Anyone setting up a newborn professional photo session?

pregmama · February 2012

I am starting to look into this. What is the standard pricing? I am looking for a nice professional photographer... Have you done this or explored the cost yet?

BabyCoco29 · February 2012

im having one that comes to my house around 5 days after birth

phillygirl526 · February 2012

We are having one come to our house shortly after the girls arrive. I know she charges a $125 session fee and then packages range from around $300-$800, which is expensive IMO. But DH and I have agreed that after skimping on our wedding pics and regretting it, we are willing to shell out the money for this.

lancyjo · February 2012

We have a photographer on standby for newborn pics. She will come to our house, or we can go to her studio. (5mins from our house)

Her session fee is $40, and includes 1-8x10, 2-5x7, and 8 wallets. Her al a carte photos, which you can add on are ridiculously cheap, IMO. ($30 for an 11.5x14, for example)

I'll probably do her monthly photos myself until the One Year pics, but we wanted professional newborn pics to commemorate this amazing time.

Sara1373 · February 2012

We have secured a photographer about an hr away from us, who in my opinion is one of the best photographers in the Northeast. She is pricey but totally worth it, it is $350 for the session and a min. investment of $500 in photos. We are only have 1 child so we wanted to go "all out" and go with the best. I cannot wait to see our little boy's pics.

natalie_wn@yahoo.com · February 2012

Like wedding photos, these photographers vary in price depending on region and experience. I have one lined up to come to our place within the first 10 or so days (hopefully) of delivery and she is charging $250 - which includes a disc with all the images edited and ready to print.

I have seen many other photogs ( I did some intense research) that charge much more and include nothing, that charge much less (but wasn't in love with their quality), that have packages galore or nothing at all. I suggest you do a google search for photographers in your area and send them an email inquiring about newborn photography.

Questions you'll want to ask are:

Price

Do they come to you or do you have to go their studio

What sorts of packages do they have, what do these include

Do they supply the props

When they recommend taking newborn pictures

CplusJ=S · February 2012

I live in Los Angeles and I'm sure prices vary greatly from city to city. We booked a newborn session with a studio that charges $550 which includes the sitting fee at their studio and a high resolution disc of all the pics from the session between 50-75 in both color and black and white. The pics are printable at places like Shutterfly or Target up to size 5x7. The price also includes $150 (we were able to get an additional $50 due to a promotion) in print credits from their professional print studio up to a year of website access to the pics and free Fed-Ex shipping of any photos we buy directly from them. It's definitely an investment, but our LO will only be that tiny for so long.

lvrunningirlie · February 2012

I've found someone that I'm interested in... I'm just waiting to really book it. Since we have Bella Baby in our hospital I want to see what they do before shelling out money for another photographer. The one I'm looking at is $300 and we get a CD of all images so it's a pretty sweet deal. But $300 is still alot of money and we don't have a ton floating around

CourtneyM09 · February 2012

I booked one on Friday. The photographer has a local studio and the newborn session is $169, and includes pics of DD, hubby and I if we wish, 25 birth announcements and an 11x14. Oh, and it is scheduled for 5-7 days after LO arrives.

tiffapotomus · February 2012

Talk about new born, we are having our photographer accompany us to the hospital to take pics of me and DH be for delivery (just laboring). After delivery our photog will rejoin us to take the first photos of baby. Yes some people think it is weird but we are excited.

tiffapotomus · February 2012

Sorry I forgot to add that the session is $300+ 50 for the digital disc.

mrs+harlow · February 2012

Yup....we booked one of the most sought after newborn photographers in the NYC area. I actually booked her as I was POAS...lbecause that's ow far in advance she books up. I can't wait for the session.

LenMont · February 2012

Not trying to rain on anybody's parade, but if money is tight, maybe think about saving a little on newborn photos in favor of one year or even 6 months ones. We did newborn photos for our first and I love them, but I look at them now and they just don't look anything like my son to me. They're beautiful pieces of work, but that's all they really are to me. We had a friend who is trying to become a photographer come and take pics of DS when he was about 6 months old and the pictures are amazing. His personality was starting to develop by then and he looks like a mini version of hte three year old I have today. THOSE pictures are ones that I treasure and ones that I'll look at and tear up about for the rest of my life.

Just my two cents!! By all means..if you've got the money to do both, do both!!

DinabethL · February 2012

One of the times that I am really grateful to be a photographer myself. I thought about getting someone else to do it, but I think it will be best if I do it because she may be more calm around me. If I were to do someone else's photos, I wouldn't charge $300+!! I am big on making photo shoots available to everyone, so I keep my prices very reasonable. Keep looking! You don't have to spend tons of money for great pics. You could try contacting a local school, and see if anyone would be interested in doing them. I definitely think you should be careful, because if saving money is not done correctly, you may end up with crummy photos. Just do your research, and you will be fine.

lvrunningirlie · February 2012

LenMont:
Not trying to rain on anybody's parade, but if money is tight, maybe think about saving a little on newborn photos in favor of one year or even 6 months ones. We did newborn photos for our first and I love them, but I look at them now and they just don't look anything like my son to me. They're beautiful pieces of work, but that's all they really are to me. We had a friend who is trying to become a photographer come and take pics of DS when he was about 6 months old and the pictures are amazing. His personality was starting to develop by then and he looks like a mini version of hte three year old I have today. THOSE pictures are ones that I treasure and ones that I'll look at and tear up about for the rest of my life.

