Photography advice?

[LaurenNicole93]

Hi everyone, I was not sure where to post this so please move if this is in the wrong forum.

First things first, I am not a professional nor do I want to be. This is just a nice hobby for me.

I'm interested in newborn photography but I am not sure how to get started. I have been taking photos off and on for about years now. Mostly, I take photos of flowers, plants, buildings, landscapes, pretty much everything that isn't people.I took a class in high school but that was about it. I also did an internship with a wedding photographer here in town, that's about all of the "training" I have. I wouldn't want to do this as a profession but just as a hobby. I would love to be able to intern for free or even just attend a photography session to learn that way. I know with newborn photography you have to know proper procedure, etc to keep the baby safe and whatnot.

I do not know how to get started with this, where to begin, or even who to go to to learn about this area of photography! I believe there are workshops I could attend, but I do not have any money since I am a full time student. If anyone has advice for me, that would be great!

Also, right now all I have is a CanonT1i, the kit lens and some studio lights.

 

[The_Traveler]

I don't know what you are majoring in but let's assume you have read some scientific research and understand how scientists go about investigating
You are not starting from first principles, from the absolute basic ideas.
People have done newborn photography before and so you can learn from them.
So build an empirical model based on how other people work by looking at their pictures, finding out as many things as you can - so you can try to reproduce the environment

• what conditions prevailed - home, hospital?
  
• how old was the subject?
  
• what poses were successful, did someone hold the baby or was it propped up?
  
• what kinds of lights - continuous, flash, natural?
• what focal length?
• what f stops?
• what shutter speeds?
• what styles of post-processing?

Then try and reproduce a workable model with the equipment and lighting available to you - using a doll as a subject.
Once you can produce decent pictures with a doll in conditions and with equipment that would work in a real life environment, then come back here and post samples of your images here for critique.

Then you will be ready for ideas on how to approach actual people with babies.

 

[TCampbell]

This reminds me of the Gregory Crewdson Movie "Brief Encounters" (Crewdson is a photographer who stages very elaborate photographs with incredible attention to detail.). The movie is well-worth watching and reveals a different side of photographer than most of are used to seeing (most of our photos are "documentary" in that we shoot what we see. Crewdson scopes out a location, has a vision for what he wants, and then "stages" the scene before taking his photographs.) Alas, I digress...

The point is, there's one particular photo where he wants a naked newborn baby on a bed next to mother who has a look of despair. He says it's the first and last time he'll ever work with a live baby. Every time they'd get the baby put to sleep, they'd try to place it on the bed and the baby would immediately wake up and begin to cry. They worried they might never get the shot.

Finally someone hit upon the idea that perhaps the bed was too cold. They warmed up the bed (I think in the movie he says the put a heating blanket underneath the sheets to keep it warm) -- and when the subsequently put the sleeping baby on the warm bed, it continued to sleep and they finally got their shot.

You can read a bit about Crewdson here: Gregory Crewdson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can also search his name in Google Images and see samples of his work.

 

[LaurenNicole93]

Thank you. I am majoring in biology. I actually have taken photos of dolls as a hobby of mine is painting realistic baby dolls to resemble a real baby. I will have to post those photos for critique. Of course, because they're vinyl they're a bit harder to pose, haha.