Birth Photographer: Nathanaël Charpentier on Shooting in the Delivery Room

When people hear about birth photography, many of them look surprised: what is there to photograph in a delivery room? For Nathanaël Charpentier, the answer lies in the glances, the hands holding tight, the baby being placed on the mother's chest: moments parents live too intensely to really remember.

Voted to the top of the guest list by members of the Fotostudio community, he tells Anthony Heukmes how he found his place in a maternity ward, what a birth photography session actually looks like, how he handles very difficult light, and why he refuses to lock himself into a single style.

Who is Nathanaël Charpentier?

Nathanaël Charpentier is a photographer based in Gien, in the Loiret region of France. He mostly photographs people: births, documentary weddings and portraits, but also professionals, brands and musicians.

• An unusual path: he was a youth worker before becoming a photographer. A photographer friend trained him to take children's photos in a store, then he got hooked and taught himself through books, magazines and workshops. He went freelance a few years later.
• A maternity ward photographer: he works under contract with the maternity unit in Gien, a small, family-sized facility with around 800 births a year, where he mostly takes newborn photos.
• A pioneer of birth photography: he was one of the first in France to offer to photograph the birth itself, in the delivery room.
• A lighting enthusiast: trained in flash and continuous light, he uses it as much at weddings as in portraits.

Since the recording, he has co-founded Studio NathSam in Gien with his business partner Samuel, earned the French title Portraitiste de France 2021, and chairs the Collectif Carmin, presented as the first French collective of birth photographers.

1. Why photograph a birth?

The spark didn't come from his own children: all three were born by C-section. It came from a birth story shot by a photographer friend, which he found beautiful. Photographing babies two or three days after birth creates lovely memories, but Nathanaël wanted to return to what he sees as the essence of photography: capturing very brief moments.

“A birth is such a rush of emotions that you keep a few images in your head, but they're very brief moments.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

What the photographer sees and the parents don't

An outside eye lets the parents step back from the moment and relive it. A father taking the photos himself can't be in them. And what moves Nathanaël most is precisely the interaction between the two parents: the looks they exchange, a hand on a shoulder, two hands squeezing each other, the expressions during the painful moments.

2. How do you prepare a birth story with the parents?

For Nathanaël, showing up in the room on the day without any preparation is out of the question. He always meets the parents beforehand to explain his approach, show them his images and agree on what will be photographed. Some more private couples don't want images of the moment the baby comes out: that's no problem for him.

“For me, 95% of the story is all those interactions, and the parents' reactions when the baby is placed on the mom.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

These conversations can be complemented by a questionnaire sent before the session, and the parents' choices, including their consent for you to show certain images, are worth putting in writing in your photography contract. Nathanaël only showed his first birth story to the medical staff with the parents' permission.

Build a connection to know where to stand

This meeting is also a way to understand who the parents are. He quickly suggests dropping the formalities and watches whether they are reserved with their emotions or, on the contrary, very expressive. That tells him whether he can work close to them, or whether he'll need a longer lens to stay outside their intimate circle.

“After two or three minutes, they forget about me. I'm there without being there.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

While shooting, he keeps a certain distance so he isn't overwhelmed: it's often during editing that he is most moved. Some births go wrong, and the midwives and obstetricians know that a single look is enough for him to leave the room.

3. How do you get a maternity ward to accept a photographer?

Even though he was already well established at the Gien maternity unit for his newborn photos, it took Nathanaël about two and a half years to get birth photography accepted. The project needed time to mature, in his own mind as well as in the staff's.

Show before you explain

His method comes down to one word: show. With no birth story of his own yet, he first used his peers' work to prove these images could be beautiful. After his first birth story, he showed a selection to as many midwives, obstetricians and anesthesiologists as possible. A crucial step: on the day of the birth, you never know which team will be on duty.

“Don't hesitate to use other photographers' images to show what's being done elsewhere and how beautiful it can be.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

A good relationship with the team changes everything. For example, it allows him to adjust the room's lamp himself with the midwife's approval, as you'll see below.

