Newborn Mini Session Vs. Full Session
What’s the difference between a newborn mini session and a newborn full session?
Having a new baby is very busy and expensive! Some clients look for the newborn mini session to save money because they don’t need a large gallery or a 30-page album. Some choose it to save money so they can do other sessions and their baby gets older. Either way, I try to offer both options, and this article explains the difference so that you can make the choice that’s right for your family and know exactly what’s included and what to expect.
Session length & posing options
The main differences between a mini and a full newborn session are the time required and the number of posing options available. To photographers, that makes total sense, but many clients have no idea what a newborn session is like, and it can be confusing - or disappointing if they book a newborn session only to find it isn’t what they expected, perhaps missing a really cute pose they wanted for their baby.
What is a wrapped pose?
You’ll see that many newborn sessions include only wrapped poses. But what does that mean?
There are two types of poses for newborn babies, wrapped and unwrapped. The wrapped poses are, of course, wrapped, and the baby is usually placed in a prop or on flat-laid fabric. Unwrapped poses, which are not offered in the mini session, take much more time per pose and include poses like froggy, head on hands, and many more.
The newborn mini takes 1-2 hours. I used to book it for one hour, but it typically takes longer because I love photographing babies! And sometimes the baby needs a diaper change or an extra feeding. Ideally, the baby arrives asleep and fed, in loose clothing, so we can wrap and pose them without waking them up.
This gallery of images shows examples of poses that are included in a newborn mini session.
What is in the full-length newborn session that is not included in the mini session?
The two main things included only in the full-length newborn session are unwrapped poses and more variety of family, parent, and sibling portraits. The gallery of images to choose from is much larger and is ideal for creating an album.
The full-length session includes wrapped AND unwrapped poses. Unwrapped poses are as they sound; the baby is not swaddled for the photos. We have all kinds of cute names for these poses, like froggy, head on hands, bum up, egg, and more! The unwrapped poses require the baby to be very calm and usually asleep, which can take more time. The session is done in a way that once the baby falls asleep, we can transition between poses, hopefully without waking them up!
The family photos also have much more variety. We will do full family portraits, different groupings like each parent with kids/baby, special setups for each parent and for siblings (sometimes the family dog(s) too!)
This gallery of images shows the variety of poses you can expect in a full-length newborn session, in addition to the wrapped poses shown above.
