Help with setting up a shoot with a 1 week old...

[roxysmom]

Hello! I have been trying to focus my time on weddings and improving my skills there but I had a new niece born last week and they want photos. It is my brother and they are totally cool with me "trying" anything with her to see if we get decent shots before they go to a studio. I have been reviewing posts regarding babies and have picked up a few things. If anyone can offer advice on how I should set up my lighting I'd appreciate. Other tips as well but I'm more concerned about the lighting. As well as suggestions on what camera settings would be best. I'm currently using a Nikon D80 and I have a shoeflash. I also own a diffuser for the shoeflast and a flash bracket. Any help would be very appreciative! I'm doing the shots this Saturday (8.18.07).

Thank you!

 

[Big Mike]

There is no 'should' when it comes to lighting...except that you should set your lights to get the results that you want.

I might suggest using a window for nice soft light. Or...with a shoe flash, bounce it off of the wall or ceiling.

 

[roxysmom]

Someone told me one time to take a shade off a lamp and use it for extra lighting if you don't have light boxes. Does this makes sence? Would this be something I could use since I don't have all the lighting you'd find in a studio?

 

[Big Mike]

If you are shooting in color, you will want to be aware of the type & color temp of the lighting you are using. If you use a lamp in conjunction with flash or daylight, the color of the light will be different and you will probably end up with weird results. Also, very young infants are not always a normal color anyway. So yes, you can use a lamp or something to add light but if you are doing that, you may want to convert the images to black & white.

You will probably be indoors and be able to get pretty close, so one hot shoe flash should be plenty of light. Maybe get something white to use as a reflector.

 

[roxysmom]

Thank you. I do own a white reflector that I can use. The other shot I want to get is the baby naked laying in my brother's arms with a black sheet around them. So your seeing the arms and the baby. How would you suggest lighting this?

 

[Big Mike]

How would you suggest lighting this?

This type of shot would be good with window lighting.

 

[bellacat]

when i had my newborn's photos taken the photographer used only natural night in the house and it came out very well. We chose to shoot in the kitchen becuase that was the best room with the most natural light coming in with enough room for the photographer to move around. Then we picked the best time of day when the most light came in through the sliding glass doors.

For my own shoots I have also used natural night and chose the time of day when the most light cam into the room. I got fantastic results.

I have also taken a photo similar to what you are talking about and again it was done with natural lighting and then i used photoshop just to even out the black background.