Baby photography

photography24716 · Dec 4, 2011

Ideas for shots with baby's?

cgipson1 · Dec 4, 2011

On toast, with hollandaise sauce?

To be serious... we need more information! What kind of baby shots? Are you a pro, a wanna be, or noob? What kind of gear do you have? Do you have a commercial interest in this (i.e making money?)?

Edit: Ok.. I checked out your other posts... I see you are a beginner based on your posts. Mishele's advice to check out other baby shots is right on... that is your best bet. You will also need to google Portraiture and lighting... to get some ideas on how to produce the effects in the shots you like....

Kerbouchard · Dec 4, 2011

Buy a space heater and make sure the room is about 84 degrees if you want any success at all. Getting the baby asleep is the hard part. Everything else is easy.

LiquidGrace · Dec 4, 2011

I use a space heater (as suggested above). I also have a recording of womb sounds. With newborns especially this seems to be very calming for them.

1.For poses you will have to be patient especially if you're doing anything where the head is supported by the arms. You will often have to hold the pose while rocking the baby a bit. It takes a bit of cordination and a few failed attempts at some poses but generally it's a lot of fun.
2. Leave room for some cropping. Sometimes you may want it at a different angle when you look at it in PS so leave a tiny bit of room for that.
3. Props - I have bought a few knitted pods for babies and I just love them! Here's an example
Headbands with little flowers for girls are very cute. Here's one I did. Next time I'll use a smaller flower as I feel it's too big for her
For boys knitted hats or even a small cap.
Wooden basket (you'll need to fluff it)
Textured blankets. For girls there are these really cute flower looking blankets that add a delicate texture, yet don't take away from the subject.
Time... Babies will probably need to be fed or soothed once or twice during the session.
If they are sort of sitting up and in the 3 month stage I'd get a little seat to put them in almost like a booster seat that cups the legs and supports the back. Then drape it with your blanket of choice
4. Have lots of clean up supplies on hand. If you plan on having the baby go without a diaper for a few shots be prepared. Especially with newborns.
5. Bean bag chair with extra fill in it. This works really really great for posing a baby while keeping it safe for them/comfy and you
or
Use a Boppy. Most moms will actually have this so if you don't have one you could always ask that they bring one.
6. If you want to get really creative you can buy some flooring that snaps together. Then buy a bit of molding and your favorite background have the molding supported by the wall or even by soup cans

. I always loved the dark wood colors with newborn shoots and intend on buying this kind of a set up.
7. There are some pretty neat tutorials on newborn/baby photography. Feel free to google them and also look at other photos for ideas of possible poses etc.
8. I try to use natural light if it's a newborn. I've found that studio lighting can often make the baby look a bit more washed out also seems to irritate them less. An Off camera flash will do just fine (but will disrupt the baby) and lots of natural lighting.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Have fun.