Anyone done any newborn shoots?

joel222

joel222

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Lee
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I'm hoping that someone that does newborn shoots will give me a little bit of advice. I've been looking at lots of pics of newborns in suitcases and pots etc, and been trying to re-create the images. I have the flooring, background, cases and lights, but just can't seem to get this to look right. My problem is with the lighting. Could someone please advise me on the best way to light this kind of shot. I have a softboxes and shoot through umbrellas.
 
To be honest that's who I'm trying to copy off too, but didn't really want to mention his name and look like a stalker ha, so was hoping that he, or someone with his style would read this thread. Thanks for your input though.
 
Pm'd him so hopefully I'll get some help. These are two raw images straight from the camera. I used a softbox just out of camera view on my left up high, and a reflector on the right, but the reflector hasn't thrown as much light back as I'd of liked so maybe should of used another flash for the fill. Obviously the baby is a doll, as I don't want to start using real babies until my pics are very good.



 
could be my monitor, but looks to me like youre focusing on the case/barrel rather than the baby.
on lighting, the advice i got was to use as much natural light a possible
 
If you can't use a large natural light source, you have to recreate one, so a large soft light and remember that closer lights are 'bigger'
 
What size soft box are you using ? The light source appears to be quite small and almost focused like a spot on the subject .
 
It's only a 60cm soft box pulled back to give a wider light (or have I got this inverse square law all wrong in terms of spread). I've just got all of my stuff back out and tried firing the flash of the ceiling, now im gonna try two 100cm shoot throug brollies and compare them all. I saw a post by manc in the home studio thread that he uses a large soft box fot the main light then a flash fired off the wall for fill but when I try that I can't get the same look he does.
 
joel222 said:
It's only a 60cm soft box pulled back to give a wider light (or have I got this inverse square law all wrong in terms of spread). I've just got all of my stuff back out and tried firing the flash of the ceiling, now im gonna try two 100cm shoot throug brollies and compare them all. I saw a post by manc in the home studio thread that he uses a large soft box fot the main light then a flash fired off the wall for fill but when I try that I can't get the same look he does.
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The closer the light source, the larger it's apparent size you can test that easily.
I think Rob uses a massive soft box, a 60cm one would have to be very close, which has an effect in light fall off though too.
 
Have a look at Sarah Wilkes, she is brill at this, she does courses too.
 
I think baby shots look much better with natural light, why not try close to a window and use a reflector as the fill, and I would move in closer . I agree with one of the replys , the focus does seem on the barrel.
Chris
 
Just going to try this out myself the end of the week, as my daughter has just had a little girl, i'm thinking of some sort of folding table like a strong pasting table, but it needs to be wider, and some vinyl type floor to sit on top against a background, with a short length of skirting, doing it this way keeps everything at waist level, and hopefully easier to move props about, and i will be using a large octabox close in, to get a nice lighting effect, if anyone knows where i can get a folding table like this, do please let me know, i would also like to hear your thoughts on this idea, and any drawbacks i may have overlooked.
 
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TG. said:
Just going to try this out myself the end of the week, as my daughter has just had a little girl, i'm thinking of some sort of folding table like a strong pasting table, but it needs to be wider, and some vinyl type floor to sit on top against a background, with a short length of skirting, doing it this way keeps everything at waist level, and hopefully easier to move props about, and i will be using a large octabox close in, to get a nice lighting effect, if anyone knows where i can get a folding table like this, do please let me know, i would also like to hear your thoughts on this idea, and any drawbacks i may have overlooked.
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I'd genuinely recommend you re-consider placing a newborn baby at waist height on an open flat hard surface, with a background and skirting connected to it, and a large softbox nearby.

There are many reasons that we use low stable, soft, large bean-bag supports, or wide bottomed buckets/bowls.

You might want to google "Newborn Photography Safety" and have a good read.
 
Joel, if you don't mind me asking - where do you source the props for shots like these?
 
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