How much does newborn photography cost?

By Deep Arora · Still & Golden Photography · Frankston & South-East Melbourne

Most photographers won’t put a number on their website, which is why you’re reading this at 2am with a newborn on your chest and eleven tabs open. So: my sessions start at $195, and the most-booked newborn option is $395. Here is what sits behind those numbers, and what to check before you pay anyone.

The short answer

Around Melbourne you’ll generally see newborn photography somewhere between $150 for a very short mini and $1,200 or more for a full studio experience with prints included. Most in-home sessions land in the middle of that.

Mine sit here:

• Glimpse — from $195. Thirty minutes, ten edited images. A short, focused sitting.
• Golden — from $250. Sixty minutes, twenty edited images. Room for feeds and settling.
• Gathered — from $395. Ninety minutes, thirty or more images, full gallery included. The one most newborn families choose.
• Bloom — from $595. Two ninety-minute sessions: maternity or family while you wait, then newborn once they arrive.

Every one of those includes travel across Frankston and south-east Melbourne, and a private online gallery within two weeks. Session prices change from 1 October 2026 — anything booked before then keeps today’s pricing, even if your session is months away.

Why newborn sessions cost more than an hour of someone’s time

The session is the visible part. It is not most of the work.

A ninety-minute newborn sitting produces several hundred frames. Culling them, editing thirty-plus properly, and building the gallery takes considerably longer than the sitting did. Add travel, insurance, equipment that gets replaced on a schedule, backups in two places, and the admin of running a business, and the hourly maths stops looking generous fairly quickly.

There is also the part nobody bills for: newborn sessions run at the baby’s pace. If they need forty minutes of feeding and settling, that is what happens, and the session stretches. I’d rather build that into the price than watch the clock while you settle your baby.

The questions that actually change the price

Two sessions advertised at the same number can cost wildly different amounts by the time you have your photos. Worth asking any photographer:

• Are the digital files included, at full resolution? Some pricing covers the sitting only, and images are bought individually afterwards.
• How many edited images do I get? “A gallery” is not a number.
• Can I print them myself? Or must prints be ordered through the photographer?
• Is travel included? Studio sessions have no travel; in-home ones sometimes add it.
• Is there a viewing or sales appointment? Some pricing assumes you’ll spend more at one.
• How long until I have them? Six to eight weeks is common. Your baby will look different by then.

For what it’s worth, my answers are: yes, full resolution; the number stated on each session; print anywhere you like; travel included; no sales appointment; two weeks.

What makes a newborn session cost more

Longer sittings, more edited images, extended family in the frame, and bundling maternity with newborn all move the number up. So does a studio with props, outfits and a stylist — a real cost, genuinely reflected in the price, and a different product from what I do.

What shouldn’t cost extra: siblings, grandparents, or the fact your house is untidy. Every session I run includes the whole family with no per-person charge.

Is a mini session enough for a newborn?

Sometimes. If your baby is settled, you want a handful of frames, and you are clear that thirty minutes is thirty minutes, a Glimpse — from $195 — does the job.

Be honest with yourself, though. Newborns feed, then need changing, then need settling, and none of that is negotiable. Thirty minutes can vanish into one long feed. That is precisely why Gathered exists at ninety minutes — not to sell you more, but because a newborn session with a clock on it isn’t much of a newborn session. More on the timing in when to book newborn photos.

When to book

The first four weeks are the window, and the first two are the sweet spot — still curled, still sleepy, still brand new. Most families book during pregnancy and we pencil a date around the due date, then confirm once the baby arrives. There is no cost to moving it; babies are not punctual.

What you get for the money

A session in your own home, at your baby’s pace. Everyone included. Edited images in a private online gallery within two weeks, downloaded at full resolution, printed wherever you like, yours to keep.

Full inclusions for every tier are on the packages page, and the newborn session itself is walked through in what actually happens at a newborn session.