So have you ever sat back and looked at all of these photographers photos of little itty bitty newborn babies and wondered…how come that baby’s skin is so flawless? I mean, every baby is beautiful and unique but lets face it. Newborn babies can be covered in baby acne, have jaundice or blemishes. How do these photographers make their skin perfect?

The answer is NOT make up. In fact if you see a photographer go to put make up on your baby, run away!

The answer is editing. You see, our job is to know how to safely and gently get your little one into these amazing poses but also to edit their skin to a flawless finish that doesn’t look overdone or fake. Some photographers love their newborn skin to look like a porcelain dolls with very little detail left on the skin. Each photographer has a different way of editing and degree of smoothing skin.

I prefer to try and leave as much detail as possible. I love those little milk bumps on the nose and that little milk blister on the lips. Those add so much to the newborn photos, in my personal opinion. I also LOVE the little flakes on the hands and feet.

Baby acne is something most photographers have to deal with. Some photographers have stopped accepting babies over two weeks old since that is when the acne hits and is at its worst. However, if you are proficient in photoshop, this really shouldn’t be an issue at all. The following image took me five minutes longer to edit than my normal editing time. Five minutes. Now that could add some time to an entire gallery but sometimes it is worth it. This baby was a dream to photograph and her features are simply stunning. She was a few days over two weeks but I have photographed newborns up to six weeks old before. I am not afraid of older newborns. In fact, I invite the challenge. It will mean I will have to work and improvise to get those stunning photos. Perhaps more photos will be of a wide eyed baby which parents LOVE! Especially when they make that eye contact with the camera. The bottom line is that parents will love your photos of their older newborn,  as long as you prepare them that the session may be a tad longer and you may not be able to accomplish as many poses as you could with a newborn under two weeks old.

If you get an older newborn into the studio and that baby does not want to sleep, there is nothing wrong with starting off with lots of wrapped poses. Just wrap that baby and work with the wraps until that baby gets nice and sleepy. This is also a great time to do parent poses!

So here is the photo I was mentioning above. This baby had a pretty severe case of baby acne. No worries, it doesn’t hurt the baby! I am sure they don’t even notice it. Remember this took me an additional five minutes to edit. Please do not turn away babies because you are afraid of the challenge! Invite them into your studio and unlock your editing powers!

I do have GtG presets that I have created into my own personal recipe. I also have automated a lot of my editing. I am throwing around the idea of possibly starting to mentor, especially in the editing sector of newborn photography, sometime in mid to late 2019. If you are interested in this opportunity, keep an eye out on my photography page for announcements!

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