Newborn portraits

[Cnschmidt]

Hello! I am still pretty new to photography, though I was raised by a photographer, lol. I've been creeping around the forums here for a bit, but have never gotten up the nerve to actually post anything (I'm pretty shy). A friend of mine had a baby a month ago. She was born prematurely and spent the first month in the NICU. She finally came home last week, and my friend asked if I would do some newborn portraits for them in their home, since they were too nervous to take the baby out to a studio. I've never done indoor studio work, I've always worked outdoors with natural light. This was really challenging for me, and I would love some critique and suggestions for how to improve. I don't have a lot of equipment to work with, yet, so I felt a little limited here. Also, the baby was severely jaundiced, so her skin tones are still very, very orange/yellow. I'm not sure if/how to compensate for that without messing up the other colors and I'm not even sure if I should. Is that something I should ask the parents? If they even want the skin tone changed or if they'd rather remember her exactly how she is?

Any way, thank you for any suggestions! (And, keep in mind, I am still somewhat new, so please keep it understandable, lol. Sometimes I'm reading the C&C on here and I have no idea what is being suggested.)











Thanks again!

~Conamara

 

[Designer]

I think you did fine.

 

[sarah_19_nz]

That first black and white image is beautiful. The wee bubba is VERY yellow, you can muck around with the hue/suturation levels to take that down (the yellows and reds)... a lot!... if you use photoshop you can mask that on without affecting the rest of the image. I choose one of the images to do a very quick edit/play around...



I just added the black border to show that a bit more space at the top of the photo would have been better. I clean up dry skin and scratches (my rule is if it aint gonna be there in 2 weeks, remove it)

The skin tone I have shown here isn't even perfect but just showing you how you can easily you can fix that.

Another tip, shooting up a baby's nose (any humans nose for that matter) is never flattering, always shoot 'down' the nose.

Bulls eye, on camera flash, catchlights aren't the greatest. Try bouncing your flash off the ceiling or a wall instead. I moved/edited the catchlights to a more pleasing position.

Good first attempt though!

 

[Cnschmidt]

That first black and white image is beautiful. The wee bubba is VERY yellow, you can muck around with the hue/suturation levels to take that down (the yellows and reds)... a lot!... if you use photoshop you can mask that on without affecting the rest of the image. I choose one of the images to do a very quick edit/play around...

View attachment 83546

I just added the black border to show that a bit more space at the top of the photo would have been better. I clean up dry skin and scratches (my rule is if it aint gonna be there in 2 weeks, remove it)

The skin tone I have shown here isn't even perfect but just showing you how you can easily you can fix that.

Another tip, shooting up a baby's nose (any humans nose for that matter) is never flattering, always shoot 'down' the nose.

Bulls eye, on camera flash, catchlights aren't the greatest. Try bouncing your flash off the ceiling or a wall instead. I moved/edited the catchlights to a more pleasing position.

Good first attempt though!

Thank you so much for the tips! I put them to use on my other newborn shoot I did, I'll try to post a couple to see if I did any better. Thanks again!