE YOUR HOME FOR A NEWBORN PHOTOSHOOT
Let me start with the most important thing, because I know it's the thing on your mind: your home does not need to be tidy, spotless, or anything close to perfect. You've just had a baby. If your house looks lived-in, that's completely normal and genuinely fine. I'm coming to photograph your family, not your hallway, and I promise the state of your kitchen is the last thing I'll be thinking about.
There are just a few small, easy things that genuinely help a newborn photoshoot go smoothly, and none of them involve scrubbing skirting boards. Here's everything worth knowing.
Light is the main thing
I mainly use natural light, so the single most useful thing you can do is think about which rooms in your home are the brightest.
Have a look on a normal day and notice where the lovely light comes in - usually it's whichever rooms have the biggest windows, and it changes through the day as the sun moves around your home. I'll check the light when I arrive and choose the best spots but having a rough idea of your two or three brightest rooms is really helpful.
On the day, open all the curtains and blinds in the rooms we might use, and turn off the lamps and overhead lights. This sounds counterintuitive, but artificial light and daylight are different colours, and mixing them can give skin an odd tint that's tricky to correct. Pure, soft daylight is what makes newborn photos look clean and natural, so we let that do the work.
And if your home feels dark to you, if you're in a flat, or it's a grey day, or your windows are small, please don't worry. I'm used to working in all sorts of spaces, and there's almost always a good spot to be found.
Which rooms work best
You don't need a big house. I only need a couple of good areas to work with, not the whole place.
The bedroom is often the most useful room, because the bed gives me a large, soft, simple surface to work on - lovely for family photos all cuddled up together, and for laying the baby down. Light-coloured, plain bedding photographs beautifully if you have some, though it's not essential.
The nursery is lovely too, because it's the room you've prepared for your baby, so it carries a bit of meaning. And the living room often has good light and is where a lot of normal family life happens, so it's nice to include.
If you've got a few options, that's great - moving between rooms gives us variety, and it helps keep older siblings interested too. But honestly, if we ended up doing the whole photoshoot in one room with good light, we'd still come away with a beautiful, varied set of photos.
Warmth matters more than you'd think
Babies settle much better when they're warm, especially for any photos where they're just in a nappy or wrapped in something light. A cold baby is an unsettled baby, and that makes everything harder.
So it helps to turn your heating up a bit before I arrive - warmer than you'd usually have it, the kind of cosy that's almost too warm for the adults in the room. It makes a real difference to how settled and sleepy your baby is, which means more of those lovely peaceful images.
Worth having a light layer for yourself though, since you'll be comfortable and the baby will be the one enjoying the warmth.
A quick, light tidy of the spots we'll use
This isn't about cleaning, it's just about clearing the few things that would actually show up in a photo and pull the eye away from your family.
The most useful spots to glance at are the surfaces near where we'll be - bedside tables, the area around the sofa, windowsills. Popping phone chargers, water bottles, creams, medicines and the odd muslin into a drawer or a basket takes two minutes and makes a real difference to how the photos look. On the sofa or bed, moving remotes, blankets and the general bits and pieces of daily life out of shot is all that's needed.
That's genuinely it. A clear surface here and there, not a spotless home. When you look back at your photos, you want your eye drawn to your baby's face, not to a phone charger on the bedside table, and that's a thirty-second fix, not an afternoon of cleaning.
What to have ready
A few simple things to have to hand make the day easier:
A fed baby is a settled baby, so it's worth trying to feed them around the time I arrive, or whenever they need it. We'll happily pause for feeds throughout anyway but a full tummy near the start helps.
Have a dummy nearby if your baby uses one, plus a muslin or two for the inevitable little spills. If you use white noise to settle your baby, have that ready too, it can work wonders during a photoshoot.
For the simple portraits of your baby, I bring a beanbag with me and set it up near the best light, so there's nothing you need to provide for that. If there's a special blanket, a knitted layer, or something with meaning you'd like included, just have it out and let me know.
Don't worry about getting yourself "ready"
I know it's tempting to feel you should look perfectly put together, but please don't put that pressure on yourself. The loveliest newborn photos come from parents who look like themselves in this season of their life - tired, soft, completely in love with this new little human in your life. That's the thing worth capturing.
Wear something comfortable in simple, soft colours. If you'd like more detailed help with this, I've written a separate guide on what to wear, but the short version is: keep it plain, keep it comfortable. You've got enough going on.
Older children
If you've got older children, it helps to keep the photoshoot relaxed for them, no big build-up, no pressure to be on their best behaviour. We usually do any photos involving siblings early on, while they're fresh and interested, and then they're free to go and play while I focus on the baby and the two of you.
And that's it
Really, that's all there is to it. Bright rooms, a warm house, a quick clear of a few surfaces, and a fed baby. Everything else, I'll help with when I arrive. I always have a look around first and sort out the final bits, so you don't need to have anything perfect. The whole point of a home photoshoot is that it's relaxed, and that starts with you not having to stress about the preparation.
Newborn & baby photoshoots in Bristol
Newborn & baby photoshoots in Bath