I love newborns. Something about how beautiful and tiny they are draws me in, and I love that newborn scent so much I wish I could bottle it and keep it forever. Newborns are only moldable for a short time and I love photographing them at this stage. However, newborns are also fragile and their safety is always my top concern during a newborn session.

One of the key factors to getting those adorable newborn poses is patience. Lots and lots of patience. But, no matter how much patience you have, some poses are best done as composites instead of risking an injury or a fall of the baby. By composites, I mean photos are taken at different stages of the setup with the intent of overlapping them in post-production editing. The entire time during the pose, someone’s hand is securing the baby so baby’s head and body are never in danger of falling. These photos are then merged in Photoshop and the hand is removed from the image. This is exactly what I do for positions deemed unstable for a newborn.

It’s very important—a must—to put baby’s safety first before attempting to put baby in a pose. If a pose is too risky, I don’t even bother with it. Some people see these cute poses and try to copy them on their own without taking the proper precautions to keep baby safe. No shot is worth hurting a newborn!

It’s also important to understand not all newborns go into every pose. If a baby cries when you attempt a pose and you can’t soothe the baby back into sleep, it’s best to move on to something else.

This post is going to show you how I capture those adorable poses while keeping baby safe. Below I share a few before and after photos from a newborn session and show you how I achieve these cute poses safely.

This first pose is very popular and called the Froggy pose.

First, my helper, in this case baby’s dad, holds baby’s hands at the wrists since she is too small to carry the weight of her head. I snap a picture.

Then my helper switches hands and holds the top of baby’s head. I snap another picture.

This is what it looks like when I merge them together in Photoshop.

Then I start editing and erasing the parts I don’t need. Here, I’m almost done and just have to finish removing the arm.

Here is the fully edited photo.

Here is another example of a pose that if not done properly is very risky and dangerous.

In this photo, I used the guitar as a prop to pose the baby since the parents are musicians and wanted the baby on the guitar.

First, I took a photo of the guitar by itself against the background.

Then I took a few photos with a hand on baby at all times.

I then merged all three photos in Photoshop where I edit and erase what I don’t need.

Almost done.

And here’s the final result! Baby was always secure and the parents have an adorable photo of their newborn incorporating their love of music.

So, remember—safety first and then post-production editing to remove unwanted details results in those adorable newborn positions everyone loves to have.