What is “Lifestyle Photography?”

Sometimes people ask me what I do for work and I answer, “I’m a lifestyle newborn, maternity, and family photographer.” They might ask a follow-up question about a studio and I’ll tell them I don’t have a studio, that I do lifestyle photography at clients’ homes or around Richmond instead. Sometimes I get very polite nods and then very quick topic changes in response, and I’ve come to realize that “lifestyle photography” might need further definition.

What exactly is lifestyle photography? Photographers like to throw lingo and industry jargon around, but we forget that the average non-photography person might not have a firm grasp of what lifestyle photography is. The vagueness of the phrase might prompt other images to pop into your head, like “lifestyles of the rich and famous” or “lifestyle magazines,” along with photos that are perfectly staged for ads and commercials. It might make you want to speak like Robin Leach. It might make you think of perfectly curated homes, lawns, and gardens.

Lifestyle photography is none of that, though.

So what is Lifestyle Photography?

Lifestyle photography is lightly-directed photography, just slightly more directed than documentary style photography. While documentary photography is completely hands-off and simply documents the scene as it is (hence the easy to remember name), a lifestyle photo session includes some light instruction from your photographer.

Lifestyle newborn photography

We use the phrase “lifestyle newborn photography” as kind of an opposite genre to studio-based newborn photography, where babies are posed and composite imagery is used to create adorable, yet fabricated, scenes, using editing software after the session. Composite imagery means taking two or more images and putting them together to create one complete image, and is necessary for posed newborn photography, for safety’s sake.

Lifestyle newborn photography is also called natural, authentic, or at-home newborn photography. At a typical lifestyle newborn session, I might direct family members on where to stand or sit based on the light in the room. I’ll give suggestions for activities or ways to hold your newborn so that we can get great photos. But you’re the one holding the baby, and the images we make are real, the connection is real, and the emotions are real. (Especially the baby’s.)

Lifestyle family photography

Lifestyle photography can be done at home or away, and I’ve even seen some photographers set up a studio with a fake scene to let families come and do “lifestyle” photography there - though that feels a little less natural and authentic, in my opinion.

I sometimes use prompts to direct family members for lifestyle sessions, and often resort to awkward humor to get clients to relax at the beginning of a session. “Act like you like each other” is a go-to prompt for me, and it often makes two people who love each other very much actually LOOK like they love each other very much, and act more like they do in the real world, when a camera is not pointed at them.

Lifestyle maternity photography

The most posing I usually do is during maternity sessions, especially for a first baby. The combination of “new body, who dis” with nervous adults, without a baby or toddler around to share the attention, can make adults freeze up at the beginning of a session. Posing and directions can help break up some of that tension as we get to know each other, as conversation gets going and trust develops. But as your family grows and you get more distracted by the needs of the littles around you, I often like to quiet down, step back, and allow the scene to develop naturally as your family interacts and connects with each other.

So basically, that’s it. Lifestyle photography is all about real, authentic photography with very little instruction or posing, focused on the connections that you have together as a family.

Want to book one a lifestyle photo session? Click here for my family photography, and here for my newborn photos.