Being a newborn photographer has been my specialty for a few years, but in the last year and a half I have had a lot of experience photographing newborn twins. I think it’s important to have a really strong newborn portfolio working with singleton babies before you try and photograph newborn twins.
Before the session begins we have decided on a plan of attack, with props, drops and accessories for each baby for each pose. Each pose and the order of the poses are chosen. These may change depending on the ease of the babies, but we normally keep the exact same workflow for each twin shoot. Nothing is just quickly decided as we go. Preparation is key to having a quick (2-2.5 hours) and successful session. My newborn sessions used to last up to 4 hours, now that just sounds ridiculous.
We like to start with the stuff we think is the hardest, for us that is the twin poses on the beanbag.
We also make sure to get plenty of individual shots on the beanbag. I like to think about which shots would look good together on a wall or in an album. I want to give each baby an individual shoot and a different look, so I will do different accessories that coordinate.
After the twin and individual beanbag shots are done, we move to the prop section of the shoot. These go really smooth because most of them are wrapped shots, which keep the babies contained and happy. However, it is twice the work, so make sure your wrapping and posing is consistent so both babies look similar in their wraps.
Swaddle sacks or snuggle sacks are an easy way to add something fancy to an otherwise plain wrapped shot.
I also always try to get some simple, no props, no hat shots of just the babies together. If you can get them to hold hands, even better!
And don’t forget those macro shots! It doesn’t take long before those tiny features don’t look like that anymore and although these aren’t usually big canvas orders, they are still an important part of the story.
My backdrop collection is pretty large, so I just love photographing babies from up above with a fun backdrop on the floor. It makes babies into art. And the sparkly gold glitter bows…right up my alley!
To sum it up: plan, plan, plan, prepare, prepare, prepare. You can never be too prepared for a newborn shoot. It took me a couple of years until I could keep almost every baby asleep for entire sessions and my posing is always a work in progress. Having a plan makes me feel a lot more confident and if you have to do things out of order and switch them around, that’s ok! If we have a baby come into the studio wide awake, we will go for our easy wrapped shots first which really help the baby fall into a deep sleep. As long as 90% of my plan gets accomplished it is a complete win!
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