In Melbourne, newborn photography costs anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a short session with digital files to several thousand for a studio collection made for your wall. At Enhance Studios in Port Melbourne, it starts with the Intro Experience: $280 for $710 of value. That includes your pregnancy session, your newborn session, a design session, a 10×8 fine art print of your favourite portrait with its digital file, 15 thank-you cards and $100 credit towards your artwork. The artwork you take home is chosen afterwards, from $250 for a fine art matted print to wall art collections from $1,200.
That is the short answer. The longer one is about what the number is paying for, so you can decide what is right for your home, your family and the legacy you want to leave. This is not just a photo.
It is a fair question. Two Melbourne photographers can quote hundreds of dollars apart for what looks, on paper, like the same thing.
The difference is rarely the camera. Most studios shoot with similar equipment and print with similar suppliers. What you are paying for is the person behind it, the training, the years, the time and the care, and what you are left holding at the end.
At the budget end, the price usually buys a short session, a small set of files and not much else. Nobody helps you choose, nothing is printed, nothing is guaranteed, and the files go where files go. It is fine for what it is. But your newborn memories deserve more.
A newborn session is the one kind of portrait where the craft matters most. Settling a baby safely in your hands, keeping the room warm and quiet, reading when to pause for a feed and when the moment has arrived, is a craft that takes years to learn and cannot be rushed. Karina Wells has photographed Melbourne families for 22 years, and Enhance Studios has won more than 50 international, national and state photography awards along the way.
We are not a high-volume studio. There is one shooting space with one family in it, and the session runs at your baby’s pace rather than the clock’s. We carry spare cameras, batteries and cards, back up every file twice, and hold full liability insurance, so nothing about the day is left to luck.
Then there is the part you never see. Every portrait is hand selected and finished one at a time, as if it were going to be displayed in your home, before you see it at your design session.
And what you are left with is different. Not a folder of files but a finished piece, chosen with you, finished here in Australia and guaranteed for life. That is the value in “$710 of value”, and it is why the price is what it is.
Karina wrote about all of this at length in Why Enhance Charges More. The short version is that the price is the craft, and the craft is why the portrait lasts.
$280 is the standard price for the Pregnancy & Newborn Intro Experience. The studio runs a special on it from time to time, so it is worth checking the current offer on the Gift page before you book.
For that $280, here is what you receive, and what each piece is worth on its own.
That is $710 of value for $280.
Before your pregnancy session, you’ll have a pre-shoot consultation with your photographer, in the studio or by video call (FaceTime or WhatsApp). We plan both sessions at once, because your pregnancy and newborn portraits tell the one story and should look like they belong together on the wall. We’ll help you work out what to wear for each session. You’ll fill in a short questionnaire beforehand, so the consultation is spent planning, and nothing is left to the day.
Grandparents, siblings and the dog are welcome, and the price stays the same however many people are in the frame. The Intro Experience is for families new to the studio, and your pregnancy and newborn sessions are one experience, shown together at the design session.
The artwork is where the real decision sits, and it is yours to make at the design appointment, not before.
Fine art matted prints start at $250, and each one comes with its matching digital file. Canvas starts at $495. Wall art collections, the multi-piece arrangements most families choose for a living room or hallway, start at $1,200. Albums start at $1,890. If you want the originals, Digital Masters start at $990 for five, and the price per image comes down the more you take home.
Every printed piece is guaranteed for life on its craftsmanship. Because each one is custom made, finished artwork takes 4 to 6 weeks to arrive.
The full list of finishes, sizes and prices is on our Pricing & Products page.
Most families do not pay for their artwork in one go, and they do not need to.
You can pay in full or split it 50/50 between your design appointment and collection. On orders over $2,000, you can spread the cost over 12 months interest-free through PayRight. Our Pricing & Products page lists most collections and albums at between $32 and $65 a week on that plan. Details are set out at your design appointment, so there are no surprises later.
In a tight year, the phone still gets upgraded, the television still gets bigger and the holiday still gets booked. All of them cost more than a portrait. All of them get replaced.
The newborn portrait does not. It is the one on the sideboard that moves house with you, the one your child takes down and holds at 15, the one the family reaches for first. In 22 years of Melbourne families, nobody has ever come back to Karina and said they wished they had not made it. Families do come back and ask what can be done when they did not. Family photographs are the one thing you buy that you never throw away.
You do not need many. You need the one that endures, made properly, printed properly and bought once. If you would like to read more about what we believe, our manifesto says it best.
You can request our pricing guide and see everything that’s included here >> Melbourne newborn photographer
From a few hundred dollars for a short session with digital files to several thousand for a studio wall art collection. At Enhance Studios, the Intro Experience is $280 for $710 of value, and artwork and digital masters start at $250.
No. Your pregnancy session is included in the Intro Experience, and whether you take any of those portraits home is your choice at the design appointment.
No. The session price stays the same however many people are in it.
The Intro Experience comes with a digital master of your favorite family portrait. Every printed product includes its matching digital master, and Digital Masters are available from $990 for five.
Yes. You can pay in full or split it 50/50 between the design appointment and collection. Orders over $2,000 can be spread across 12 months interest-free through PayRight.
4 to 6 weeks. Every piece is custom made in Australia and guaranteed for life on craftsmanship.
