[Glen]

I'm going to do some shots of my new baby niece over the next couple of weeks, does anyone have any expert advice.

Mono/colour, backdrops, how to pose a new born, which lens, flash or not to flash.

Steve have you still got those BW's you did for that couple floating around for inspiration?

Thanks.

[Dabhand16]

I am in no way qualified to give any 'expert' advice, but with a seven month old Grand-son, I can certainly inform you of some of the problems.

First, and probably most important is that for the first few months, the baby will always be either lying down or being cradled. This makes it very difficult to aviod your photos looking 'samey'. At least with the cradled shots you can get the lighting reasonable by moving the baby into better light, that is near a window, or outside etc. The backdrops you will be using initally will be Mum's cardigan. The baby will be well wrapped up most of the time for the fist few weeks. however, you will probably be able to use the blanket, or whatever the wrappings are as a background if you crop nice and tight.

Second is that you will not always want to use a flash indoors, so make sure that you have your white balance set correctly, or bracket the WB.

If you are going to use a flash either diffuse it or bounce it. Much like any portrait use, really. gives a nice soft light with no harsh shadows. I use the built-in flash as a fill by having it set to minus EV of varying strength.

Third, tight cropping is where you will probably get the best shots of the baby. You can do it with either good framing with a zoom lens or in processing. (not a good idea to get the camera to 2" from the baby). However, you are going to have to make sure that you get some pictures of the other family members. You know, here's one of great Aunt Matilda holding little Jack (or Jill). In these pictures they might as well be holding some fish and chips because of the size of the nipper, and it will be wrapped up!!

Things will get easier as the baby gets bigger. Although I would not hold up any of my photos as being an example of how to do it, you might like to have a look at the pictures of Oliver in the 'People' section of the members gallery, and the oliver album in my albums.

HTH

[Glen]

Thanks!

[Dave]

I know Steve used the old 50mm f/1.8 for most of the shots, which allowed him to use natural light for most. This will give the most natural looking shots & if you have a reflector to bounce some light back on any shadows, your half way there. If you don't have a reflector a piece of white card or even a newspaper will do .

[Dave]

Found from original thread...unfortunately photos are no longer present

Quote:
Originally Posted by gandhi
All great shots steve. I'd be interested to know what you did for lighting, especially to get the catchlights in the eyes in the second one , very bright considering no flash was used.

As I said all were done with natural lighting but I also used table lamps and chose the positions for the subjects so that direct light from the windows in the room would give catchlights. On some pictures it is more pronounced than on others depending on how strong the light was at the time and the relationship of the subject to the windows.
For number two the light is coming through a window off to the right as you look at the picture, about half way between Maya and me. This was balanced by a strong up lighter off to the left to reduce harsh shadows.

[Steve]

Sorry Gents about the missing shots...I'll dig them out again and upload them for you.

[Steve]

There you go, I hope they give you some ideas