What to Wear for a Newborn Session | Boston Lifestyle Newborn Photographer
1. Colors for a Newborn Shoot
I strongly recommend white, cream, or off white colors for tops. Other great options are neutrals, pastels, or even black or plaid for one parent! Given natural light isn’t always consistent in every room in a house, white clothing is best for bouncing and magnifying window light and can often brighten up pictures. Alternatively, black or a flowy lightly patterned clothing can hide the post-partum mid-section many moms who gave birth are often self-conscious about…but, I do shoot at angles and often do my best to avoid capturing any parts of one’s body that a new mom prefers to be less featured in photos. If you are nursing, I strongly recommend a top where you can easily nurse a few times during the session but that has a higher neckline so cleavage doesn’t get showcased in photos.
2. Shirts, sweaters, pants, or dress?
Personally, I’m a huge fan of maxi or A line knee level dresses for mom as these are not tight and do not rub up against any healing or sensitive parts of the body. A second favorite option is a comfortable casual tunic and leggings or sweater and leggings. For men, I strongly recommend going as simple as possible, so a plain t-shirt, plaid shirt, and comfortable khakis or other stretchy pants.
3. Avoid clothing with words, logos, or any loud patterns!
Clothing that doesn’t have distracting or contrasting elements in it will also keep the focus on the baby’s features and face, which is of prime importance in newborn photos! Also, our eyes are immediately drawn to words or pictures of large animals on clothes.
4. Keep shoes and socks off
Indoor sessions are meant to be informal, hence shoes not only add a layer of formality that isn’t authentic to in home sessions, they make it difficult to appear relaxed and comfortable on the couch or bed, where most newborn sessions take place. Socks, even if they are plain white or black, can be distracting and odd appearing in pictures as they sometimes aren’t identified as feet right away in pictures. Though I know many folks are not fans of their feet, trust that no one will be focusing on them and I will not be targeting them as the largest object in the picture!
5. What should your newborn wear?
Pick a few outfits you want to put your baby in, preferably one or two newborn onesie that is one color or lightly pattered or a few swaddle blankets if your baby is most comfortable being wrapped. Clothing that is too big or that your baby hasn’t grown into will often not look great and distract away from their tiny features. Also, avoid the spectrum of reds, oranges, and yellows as these colors tends to magnify newborn skin tones or imperfections.
