I absolutely LOVE that more people are falling in love with lifestyle newborn sessions. There is something about the authenticity of capturing a family in the warmth of their own home as a Lifestyle Newborn Photographer, and I do a happy dance every time I get the opportunity to do so! These sessions are especially wonderful for us in the Midwest, because let’s face it…there are only so many months during the year that photographing outside is pleasant :) Haha!

However, lifestyle photography brings its own challenges as well. After all, not everyone has swoon-worthy gorgeous lighting or decor inside their own homes! I think this is the number one thing that keeps more people from booking lifestyle sessions. The excuses can be easily found: we don’t have instagram perfect homes, there’s still that “one thing” we need to get done, or the lighting in that awesome room sorta sucks.

While those excuses may be true, I am here to let you in on a little secret. Are you ready for it?

It doesn’t matter.

Seriously!! It doesn’t matter!! Your house may not be perfect, but with a few tricks and tips, you can HAVE those gorgeous lifestyle images of your own!

Four Simple Steps to Make the Most of Your Home Lifestyle Session

1) Lighting over location — every time!! 

Really I could end the blog post right here and call it a day; that’s how important this tip is!! Think of your house right now. Picture every room and imagine them in your mind. Which room has the best lighting? At what time of day? Whether it’s one of your bedrooms, the family room, or even the kitchen — think of that room now and consider the possibility of photos there.

People often make the mistake of thinking they need to have their WHOLE house ready, but you really just need one room :) Lighting is the number one requirement for gorgeous images when booking a natural light photographer, so don’t brush it off!

And I know, it’s PAINFUL to give up less well-lit rooms — especially when they are GORGEOUSLY decorated or oh-so-fun! For example, I absolutely LOOOOVE newborn family photos where everyone is snuggled up on mom and dad’s bed. I LOVE them!!! At first, I really wanted photos like that for Ryan’s newborn session, but once I thought about it, I knew it was unrealistic with the lighting situation in our bedroom (Read: NONE. At all. It’s bad.). We could’ve put in a lot of work to make our room look great, but the images wouldn’t have resonated as much simply due to the lack of light.

So, instead of painting our bedroom and investing in new comforters and decor there, we chose to work on Ryan’s nursery first — a room with GORGEOUS lighting!!! Seriously, the kid has the best room in the house. Granted, we wanted to decorate his room anyway and make it super fun, but, by prioritizing our budget there, we were able to have AMAZING photos with gorgeous lighting, despite the fact that pretty much every other room in our house is dark!! Here’s a photo from Emily of Ivan & Louise to show you what I mean…LOVE the lighting in this one!!

And here’s an example from my very first home session ever!!! I loved Adelynn’s one year photos — and we took them ALL in a random room in the front of their house that hadn’t even been decorated yet! It had amazing light, and I am so glad Jess trusted me enough to take photos there :)

2) Time of Day

You might have caught this above, but it’s super important to consider the time of day you’ll book your session, too! Unless you have a house made of windows, the light in every room is drastically different in the morning and evening hours. Our house faces East, so to use a front room, it would work best to book a home session during the morning or early afternoon. However, if we wanted to to do a fun session baking cookies in our kitchen or snuggling up in our fire place room in the back, it would make more sense to book the session in the late afternoon or early evening!

The photo below was from a session scheduled during the morning — we photographed in a room with HUGE windows on one side of the wall, and the lighting couldn’t have been better! If we had scheduled this session in the evening, it would have been much darker. It wasn’t Ava’s nursery, but it didn’t matter. Lifestyle sessions are all for capturing the little details between family members, so the location really isn’t all that important — you can’t even tell where we are in this image! I’ll say it again, lighting is ALWAYS greater than location :)

Now of course, the one exception to this is for lifestyle newborn sessions. We will always make sure to get plenty of images in your actual nursery, as a huge part of my heart is capturing moments you’ll actually experience! I want to photograph you and your little one in the rocker you’ll snuggle up in for every nursing session — even if it’s not the *best* lighting. I’ve practiced mastering all lighting situations throughout the year, and I will happily make your nursery work — no matter what!

For example, this lifestyle newborn session took place on the cloudiest morning I’ve ever witnessed! There was almost no light coming into sweet Landry’s room, but by shooting wide open and bumping my ISO, you would never know!

3) Simplify.

Another GREAT way to have a successful home lifestyle session involves two words that I have very strong love/hate relationship with: declutter and simplify. If you’re anything like me, your side table may currently have 1 glass, a mug, and two water bottles sitting on it (because, come on, drink variety is a necessity!). While that may be a realistic view into your life, it’s not necessarily the best background for professional photographs. ;)

Before your session, make sure you clean up whatever room you’ve decided to focus your session in so that random objects don’t distract from the true goal: capturing the relationships of you and your loved ones!! It can be as simple as fluffing the pillows on the couch and putting away blankets! Heck, you can even just shove all the extra into one of the rooms you won’t be photographing in!! No one will be the wiser.

When I took this self-portrait, there had previously been boxes of diapers all over the place!!! The closet doors were open, and you could just see stuff everywhere. By closing the doors and moving the boxes to the other side of the room, I was able to capture a clean image that focuses on what matters: my expectation of and excitement for Ryan James! I so wish I had taken a “before” photo so you can see what I mean…but for now, you’ll just have to imagine ;)

4) Dress with decor and goals in mind.

This is another big one! I love photographing home sessions that are cozy and warm. Therefore, it would be just silly to wear your best cocktail dress and high heels! Honestly, I’m a big advocate for no shoes at all in home lifestyle photos — because unless you’re one of those families who never take off your shoes, it’s just more real!

For our lifestyle session, I went barefoot and Chris rocked some fun socks — a typical day in our life :) I’d also recommend wearing more neutral and relaxed colors. Now, I’m not saying you have to all wear jammies (unless that’s the goal and you have cute ones — then GO for it!!!), but try throwing on your best cozy sweater and comfy jeans! For guys, have them rock a J.Crew tee or Gap long sleeve! Again, you don’t want to just throw anything on, but keeping it relaxed is always a great idea!

This photo is another throwback (hello spring of 2014!!), but it will always be a favorite because of how gorgeous Liz is, how perfect the lighting was, and how soft and sweet the colors are! She dressed perfectly for a newborn session (and was actually the inspiration for my light grey sweater I rocked for Ryan’s, too!)

I loved the neutral colors Emily wore for her son’s newborn session, too. Her light shirt provided the perfect balance for the olive green swaddle we used for Graham!

And the contrast of light and dark greys featured in this session were absolutely perfect, too!

And that’s about it! Four simple tips to make the MOST of your lifestyle session at home :) I’ll be sharing another bonus tip for lifestyle session success in a later blog post, but until then, I’d love to hear your questions!! What keeps you from booking a lifestyle session today? What are your worries or concerns? Shoot me an email at sami@samireneephotography or comment below — I’d love to hear from you!

Love love love,

Sami

Indianapolis, IN