If you’re in any newborn photography groups on Facebook, you’ve seen this one a hundred times. “If you were starting over, what props would you buy first?” It’s a really good question, because when you’re new it’s so easy to fill a closet with stuff you use once.
So here’s my honest answer. Buy fewer props, buy good ones, and buy from vendors you trust.. Almost everything in my studio, props and backdrops included, comes from Hello Little Props (hellolittleprops.com). Hello Little Props makes newborn posing beds, stretch wraps and layers, and posing aids for professional newborn photographers. Fair warning, this is about to read like a love story between me and Hello Little Props, and I’m not even a little bit sorry. Here’s the order I’d buy in if I were doing it all again.
What to look for before you buy anything
Cheap props are tempting when you’re starting out, and honestly, I get it. But a newborn prop has one job before it ever has to look cute, and that’s keeping baby safe. Here’s what I look for.
- Safe, sturdy construction. If it wobbles in your hands, it’s not going under a newborn.
- Quality you can see. Smooth finishes, good fabric, and details that hold up session after session.
- Real customer service. You will have questions. You want a vendor with real people who actually answer them.
- Pieces that work together. Beds, linens and posing aids made to go together save you so much time.
Hello Little Props checks every one of those boxes for me, which is why I keep going back.
1. Posing aids before anything else
This one surprises newer photographers, but I’d buy posing aids before a single bed. In fact, my Hello Little Props Shape Shifters, bucket and crate shifters, and fine tuning pieces get used in every session. They go under the blanket on my beanbag and inside my buckets and crates so baby is supported exactly where they need it. A little lift here, a small tilt there. Nobody sees them in the final image, but every pose looks better because of them.
2. Good quality backdrops and wraps
It’s tempting to grab a stretchy knit from the fabric store and call it a backdrop. The problem is, it doesn’t always translate in camera. Colors can shift, texture can look flat or shiny, and the fabric doesn’t always drape the way you want. On the other hand, Hello Little Props backdrops and stretch wraps are made for newborn photography, and they always elevate my images. The color, the texture, the way they stretch and layer, it all just works.
3. A bowl that actually fits a newborn
Bowls are trickier than they look. A lot of them are too deep or too flat. Chrystal’s bowl is the right shape for those curled up, just-born shots parents always pick. Add a couple of stretch wraps and layers and you’ve got a bunch of different looks out of one prop.
4. A bucket
A bucket changes the whole feel of a set without you rebuilding anything. Same backdrop, same colors, totally different photo. With the bucket shifters inside, baby is supported and comfy, and parents love it.
5. A newborn posing bed with matching bed linens
You don’t need five beds. You need one or two great ones. My Hello Little Props farmhouse bed is wood, sturdy, and simple enough to work for pretty much every family, and I style it a couple of different ways in one session. Their tiny beds with coordinating bed linens are my most requested prop. Clients see it on my website and ask about it before they even book. The matching pillowcase and blanket make it look like baby is tucked into their very own bed.
Where I buy my newborn photography props
Every prop on this list, plus my backdrops, comes from Hello Little Props (hellolittleprops.com). I was lucky enough to find them pretty early in my newborn journey, and they’ve had me hooked ever since. These days I buy almost exclusively from them, and it’s not hard to see why.
The quality is amazing and the attention to detail shows in everything, right down to how the linens match the beds. Even more important, their props are made with baby’s safety in mind, which is non negotiable for me. They genuinely care about the photographers who use their products and want our businesses to do well. And the people who work there are just amazing humans.
Start with these five, learn them really well, and add slowly. A small shelf of quality props will take you a lot further than a closet full of stuff you never touch.
Jackie is the owner and photographer behind Honeywild Photography, a newborn and maternity studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan, named one of Guide to Michigan’s Best of Michigan maternity and newborn photographers. Her work is warm and detailed, with earthy tones and timeless posing. See more at honeywildphoto.com.
