Newborn Photography, HELP!

phiya · Feb 19, 2011

My nephew was born on Wednesday morning and my brother and sister in law want me to take some newborn shots of him. I went over there today for a trial run and boy it was difficult. I see a lot of newborn shots where the background is entirely black, so i was thinking at night with a dim light behind me that wouldn't be bright enough to really influence my shot would be perfect. Enough light for me to focus, but with my 2 flash setup I'd be able to control the light for the whole shot and control the fall off to get the background dark enough that I could make it black in edits.

I ran into a few problems... firstly he was not having any sort of laying there alone and posing, especially when he was naked. I had planned to bring over my space heater but forgot! =( Is it too early for this type of thing if he's only a couple of days old? We were thinking of trying to coordinate again on Sunday afternoon since right now he is sleeping better during the day than at night. Any ideas would be super helpful...I'm looking for techniques on being able to pose a newborn as well as lighting ideas for a 2 light set up. I have an sb-600 and an sb-800, a smaller soft box, a shoot through umbrella, a silver reflector umbrella as well as a large round reflector, and the knockoff gary phong light sphere. I'll try to get up a couple of shots from tonight in a few minutes.

Here are a few of the better shots that I'm working with. Like I said, he was really fussy when we made him lay there naked...I'm hoping coordinating it around his heavy sleeping hours will help me be able to move him around a bit more. I haven't really edited these shots except for minor adjustments in lightroom. I'm hoping to get some pointers before giving it another go and spending some real time editing the shots.

He was a lot easier to work with when we put some clothes back on him and calmed him down.

Grandma and baby

Mom and Dad

IgsEMT · Feb 19, 2011

In short, photographing a newborn is amongst the most difficult things you can do. My wife is into child photography and when we're doing newborns, it is lots of stress on the bodies (our bodies). First 2 weeks are the most crucial weeks for newborn photography. Lighting is simple - use your lights, light it flat into a white/black cloth and PP it for contrast later. Posing- takes LOTS of practice. If you get the results you're honestly happy with, great. If not, HIGHLY recommend hiring a proffesional photographer who specializes in children and newborn and let him/her get those shots. As you probably know, having a camera, lens and flashes doesn't mean quality product.

Good Luck

phiya · Feb 19, 2011

Thank you for your suggestions. When you say light it flat you use on camera lighting? Or maybe just two umbrellas at 45 degrees both camera right and left? Unfortunately they adopted this baby boy and it's costing a lot of money, so they can't really afford a real newborn photog right now.

Zrock · Feb 19, 2011

I found the easiest way to work with my little one is i just had my camera handy and would take a picture of anything. I actually got some pretty amazing shots a few just by accient. Probably not a option for you but if you can follow them around for a day and get teh natural settings. you might have better luck with teh little one being a little more coroperative.

MissCream · Feb 19, 2011

The best light to photograph newborns in is natural light. If there is a large window at their house photograph him in front of that on a white sheet

Sirashley · Feb 19, 2011

MissCream said:
The best light to photograph newborns in is natural light. If there is a large window at their house photograph him in front of that on a white sheet

That was going to be my two suggestions... Also, put baby in something colorwise that is not distracting. I try to photograph my little man in stuff that doesn't have logos on it cause I think its distracting. Also, if you can bounce the light from one of your flashes off the ceiling while having baby face an opened window for natural light, you should be good to go... Good luck...