Baby S was a sweet lil angel during her newborn photo session (besides peeing on daddy, but that’s a common occurrence here at CDP).  I photographed baby S’s big brother’s newborn session a couple years ago.  While photographing newborns is one of the most special things about my job, a TON of work goes into each session.  I thought I’d give you all a rough idea of how much time goes into each newborn session.

The 3 hours I spend photographing the session is just the beginning.  The night before the session, I transform my living room into a natural light studio, which takes approximately 1.5 hours.  After the session, it usually looks like a tornado went through the house, and I spend another 2 hours putting away props/backdrops/flooring, washing blankets/rugs/diaper covers, and vacuuming.  Going through the hundreds of images I shot to choose my favorites, combined with editing & retouching the images usually takes 5-7 hours.  Not done yet!  That nifty slideshow I show my clients at the viewing & ordering appointment tacks on another hour.  Add in at least another 2 hours for the time used consulting with my clients (phone calls, emails, printing contracts & questionnaires).  The viewing & ordering appointment takes another hour.  Finally, I can fulfill the order, which can take anywhere from 1-8 hours (depends on what the client orders).  That’s a total of approximately 17-26 hours per session!  Yikes!  Now on to the fun stuff…

The first 4 images below are examples to show what the images looked like before retouching, and what they look like after they’ve been spruced up.  Baby S had lots of dry skin (which is very common in newborns).

BEFORE
AFTER

BEFORE AFTER