How to get into Newborn Photography... workshops?

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AWills

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I am hoping there are some newborn photographers here who could lend some advice. I've been photographing my own children for a few years and I've been taking photos of other children / babies the last few months to get some experience, build a portfolio and see if it is something I could do professionally. I'd really love to try newborn photography, I love the documentary style shoots and I also love the natural light beanbag type shoots. However, I do not know a thing about safely posing babies on beanbags, and I would not feel comfortable offering that type of shoot without first understanding the safety.

Where can I get the training / experience I need, preferably without spending a fortune?

What other ways did you get into shooting newborns?

Thanks in advance!
 
There's no shortage of courses, and IMHO they are absolutely essential for anyone wanting to do newborns.

However, given how specialist an are this is, the training isn't cheap*.


*most 'cheap' training is useless, and this is certainly an area you don't want 'useless' training in.
 
AWills said:
Thanks @bovey9! I keep wondering how often you'd have to change the blankets!
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We tend to have a change of 3 backdrops on the beanbag already set up one under the other, with a 'spacer' blanket in between and puppy training pads in between the layers - that way you get variety of backdrops, a quick way of changing the backdrop (just strip off the current + spacer + puppy pad) and any accidents only affect your current blanket and spacer underneath.

I would strongly recommend having one-to-one training on this, it really does make a massive difference between watching a course on-screen (although the ones on CreativeLive are generally pretty good, especially the Kelly Brown ones) and actually having hands-on. It depends where you are in the country as newborn photography trainers tend not to train anyone within about 50 miles (understandably!) but there are several dotted around I could recommend if you would like - feel free to PM me. Also happy to give whatever advice I can too.

It's a really rewarding genre to get into but as has been said previously it's not for the faint-hearted, half-hearted or the impatient - those lovely sleepy curly peaceful shots? That was 15 minutes out of a 4 hour session. The rest was hard work! It's absolutely essential that you nail the safety aspect of the whole thing, from when they come in to when they leave - if nothing else, take that away from this post!

Kind Regards
Jim
 
I done some pics recently for a friend for her newborn ( for free as im a hobbiest ), I had already read in this forum how hard it can be and patience.
Well thats an understatment and ive had 6 children .
The baby just wouldnt play ball, wouldnt sleep, and when he did would wake up crying as soon as we tried to take his clothes off and he kept wiggling out of position , ill stick to horses x dogs :)
Heres a few from my attempt





 
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I've just had a baby (4 weeks old) so had a little bit of experience...but not much :). The best tips I can give are try to have it lit by light coming from one place, something like a window on a sunny day or a light, obviously not too bright. Then In post I've used a graduated filter to darken the opposite of the photo up to about the babies shoulders, seemed to emphasise where the light is coming from.
Also make the photo "soft focus". I do all the normal editing first, contrast, white balance then use the soften skin tool on the babies face. After that I use the radial filter, make a circle around the babies head and face with a good amount of feather and reduce the sharpness and clarity all the way. This blurs the background in a way that doesn't make it so obvious that you've messed around with the photo plus is also draws attention to the babes face which is what the attention should be on. I realise all this is post processing advice but other than sleeping baby photo I don't have any experience on poses lol.
 
friesianfan69 said:
I done some pics recently for a friend for her newborn ( for free as im a hobbiest ), I had already read in this forum how hard it can be and patience.
Well thats an understatment and ive had 6 children .
The baby just wouldnt play ball, wouldnt sleep, and when he did would wake up crying as soon as we tried to take his clothes off and he kept wiggling out of position , ill stick to horses x dogs :)
Heres a few from my attempt





Click to expand...

Not bad, seems like your baby played ball better than my daughter has!
In terms of advice I would suggest putting up a backdrop the same colour as what the baby is laying on, I find the background too distracting. You don't need to have anything massive, I've see a video where they just cloned the background to make it look like they had a big backdrop.
Also I'd suggest warming up the photos, they seem a little on the cool side, maybe use the soften skin tool too
 
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Thankyou , I'll take that into consideration if I'm ever brave enough again ha
 
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Thanks everyone. I asked on a mums website for some 'models' and I have a woman who said she would be willing but she wants to see some credentials. What does she mean by this? I don't have any qualifications in photography as I'm sure many don't.

@friesianfan69 bless, he is wide awake! How old was he?
 
AWills said:
Thanks everyone. I asked on a mums website for some 'models' and I have a woman who said she would be willing but she wants to see some credentials. What does she mean by this? I don't have any qualifications in photography as I'm sure many don't.

@friesianfan69 bless, he is wide awake! How old was he?
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That's a problem when you appear to be asking 'favours' people need reassurance.

If you were just advertising your services people assume you're trustworthy if you have a portfolio and previous happy customers.

There aren't any actual worthwhile 'credentials' you could show, have you a portfolio of other portraits? You need to meet up and reassure her with whatever you can.
 
AWills said:
Thanks everyone. I asked on a mums website for some 'models' and I have a woman who said she would be willing but she wants to see some credentials. What does she mean by this? I don't have any qualifications in photography as I'm sure many don't.

@friesianfan69 bless, he is wide awake! How old was he?
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He was 2 weeks old, wasn't interested in sleeping at all
 
When I took my newborn shots I had no training other than my job as nursery nurse over most of my working years. Due to this and having my own children and grandkids I had the experience of how to confidently handle a newborn, However I am so pleased to see you are going for training as it is the right way to go. I only did this for a very shorttime and if I had continued I would definately go for training too.
There is so much to watch out for as it is so easy to put these little babies in positions where their feet hand etc turn blue or their little fingers get caught up in a thread etc you need to be watching them every second and I always have a spotter right next to baby who I taught what to watch out for and to always have her hand on baby until I was ready to grab a shot. I tried to keep my images as simple as I could. Good luck and hope you enjoy whatever course you go on.
 
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friesianfan69 said:
He was 2 weeks old, wasn't interested in sleeping at all
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Newborns dont always sleep and you can go through a 3 hour session without them having even a nap lol If it happens again just gently wrap the baby and take some beautiful natural shots of the baby just as they are. Wide awake shots can be so beautiful. I have the shusher app on my phone which can sometimes just help to drift them off to sleep.Or maybe you will look at mum and dad and they will have drifted off lol!
 
Seajay said:
Newborns dont always sleep and you can go through a 3 hour session without them having even a nap lol If it happens again just gently wrap the baby and take some beautiful natural shots of the baby just as they are. Wide awake shots can be so beautiful. I have the shusher app on my phone which can sometimes just help to drift them off to sleep.Or maybe you will look at mum and dad and they will have drifted off lol!
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Good tip thankyou
 
I dont photograph newborns, but when my daughter was week old, we had professional newborn photographer coming in to take her photos.
She did all the set up (heated blankets underneath, so baby would feel warm), a lot of props for us to choose and she had a lot of wet wipes :)
Our daughter behaved very well, but even them, it took her good 2,5-3h as you have to be gentle, calm and change the settings very slowly (babies need to eat as well). Moreover, the photographer was like baby whisper, she managed to calm her, sush and pat, so for me being newborn photographer is being able to handle the baby well :)))
She told us than in some cases, it might take half day if the baby wont cooperate or she will have to come back another day.
 
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