Need some tips/advice for portraits of 9 month old

[JayJeep]

My son is turning 9 months this month and I am going to attempt doing some portraits of him to send out to family and friends. I'm looking for some tips based on my equipment and tips for taking photos of moving babies. Also, maybe some posing and prop ideas would help too.

As far as equipment goes, I have a D3100, 18-55mm, 55-200mm, Vivitar 285HV and a tripod. I shoot in raw and have lightroom and photoshop for editing.

My main concerns are if my lenses will give me good results for portraits and which lens would be best. Would it be worth it to rent a 50mm 1.8G for a weekend? Seeing as how it is winter, these will have to be indoors as well. Also, are there any other pieces of equipment that you think I might need?

I have some ideas for backgrounds like picking up a sheet of beadboard or solid color mat background. I'm trying to do this on a small budget so i'm keeping the backgrounds and props simple. I told my wife that she has to help with positioning and posing.

These need to turn out decent because taking the kids portraits was the excuse I used to convince my wife to let me get the camera.

-Jason

 

[jaomul]

If you are using flash and props your lenses should be fine. The faster 50 f1.8 is a better portrait lens but with props etc the tendency is not have to blur backgrounds so often an f8 is used as its usually the lenses sweet spot.
If you put your son posing or positioned near a window with light coming in and use a reflector or large sheet of white paper to relect light back onto the side of him thats in shade this can help get flattering photos, you may not always need flash.
Also its usually better to use focal lengths in the 50mm plus range for portraits

 

[stpierre87]

I would definatly agree with using natural light from a window. If it was my shoot and had your equipment I would probably set somthing up close to a window on a bright day, stick on the 55-200mm leave it at 55mm and compose a nice shot. A refector would also help in this case. Keep the lens wide open and fill the frame with your son. Have your son fill most of the frame and being really in focus while leaving the backround really soft. In this case you would have to worry to much about whats in the background. Thats just what I would do with what you have. I wouldn't use the flash unless you can get it off camera and soften it up. In that case now you might want a backdrop and some props.

 

[JayJeep]

Thanks for the tips. I think my hardest part about the photo shoot will be getting enough window light and keeping the baby still long enough to get some good shots.