Just my two cents!! By all means..if you've got the money to do both, do both!!

This is why I haven't officially booked yet. Especially if I end up needing to buy a breast pump... that's the cost of a photo session and I actually might NEED the breast pump. Plus one of my friends is a pretty good photographer and she'd probably take some picts for me at a little older age for free (like she did with my maternity pictures)

caitlyn0216 · February 2012

Yes. My best friend is a photographer, and she is offering me a free newborn shoot with CD for my baby shower (I am very lucky!). Usually, standard price around here is $175 for the shoot and anywhere from $150-200 for the CD with copyrights. It is so worth it to me, though. I would pay if she hadn't been so generous!

erindawn · February 2012

I think pricing really depends on where you're at. With our first, we paid $1,200 for dual maternity and newborn sessions and the digital rights to 10 photos and a printed canvas and one photo book of images we didn't pay for the digital rights to. That was in Wisconsin.

This time we're paying $500 for dual maternity and newborn shoots with all the digital pic rights. This is a little low for our area, but not extremely. We're in Seattle.

julesjarvais65 · February 2012

I live in a military town, so there are a TON of photographers thanks to all of the wives trying to make money on the side. Therefore prices are pretty competitive. The girl that is doing ours is doing it for $85 and it comes with a package of prints (can't remember what all it comes with though). And I think for like $30 or something I can get the CD with all the prints and copyrights.

pregmama · February 2012

Thanks ladies, this is VERY insightful! The one I was looking at was $600 includes sitting fee and 100+ images on cd to have... I love her style, but the price is steep for me... It is good to hear from your messages that there are a lot of options out there and probably better prices! I will continue my research!

Marinewife81 · February 2012

The photographer I have is one who has done all of our major life events so far. When I had dd's newborn pics done it was $75 for the hour and then we got all the pics on a disc with the copyrights so we can print whatever we want. She has done our wedding pictures, my maternity pictures, Clara's newborn pictures, 6-month pics, a Halloween mini-session, and her 1-year pics. They've all turned out great. There's a bunch in my blog (tag is KS Photography).

GoldenGibson · February 2012

We paid for a package deal. $450 for maternity, newborn, 6 month and 12 month pics. She'll come to our house 7-10 days after the baby is born, and she includes a cd of each session with the "small" pictures on it which are good for printing 4x6 photos. If we want to do enlargements we can pay $2 per image for the high quality "large" files.

mamab3ar · February 2012

We are. It's going to cost us $225 for the CD, a couple prints (4 - 5x7s and an 8x10 I think) and with the CD comes all the copyrights so we can get whatever we want from wherever we want. Also, she is making a DVD slide show of the pictures.

stuzyq14 · February 2012

As you look at possible photographers - ONLY look at their newborn work. Newborns are difficult and you really need to be trained in how to shoot them specifically to get the images that we all go goo-goo over. My newborn sessions last anywhere from 2-4 hours. There is a reason why some photographers can charge $600+ and some only charge <$100. I think if you can find someone in the middle with a newborn style you LOVE, you will be very happy.

FormerlyKrista555 · February 2012

We feel very, very blessed to be good friends with a photographer who will be taking pics at the hospital and also at home within a week of his birth. She's giving it to us as a gift. Wow!

I mention this, because almost everyone knows someone who is a photographer. Maybe you do and don't realize it? (This is where Facebook is very handy). They may not do it completely for free but they might give you a good price.

skibunny59 · February 2012

I really wanted to but the prices were just way too high in my area. $150-$250 just for the photographer's time and then prints and packages were really expensive on top of that.

We may just do JCPenney or Sears. It's not ideal but it's better than nothing.

skibunny59 · February 2012

LenMont:
Not trying to rain on anybody's parade, but if money is tight, maybe think about saving a little on newborn photos in favor of one year or even 6 months ones. We did newborn photos for our first and I love them, but I look at them now and they just don't look anything like my son to me. They're beautiful pieces of work, but that's all they really are to me. We had a friend who is trying to become a photographer come and take pics of DS when he was about 6 months old and the pictures are amazing. His personality was starting to develop by then and he looks like a mini version of hte three year old I have today. THOSE pictures are ones that I treasure and ones that I'll look at and tear up about for the rest of my life.

Just my two cents!! By all means..if you've got the money to do both, do both!!

I agree with this! To me all newborns kind of look the same.

mandalynn31784 · February 2012

Just curious - what area do you live in?

Want a personalized experience?

Anyone setting up a newborn professional photo session?

Re: Anyone setting up a newborn professional photo session?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards