1st new born shoot and props

[jovince3000]

I've had a close friend that I haven't seen in years ( distance do that ) contact me recently because their baby is due next month and as they are arranging things to buy a home in the area, they were searching for a photographer to take pictures of their new born and I happen to be the happy chosen one (and this is a paid gig, to top it off).

While I was very thankful of them to have thought about me, I made shoots of kid of certain ages, but never newborn. I immediately thought about "Do I need X, do I need Y."

That's it for the basic situation. Now the question is do I get my own props (bed sheets, cute stuff and all) ? or I ask them to bring their own and work around that.

I'm not exactly planning to make a career in new born photography, but that's not something I would refuse if I was contacted for.

Question 2 ; how do you deal with your own newborn shoots and what they are wearing, if you have your own props, do you have a box full of goodies the parents can chose from or do you actively select the props and stuff you shoot with.

Question 3 ; What would be the basic advice you would give to someone new in that area and maybe mistake to avoid on a creative level.

Thanks in advance for you answers.

 

[vintagesnaps]

My background is as an early intervention specialist so I see it from that perspective. If you don't have experience working with babies then it might be best to let the parents do the positioning and bring their baby blankets etc. Ask if they have toys etc. that they'd like in the pictures. If you plan to start doing newborn photography after this then start learning what's appropriate for that age and buy supplies accordingly.

Any poses should be consistent with what's appropriate for a newborn (support the head and neck etc.), I would suggest you follow the kind of guidelines provided by medical sources that might be given to first time parents. I would NEVER put a newborn infant down in a bucket etc. Be sure that the baby is posed so the head is not flopped over or down on the chest. If you use blankets allow room for leg movement (not wrapping the legs tightly).

Be careful with anything related to newborn photography that you find online, it doesn't all seem to demonstrate appropriate techniques.

 

[jovince3000]

Thanks ! This help a lot.

Following your advice, I will definitely let the parents handle the positioning, and get myself a medical guideline book that I will follow to the letter after thorough studies.

 

[pixmedic]

just went through this myself.
bean bag chair was hit or miss.. some people seem to like them, some people not so much.
it worked OK for me, not entirely sure I would use it again.
I recommend a flash so you can get a decent DOF with your shots and not be stuck having to use the largest aperture your lens will do. I used an 85mm at f/5.6 to f/6.3
the baby we did was 1 week old. bounced a flash at ~1/8 power with my rogue flashbender and got nice even lighting.
the flash didn't bother the baby one bit. never even seemed to notice it. never woke her up once.

plan for a lot of time. I just did a quick shoot and scoot and I was there almost 4 hours.
babies are unpredictable, and don't take direction well.

posing is tough. the bean bag chair let me pose baby while keeping support where needed.
try and keep babies head from being too far forward (which can easily constrict the trachea and restrict airflow) or too far backwards. newborns heads are proportionally larger to their body size and tend to flop around easily...which you want to avoid. if you have ANY doubts or concerns about posing, let mom or dad do it.

theres a lot of pics online with babies in all sorts of contraptions and positions that people seem to think are cute.
some are safe for baby, some are not. some are in between. if you are not 100% certain that the pose is safe, dont do it.
Also, dont pose baby in all sorts of positions like they were an older child or adult. baby is fragile and has not developed good muscle tone or a fully rigid skeletal structure yet. baby damages very easily.

keep the props simple.
mom and dad probably have plenty of stuff around that might make for a good prop. letter blocks, stuffed animals...
if your not going to do baby photos frequently, i wouldn't bother investing in props of your own.

 

[Derrel]

There's a big "secret" in baby photography, and that is that a few of the popular poses done today are composites, which really should always be done with the parent holding the baby's head up. A good case in point is the frog, or froggy pose. Look around on-line and you might find some videos showing how that one is done; I do know there are a couple of books available, for money, which show good, safe, popular baby posing techniques.

This field has some people who are entirely self-taught; some who learned from mentors; and even a few people who are fully-qualified "baby handlers" with medical qualifications and early childhood education certification from medical licensing boards, etc,etc.., and because of the vast difference in background in infant care/safety/medical knowledge, a lot of times, feelings get hurt when people discuss the whole baby photography field, especially when it comes to dangerous or risky posing techniques, as well as composite images, like those where a baby appears to be hanging from a wall, like a Christmas stocking, and so on.

A good example is adults putting a small child between their legs, and then sliding down a large playground slide. Perfectly safe, right? Uhhhh, NO, dangrous as he((, actually. I was at a young kid's birthday party in 2007 when the girls mother put her five year-old daughter between her legs, and they went down the slide together. Guess what...the mother's weight broke both of her little daughter's leg bones...dual fractures, and an ambulance escort to the hospital 20 miles away. I can still hear that poor child's horrified, anguished screams in my mind, and it has been years since I WATCHED this happen! All from something that many dads/moms/grandparents might think is perfectly safe. Look it up on the web...it's a VERY dangerous, risky, dumb behavior, and yet...parents will pull out the, "Well, weeeeee never got hurt doing that, so it MUST be safe!" crap. Same thing with, "Well, weeeee never had seatbelts, and weeeeeee all lived." Uhhhh, except for the kids sent through windshields and killed by hitting dashboards at 70 MPH....

 

[Designer]

Question 3 ; What would be the basic advice you would give to someone new in that area and maybe mistake to avoid on a creative level.

I wish photographers would not try to imitate the current "popular" styles of baby photography. Yes, I know Anne Geddes Anne Geddes style is very popular, but just for once I would like to see something based in reality, done with sensitivity, artistry, care, and safety for the infant.

Just once.

 

[jovince3000]

First, thank you all, this help tremendously.

A good example is adults putting a small child between their legs, and then sliding down a large playground slide. Perfectly safe, right? Uhhhh, NO, dangrous as he((, actually. I was at a young kid's birthday party in 2007 when the girls mother put her five year-old daughter between her legs, and they went down the slide together. Guess what...the mother's weight broke both of her little daughter's leg bones...dual fractures, and an ambulance escort to the hospital 20 miles away. I can still hear that poor child's horrified, anguished screams in my mind, and it has been years since I WATCHED this happen! All from something that many dads/moms/grandparents might think is perfectly safe. Look it up on the web...it's a VERY dangerous, risky, dumb behavior, and yet...parents will pull out the, "Well, weeeeee never got hurt doing that, so it MUST be safe!" crap. Same thing with, "Well, weeeee never had seatbelts, and weeeeeee all lived." Uhhhh, except for the kids sent through windshields and killed by hitting dashboards at 70 MPH....

That is one terrible story, myself as a kid, I remember doing that with my parents, reading this you can be sure I'm never going to do this with my future kids. That's scary considering I never gave it much thought.

I wish photographers would not try to imitate the current "popular" styles of baby photography. Yes, I know Anne Geddes Anne Geddes style is very popular, but just for once I would like to see something based in reality, done with sensitivity, artistry, care, and safety for the infant.

Just once.

Will try my best to come up with something "out of the norm" and not "vanilla" as one new member of the forum would say (lol). More seriously, I will do my best to come up with something, I'll let you judge.


Reading all this, I feel like I should maybe wait a month or more before we do the whole "studio" shoot with posing and stuff. And maybe try a more "safe" portrait with the parent's arm in the early days. I really don't feel like screwing this up considering I'm also becoming that child's godfather. The "hanging from a wall" came by in the discussion actually, but if I ever do it, I was planning anyway to safely place him on the ground and "cut" the render in another image. Ain't no way a child is hanging on a wall in my studio.

 

[Derrel]

I brought the kids and playground slides issue up because it represents an almost nation-wide unawareness of a VERY dangerous behavior. The majority of people are utterly unaware that something so "logical" as riding down a playground slide to keep the child "safer" is actually a HUGE risk to the child's well-being. You might find that when it comes to what is safe for newborns, there are many people, many of them mothers, who profess to be "experts"...just as you will find the vast majority of parents think that by riding down the slide with a toddler or small child that they are "helping"...

Again--this is an issue that people often feeel very strongly about, and they express huge resentment and indignation when thier baby-posing practicves are questioned in any way. Just sayin'...this issue gets people riled up quite often...

here is the very first search result, just a few excerpts about how well-meaning practices can actually be dangerous.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/a-surprising-risk-for-toddlers-at-playground-slides/

"orthopedic specialists say they treat a number of toddlers and young children each year with broken legs as a result of riding down the slide on a parent’s lap. A study at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., found that nearly 14 percent of pediatric leg fractures over an 11-month period involved toddlers riding down the slide with a parent."

"This may be one of those counterintuitive cases when a child is safer by himself. If a foot gets caught while the child is sliding alone, he can just stop moving or twist around until it comes free. But when a child is sitting in an adult lap, the force of the adult’s weight behind him ends up breaking his leg."

"But the damage is not merely physical. “The parents are always crushed that they broke their kid’s leg and are baffled as to why nobody ever told them this could happen,” Dr. Holt said. “Sometimes one parent is angry at the other parent because that parent caused the child’s fracture. It has some real consequences to families, and I hate to see it happen.”"

"Dr. Gaffney said he has treated three playground fractures in the last month for children sliding with a grandparent, a parent and a baby sitter.

“As soon as the weather gets warm, this starts to happen,” he said. “It’s so common, but parents say: ‘How did I not know about this? I thought it was doing something good for my child by having them sit on my lap.’ ”"

 

[pixmedic]

I brought the kids and playground slides issue up because it represents an almost nation-wide unawareness of a VERY dangerous behavior. The majority of people are utterly unaware that something so "logical" as riding down a playground slide to keep the child "safer" is actually a HUGE risk to the child's well-being. You might find that when it comes to what is safe for newborns, there are many people, many of them mothers, who profess to be "experts"...just as you will find the vast majority of parents think that by riding down the slide with a toddler or small child that they are "helping"...

Again--this is an issue that people often feeel very strongly about, and they express huge resentment and indignation when thier baby-posing practicves are questioned in any way. Just sayin'...this issue gets people riled up quite often...

here is the very first search result, just a few excerpts about how well-meaning practices can actually be dangerous.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/a-surprising-risk-for-toddlers-at-playground-slides/

"orthopedic specialists say they treat a number of toddlers and young children each year with broken legs as a result of riding down the slide on a parent’s lap. A study at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., found that nearly 14 percent of pediatric leg fractures over an 11-month period involved toddlers riding down the slide with a parent."

"This may be one of those counterintuitive cases when a child is safer by himself. If a foot gets caught while the child is sliding alone, he can just stop moving or twist around until it comes free. But when a child is sitting in an adult lap, the force of the adult’s weight behind him ends up breaking his leg."

"But the damage is not merely physical. “The parents are always crushed that they broke their kid’s leg and are baffled as to why nobody ever told them this could happen,” Dr. Holt said. “Sometimes one parent is angry at the other parent because that parent caused the child’s fracture. It has some real consequences to families, and I hate to see it happen.”"

"Dr. Gaffney said he has treated three playground fractures in the last month for children sliding with a grandparent, a parent and a baby sitter.

“As soon as the weather gets warm, this starts to happen,” he said. “It’s so common, but parents say: ‘How did I not know about this? I thought it was doing something good for my child by having them sit on my lap.’ ”"

so...what your saying is....
no pictures of mom/dad going down a slide with baby between their legs?

 

[Derrel]

Some great stuff out there!

dangerous newborn poses - Google Search


Babies in Ridiculous Poses on Pinterest Newborns Oscar The Grouch

And for the first-timer...some examples of how common photos are done:

SHOOT BABY AUSTRALIA photography props including newborn posing beanbag ottoman

 

[jovince3000]

that is some very good read, I just went through the entire thing, while I knew that kind of shot was composed from multiple images, these still give great advises. I'm getting a bean bag as we're talking right now.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Even though there are baby photos that are composites and adults' hands have been photoshopped out of the pictures, etc. they still don't always appear to have been photographed using the best positioning. I think people taking the pictures believe it's safe as long as there is an adult spotting etc. but the babies may not be positioned in a way to be able to breathe comfortably.

We didn't usually use beanbags with children that young, but some seem more firm and those would probably be the better choice than one that's too soft and saggy. The concern is that the baby could sink down in it too much, but of course if one is used an adult would need to be there supervising and adjusting the positioning as needed.

We had specialized and adaptive equipment, but unless that was needed we usually were holding the babies or doing floor time. We'd position babies so the head and neck were aligned, not with the head flopped over one way and the body going the other way (or some of the other convoluted ways babies seem to have been posed in photos).

I would stay away from using hammocks and snuggle sacks, etc. too. Many sling type carriers have been taken off the market due to babies having suffocated in them, but there seem to be items marketed for baby photos that to me seem as if they may not be so safe. The concern again is how a baby would be positioned and in many of those devices a baby too young to hold up the head may not be able to breathe well.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I would not recommend everything demonstrated in the Shoot Baby link. I would not hang a baby in gauzy fabric (which you already seem to realize would not be the best idea). I would not use the froggy pose, neither appears to support a newborn infant properly. Posing the baby on something with a prop in front (like the guitar) seems like that would be okay (at least I don't see a problem looking at the picture, obviously I wasn't there to see what was actually done).

I would pose a newborn for a photo only in ways that a parent would otherwise position their newborn infant. If it's not a way you would ordinarily hold or position a baby, it's probably not a good idea for a picture.

Since you're the godparent it seems like you may have other opportunities to take pictures as the baby gets older, and I agree some of the nicest photos I've seen are of mom and dad holding the baby so that might be nice starting out.

 

[pixmedic]

all of this is why I dont do baby photos

 

[jovince3000]

Honestly speaking, I've been getting 2 blank night staring at the ceiling and thinking about that future shoot.

I think I'll go very, very simple with it and properly lay out something on the floor with a heater not so far off. Wrap around (loosely) a blanket around the baby and do a couple shots there.

The rest will probably be something revolving around the "family" portrait. Baby in mother's arm, baby in daddy's arm, the trio in the picture.

This will be my main poses for now, will see if i come out with anything else. Suggestions are highly appreciated.