Last Updated on 15/06/2026 by Armands Sprogis

How to take awake newborn photos and manage a fussy baby

Today we are talking about fussy babies, how to take awake newborn photos, and I will be sharing some tips with you.

Hi, welcome to my blog. I’m Edinburgh based photographer specialising in newborns and family photography.

The mindset of ‘newborn should be sleeping during the session’.

When I started my newborn photography journey over 15 years ago, I had a perception that newborns should be asleep to get great newborn photos. If babies are fussy you either wait a couple of hours until they tire themself out or you reschedule the session.

I was photographing newborns like this for a couple of years until I started to notice that even if parents were expecting newborns to be asleep, they actually prefered wide awake newborn photos instead. That big, open eye newborn photo always ended up on the wall.

I started to explore the possibilities of taking newborn photos while they are awake. Try new awake baby poses, how to work with a newborn and expand the gallery with a variety of newborn portraits. 
These days I would have a large chunk of baby portraits awake. Sometimes, newborn gallery would be even 50/50 awake and asleep newborn photos.

As I mentioned in my article 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Newborn Photography, babies don’t always sleep, and that’s perfectly okay.

You can see in the above image that the newborn was awake a lot. It was one of those tricky session with a very hungry baby and an unsure mum. You can see I took awake photos first, then we fed and did half the wrap in the floral crown. After that, I did full wrap and newborn fell asleep. Took the wraps off and finished the session with some sleep images.

Newborn session routine to achieve the best sleep or awake photos.

• Prior to the photo session, I would send parents a preparation guide email. It would talk about what to pack and how to prep a newborn baby before the session. 
• If the baby is exclusively breastfed, I would ask if feeding is established and the baby is not losing weight dramatically. A hungry baby is not a happy baby. This would mean that I might put off a newborn session till around 2 weeks mark until this part is sorted.  
• Once parents arrive, I would see if the baby is awake or asleep. Normally, by the time we take the clothes off and wrap up the baby in the blanket, they are awake. 
• If a newborn is awake but pretty chilled, I would start the session with a few simple portraits. Headshot and few full-body photos. These would be either wrapped or I have small rompers for them to wear.

• If the baby is not happy and straight away wants a feed, I feed the baby. After the feed, I see how things have progressed. Normally, while a baby is settling, I can manage a couple of awake portraits. If the baby is asleep, I start with sleep poses. 
• If we started a session with awake portraits, probably 30 minutes into the session, the baby will start giving signs of wanting milk. I would keep taking awake portraits as long as I can until they get really upset and unmanageable. We feed then. 
• The reason I do that is I want them to be as tired as possible and hoping that after the feed they go down for a deep sleep. 
• During the session, there will be awake and asleep points. You have to know what kind of poses you can do during each of these stages.

How to manage a fussy newborn baby during a photoshoot.

Not always does everything go as planned. Parents can’t keep the baby awake before the session or the baby is having a growth spurt, and it is not much you can do. Here are some tips on how you could manage the situation.

• First of all asses the problem. Ask parents questions. How is feeding going? How often? How many days old is the baby? Does the baby have any issues like mouth trush, which sometimes could cause some feeding issues. Does baby has any constipations, poo hasn’t come for a day or so. Try to figure out where the problem is.

Play out a few scenarios.

Mum is breastfeeding, and the newborn baby wants to be constantly fed.

In this situation, I would ask mum if she has a dummy/pacifier. If she has it, use it. You will be able to get through the poses. Pose the baby with a pacifier in and just before the photo is taken, remove it. I normally ask dad to remove it as I’m already composed and ready to take a shot.  The downside here is that baby would have pacifier marks around the mouth and you would need to fix it in Photoshop. 

TIP: Never pull dummy/pacifier. Always twist it as you are removing it.

No dummy/pacifier

If parents don’t have or don’t want to use dummy, as them to clean hands and use little pinkie to suck on instead. 

If parents point blank refuse to use any of these techniques, then I would recommend swaddling baby (pretty tight but within the safety guidelines of being able to place two fingers behind it) and do breastfeeding. 

After the feed, I would take family photos and then move the baby to prop like a bucket or, basket for photos. Still wrapped up. Take these portraits and slowly remove wraps so you can see feet and hands. 

Take more shots like this. Normally, babies are ok being wrapped and feeling cosy.

A newborn baby is awake and fed but upset.

This could be due to soar tummy or baby has a wind. 

First thing I do, I make sure I wind baby very well. Use different techniques to do it. On the shoulder, place baby on your knees and do some good back massaging. 

If the problem still persists, do a little tummy massage and riding the bike exercise. Move babies legs as if they would be riding the bike. Sometimes air is better passed through lower end :)

TIP: I find that if I change babies position every time they start to make some noises or move about, they settle quicker. Don’t keep crying baby in the same position. Change it.

Baby is having a growth spurt.

Tips for photographing the awake newborn baby.

• Make sure the room is very warm
• Stock some newborn size outfits. I have knitted ones for boys and girls. Tiny tutus are great too. 
• Make sure you angle baby so when you point the camera at them, the face is the closes to the camera. Newborns are always in a slight angle and head tilted back. 
• If you see the baby is getting upset, swaddle the baby. Normally they feel safer and calm down. 
• Make sure wherever you are posing newborn baby, SAFETY is first. They are awake and can wriggle about. 
• Do both close-ups and full-body shots. Different angles. 
• When you do full-body newborn photos, ask one of the parents to be next to the bay as a spotter. 
• When I do side positions, I try to get babies feet up in kicking positions. Looks nicer when you see both feet and hands too.

Ideas for awake newborn photos.