A fresh 48 session, photographed in the hospital or at home in the first two days after birth, usually costs $400 to $950 in the US for 30 to 60 minutes and a full gallery. Mini versions with 10 to 15 images start around $250 to $400, and photographers in New York and other big cities charge $1,500 and more. In the UK, short sessions with a small set of images start near £200, and fuller collections run £450 to £750.
The session is short and the edit is light, so the price looks high for the hours. It is not priced on the hours. It is priced on a date nobody knows: you are not at the labour, but you have to keep a day or two free at short notice somewhere in a two to four week stretch around the due date.
Why does a 45 minute fresh 48 session cost as much as a newborn session?
Because the time you sell includes the flexibility, not only the session. A birth photographer is on call for the labour itself. A fresh 48 photographer is on a lighter kind of call: once the baby arrives, you need to be free within roughly the next 24 to 36 hours, whatever else was in the diary. In practice that means no out of town weddings, no full day commercial jobs and no trips in the weeks either side of the due date, and soft holds on anything you do book.
Work out what that costs you. If you would normally book two family sessions at $450 on the weekends in that stretch, and you turn them down to keep Saturdays movable, the fresh 48 is replacing $900 of work. Most photographers do not turn everything down, but they do lose some, and the price has to cover it.
The session itself is easy to price: 30 to 60 minutes with the family, travel to the hospital, parking (in some city hospitals $20 to $40), and an edit of 25 to 50 images that takes two to three hours because there is no posing to fix. Add those up at your hourly rate and the cost of keeping your diary loose on top.
Should you charge extra for weekends and nights?
Yes, but say it before the booking, not after the birth. Common approaches:
- Weekend or bank holiday fee: $75 to $150 (UK photographers charge around £100).
- Short notice fee if the family calls with less than a few hours' warning: usually folded into the weekend fee rather than charged twice.
- No night sessions. Most photographers shoot between 9am and 6pm and say so. The family is better rested and the light from the window is better.
Make the fee part of the package text: "Sessions run 9 to 6, seven days a week. Weekend sessions add $100." Nobody argues with a line they read when they booked.
How many images should a fresh 48 session include?
A full session gives 25 to 50 edited images: the baby alone, the parents with the baby, siblings meeting the baby for the first time, the hands and feet, the hospital tag and the wristband. A mini gives 10 to 15.
Avoid offering "all images" without a number, because a sibling meeting gives you 200 frames of the same five seconds. Promise a count, then deliver a few over. For guidance by session type, how many photos to deliver covers the ranges.
How do you price fresh 48 with maternity and newborn sessions?
As a bundle, sold during pregnancy. A family who books maternity is the family who wants the first week, and they book at 20 to 30 weeks, when the fresh 48 is still something they can plan for.
A working structure:
- Fresh 48 alone: $650
- Fresh 48 plus newborn session at two weeks: $1,400 to $1,800 together, a saving of 10 to 15 percent on the separate prices
- Maternity, fresh 48 and newborn: $1,800 to $2,400, one contract, one deposit
The bundle also protects you. If the hospital stay is complicated and the fresh 48 cannot happen, the family still has a newborn session booked, and you have a way to give them value without refunding everything. The single session prices behind those bundles are in how much to charge for newborn photography and how much to charge for maternity photos.
What deposit should you take, and what if the hospital says no?
Take $150 to $250, or 25 to 35 percent, at booking. Fresh 48 has risks no other session has, so the contract needs specific wording:
- The hospital changes its visitor rules. Many hospitals limit visitors at short notice, and some restrict photographers on maternity wards. Move the session to the family's home within the first week, at no extra charge beyond travel.
- The birth is complicated, or the baby goes to neonatal care. The session is moved or converted into a newborn session at home, and the deposit carries over in full. Never photograph in neonatal care without the family and staff asking you to.
- The baby arrives before your window opens, or while you are away. Say who covers it: a named backup photographer, or a full refund of the deposit.
Check each hospital's policy when the family books, by phone, not from the website. The general refund ladder is in how much deposit to take, and the cancellation policy generator will write the clause for you.
How does the family tell you it is time?
By message, in a way you will see. Agree on a single channel at booking, usually a text to your phone, and ask them to message twice: once when they go to the hospital, and once after the birth, when they know roughly when they will go home. The session happens in between, ideally 12 to 24 hours after birth, when the family has slept a little and has not yet packed to leave.
Write this into the welcome email so the partner knows it is their job, not the person who has just given birth. If you also offer birth photography, keep the two separate: a birth photographer on call for labour is a different price and a different contract.
How do you take the booking and the balance?
Take the deposit at booking, and the balance either on the day or with the gallery, because a session date that only exists after the birth cannot have a balance due date in advance. Many fresh 48 photographers take the balance by card on the day, or by bank transfer and mark it paid.
Put each bundle on your booking page as its own package with the deposit and contract attached, and record any cash or bank transfer against the booking so the balance stays current.
Before you list fresh 48, add up what the bookings you would turn down around one due date are worth, and put that number next to your session fee. If the fee is smaller, the price is too low.
