How To Make A Newborn Bed Photography Prop

When I was a newborn photographer, I would walk round shops wondering to myself "can I put a baby in that?" but now I wander around thinking "what kind of prop could I make out of that"!

{Let's not talk about the time I shouted out loud to my mum who was out of earshot in the middle of a big shop "this would look great to shoot a baby on"}

I've seen some photographers photographing their newborns and babies on beautiful wooden beds and it occurred to me it would be fairly easy to use a side table to make one for your studio.

With thanks to Footsteps Photography for these beautiful examples

You will need

A side table with ornate legs
Paint or spray paint if you want to jazz it up a bit

The thing you want to look out for when searching for a table is the legs. 

(For the purpose of this tutorial I borrowed a friend's antique side table that she is selling in her online antique shop, and it wasn't totally ideal as the legs were a bit longer than I would have liked, but she wouldn't let me chop them down or let me paint or spray it a different colour.  Antique dealers are funny like that!)

But you could easily spray an old table gold, or paint it white and distress it for a more shabby chic look with some mini bunting.

Check out Car Boot sales, charity shops or junk shops or even local selling groups to pick up a table for fairly cheap.

Step 1

Turn your table upside down

Step 2

Layer with blankets and pose baby in the normal way.
That's it!

And the great thing is, if you're short of storage space, you can just use it as a table in your studio!

So now not only will you be pondering if something is big enough to "put a baby in", you will also be checking out the legs on furniture!