4. How do you make sure you never miss a birth?

He missed his first planned birth stories: either the baby had already arrived when he got there, or the call came in the middle of the night and he didn't hear it. He drew simple protocols from this, which look a lot like being on call:

• Two to three weeks before the due date, he knows his phone may ring at night.
• He turns off mobile data so notifications don't wake him, and asks the parents to text or keep calling until he answers.
• His gear is always ready: no cards left to offload, no flat batteries. All he should have to do is grab his keys and his bag and go.
• He works like he does at a wedding: two camera bodies, a prime lens, other lenses in the bag and spare batteries, even though a birth rarely lasts as long as a wedding.

As the due date gets closer, it can weigh a little on his sleep. But that's the price of a shoot where there is no second take.

5. How do you handle the light in a delivery room?

The main technical challenge is the large examination light (the overhead surgical lamp) that lights up the area where the baby arrives. The medical staff need it to work in good conditions, but it is so powerful that the difference in light becomes huge:

He prioritizes the mom's expressions: a few quick frames as the baby comes out, then wider shots. He likes working wide, often with a 14-24 mm. He tried bringing extra continuous lights once or twice (never flash), but the lamp is still too powerful, and you can't clutter a delivery room with equipment.

“If they turn the lamp up too high, there's nothing I can do: everything is in the dark and all I can see is the baby.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

6. How do you get better at lighting?

Light is what lets you put the emphasis on what matters in a scene. To master it, Nathanaël combines training and practice, in an order that may surprise you: try first, train afterwards.

Experiment before you take a course

By the time he attended his first in-person workshops, he had already experimented a lot with his flashes. The instructor's explanations clicked immediately: “Oh, so that's why I was struggling.” A trick you understand through your own mistakes sticks far better than a video watched without practicing.

Practice on a mannequin head

His most practical advice: buy a mannequin head and run tests. Softbox, beauty dish, front light, side light, backlight to separate the hair: you see straight away how each modifier and each position affects a face, and you discover what you prefer.

“The big day is not the time to practice and to need to be sure of yourself.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

Once these reflexes are in place, setting up a flash during a wedding only takes a few minutes. Sometimes you have to give yourself “a little kick in the butt” to go get the gear from the car, but that's what makes the difference in a beautiful venue or in difficult light.

7. Should you keep the same style for every session?

Nathanaël is wary of a classic trap: saying “I don't like flash” simply because you don't know how to use it. He used to admire images shot with flash without knowing how to reproduce them. Rather than giving up, he kept at it for several years.

“Sometimes you say: I don't like this or that. Why? Because, in fact, you haven't mastered it.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

Unlike peers who never leave their 35 mm and natural light, he believes that a broad technical toolkit lets you adapt your approach without losing your identity. He loves chiaroscuro and contrasty images, but for a couple who want a soft, natural look, he won't bring out any extra light. Photographer Thibault Chappe makes the same point: adapt your editing to the atmosphere of each wedding rather than applying the same recipe everywhere.

“Without all that, I'd be afraid my work would become formulaic.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

8. Should you specialize or diversify your business?

His year follows two rhythms. Newborn photos at the maternity unit take up a large part of the year, then from May to September, weddings take over. To handle both, he trained his business partner Samuel to cover for him at the maternity unit.

He admits that newborn photos, taken two or three days after birth, excite him less: you often end up with the same images. What keeps his work alive is variety: births, weddings, portraits, companies, brands, musicians.

“I really specialize in people, in the human side.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

So his specialty isn't a type of session but a subject: people. Architecture or animals are not for him. This approach keeps his work fresh, whereas always doing the same thing eventually gets old.

9. Why are there so few birth photographers in France?

At the time of recording, Nathanaël estimated there were about ten photographers in France photographing births. The obstacle doesn't come from photographers: many contact him to find out how he did it, because they keep getting turned down.

“Photographers aren't the problem, plenty of them would love to do this. It's more the staff and the hospitals that are blocking it.”

Nathanaël Charpentier

The general rule is still a single support person in the delivery room. One of his peers was only able to shoot a birth story because the mother had no one else with her. And when the medical staff have never seen this kind of image, the parents' request is almost always refused. He also turns down mothers who live too far away: birth photography is only possible in a maternity ward that is already on board.

For the practice to grow, couples would need to bring it up more often with their midwives, and photographers would need to gradually raise awareness among maternity units. Nathanaël says he is happy to share his images with fellow photographers who want to use them to make their case. Anthony suggests he run workshops, especially for maternity and newborn photographers, many of whom are mothers themselves: an idea he welcomes, provided the demand is there and hospitals open up.

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FAQ: birth photographer and birth photography