How much would you pay for newborn photos? Are you doing them?

Mike&Care · May 2009

I had found a photographer that specializes in newborns. She says for $200, she will shoot our family in her studio and outside for 4 hours. Primarily she will focus on the baby, but she'll also do a few family photos and some of just my older daughter. This seems like an ok deal (no prints though, just online and full rights), but then I think about what I could do with that $200.

DH says book it if I want. I'm usually such a cheapo (DH is completely the opposite), it's hard for me to justify it. I mean, I carry around a $10 bag from Forever 21 that is 3 years old. lol

Are you getting them or doing them yourself? How much are you paying if going the professional route?

MrsEditorJax · May 2009

I am having them done by a friend from college who is launching a professional business. She is giving me a discount, too. ;-) From what I know of newborn photo sessions, that seems pretty reasonable considering you can also have some family photos done.

mommaj530 · May 2009

I have a friend coming in from out of town that is a photog. She's doing them for free as a gift. Then my SIL who thinks she's sweet, but has no prior experience is pressuring us to take pics the first week. She wasn't $200, and I laughed in her face. BUT, in your situation, I think $200 sounds good for what they are willing to offer you. I'm not a huge picture person though, so I may not have the best opinion. I just know from having lots of friends that are photographers, that's a pretty good price for a sitting. With full rights, you can pretty much do what you want with the pics. That's how we did our wedding pictures. I just saved them to my comp and sent them to Walgreens.com. You can edit them however you want on your own comp and they print them out for you. Or you can print them out yourself. I just don't have a pic printer.

rommelea · May 2009

We are doing newborn photos only because I won a session at a silent auction. I paid $85 for it. I'm a huge cheapo too. If you want to get a session - I would wait and maybe do it once your new LO is a little older and can smile and have a little bit of a personality and all -- like more around 3 or 4 months. That's just my opinion though - infant/newborn pics are super cute.

mrsjazzsinger · May 2009

We probably won't do newborn photos, but wait until we go down to Seattle later in the summer and have the photographer that did my senior pictures in HS and our wedding pictures do a family session - he charges around $250 for a couple hours worth of shooting time (with outfit changes) and you get prints and digital copies and full rights. I love his work and it'll be fun to get pictures taken by him in the city we both grew up in.

chounTX · May 2009

I'm paying $235. They are going to come to our home too and shoot pics of her here. They'll also do pics of the nursery. We get 25 pics and a photo board and online proofs in case we or family want to order them.

Trust me - I am frugal as they come - but I didn't do maternity pics so I could splurge on her NB photos.

Mrs.Foreste · May 2009

I payed $150 and it only includes a sitting (no time limit) and online viewing. Prints, rights, etc are all extra so it's going to be pretty expensive. I think it's worth it though!

KatieRL1979 · May 2009

That is very good. We paid $130 for 1 hour here in Maryland for the three of us. You probably won't do a full 4 hours though, that's a long time for a newborn b/c you'll have to feed at some point in between. I love our photos, we got them done at 2 months but I wish we had done it sooner.

JacquelineR. · May 2009