As a newborn baby and nursery photographer, you will specialise in photographing babies from newborn to about one year old.
Most newborn photography falls into two categories - studio (or styled) newborn photography and lifestyle newborn photography.
Studio Sessions
A studio newborn session tends to be booked while the baby is still under two weeks old as they are more likely to curl into "womb-like" poses and are happy to be unclothed. It's common for this type of session to include props such as bean bags, buckets, baskets etc, and to provide clothing such as wraps, blankets, hats, and headbands. This type of newborn session generally lasts up to four hours, so that there is enough time to include breaks and pose changes. Images are then edited in software such as Photoshop or Lightroom so that the baby looks perfect and angelic.
Lifestyle Sessions
On the other hand, a lifestyle newborn session is more casual and can accommodate babies up to about six weeks old. The aim of a lifestyle newborn photoshoot is to capture very natural images of the baby in their home environment, with their parents and other siblings. This style of photography often includes close-ups of the nursery itself, favourite toys, clothing, or special objects. Typically, lifestyle newborn sessions last about 1-2 hours as the family can continue with their normal routine, despite the presence of a photographer.
Your website is your business's virtual shop window and therefore, should reflect your personal style and be designed to attract your target customer base. The majority of newborn baby and nursery photographers aim to create a timeless, elegant, and soft website design that will appeal to their target clientele of new parents and potentially, grandparents as well. Consider a soft colour palette, elegant typeface, and light, bright portfolios showcasing beautiful timeless images that will be treasured for many years to come and become cherished family heirlooms.
Many newborn baby photographers also wish to give their website visitors a bit of "wow factor" to showcase why they should invest in professional baby photography. The banner links page is just one way in which this can be achieved. By displaying a beautiful, full-width image at the top of any web page, you can create an immediate impression on clients.
Another way to impress clients would be with a blurb page. A blurb page allows you to display a full-width image behind a box of text, with the option to include an access code box. This makes a particularly beautiful client area page.
On a practical note, it is important for newborn baby photographers to implement the appropriate privacy settings. There are two options that we would recommend for newborn baby and nursery photographers - primarily to make all your collections "private" and secondly, to set all collections to "preview only".
When a collection is set to "private" only an access code box will appear and therefore all images within the collection will only be viewable by those with the correct access code. On the other hand, when a collection is set to "preview only", an access code will display but with one collection image alongside it. This image is selected by you, the photographer.
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Social media is a great tool for business and we would highly recommend linking any business social profiles that you have to your website. Not only does this make it easier for clients to find your social media profiles and therefore follow your business but also is great for your search engine optimisation. You can link to your social media profiles anywhere on your website but generally this is done in either your website footer, website header or on your contact page.
Cover Photos
Cover photos are a beautiful way of introducing a client gallery to your visitors. A cover photo displays a single chosen image, full-screen, with the name of the collection in the centre. You can choose from different display settings as well as what happens when a collection is entered, i.e. whether the cover photo displays just on the first visit to the collection or every time.
Pop-Up Boxes
A pop-up box displays on your website periodically, according to your chosen programmed schedule. For example, it can display on every page on your website or just a selected one, such as your home page. A pop-up box is usually designed to initiate a particular action from the visitor as well as isolate a visitor's attention to what you consider the most important message. For example, to encourage a visitor to purchase a product, book a session, spend over a certain amount, follow your business on social media or sign up to your mailing list.
Notification Bars
Notification bars have become increasingly popular and commonplace, namely as either an announcement bar or a cookie policy.
An announcement bar is generally used to display currently important information to your visitors and should be updated fairly regularly. Announcement bars could be used to display information such as flash sales, Christmas announcements, holiday breaks, scheduled maintenance, holiday opening times, other important announcements (i.e. Covid-19 pandemic, GDPR etc).
Alternatively, a cookie bar is used to link to your cookie and privacy policy so that visitors can read, should they want to, how you handle their information and data. A cookie policy is required on any website using persistent cookies i.e. if you are offering gift vouchers to customers.
If in doubt, we would recommend that you always display a cookie policy, just to be on the safe side!
Once you have completed a newborn photo session, many new parents might prefer to view their images and purchase products from the comfort of their own homes. In previous years, this would have been done through an in-person sale by the photographer. However, in recent years and due to recent events, it has become apparent that all businesses must have an online sales method. The easiest and most beautiful way to do this is through an online storefront.
You can sell anything in an online shop with theimagefile including physical stand-alone products (such as traditional prints and other photo products), digital downloads, and services.
It's now incredibly popular to tie new parents into more future photoshoots by offering "milestone sessions". This could be showing their baby crawling, starting to walk, and turning one. Many newborn photographers now offer Cake Smash sessions or Bubble Bath sessions showing the little one enjoying their first birthday.