Taking better baby photos (warning: baby photos inside..)

[page3]

Morning all,

I have been trying to take a few 'studio look' photos of baby Huw, who is 8 weeks old this week.

So far, I have been fairly disappointed with the results. I am sure is partly down to lack of talent, but also I believe a modest outlay on proper equipment would help enormously.

I have a Nikon D70 with tripod and use Aperture 2.0 which offers some pretty good post-processing tools.

Lack of proper lighting seems to be my biggest issue. Perhaps a decent bounce flash (although I don't believe the D70 supports remote triggering)? I am also thinking of a light umbrella and reflector. Anyone suggest a good entry level kit at modest expense?

Here are a few photos which I quite like. They are all taken without flash.

[Dangerous_Bryan]

I too have had the same lighting issue with my little one, not helped as it's normally dark when I get home in the evenings. I was looking at a flashgun with bounce, still haven't purchased yet.

Definately worth the light reflection kit but wouldn't know the best to get.

Nice pics, but what I do is focus on his face/hands rather than the whole body. You can get some really nice effects then, also B&W helps.

[page3]

Dangerous_Bryan said:

Nice pics, but what I do is focus on his face/hands rather than the whole body.

Nice photo!

I'm been trying narrowing the focus. You'll see in the last two photos I've done this, but think I over did it. I also found getting the focus on the face quite difficult as the Nikon D70 screen is very small so it is difficult to see exactly where the focus is. I'm going to try Aperture's tethered mode, which should let me see the results almost in real time. I set everything on manual before I got Huw, but he does tend to wriggle constantly making my slow shutter speeds come out a bit of a mess.

[Bob_Defly]

I took this with a Nikon D40 and an SB400 (on-camera) bouncing off a white reflector.



And as you'll know, both are relatively cheap pieces of equipment. I know a lot of people are not fans of Ken Rockwell, but have a look at the bounce flash part of his site which is quite good for beginners.

Edited by Bob_Defly on Monday 17th March 12:45

[Simpo Two]

page3 said:

Lack of proper lighting seems to be my biggest issue.

I agree. Working with the light is always best, and easier:

page3 said:

Perhaps a decent bounce flash (although I don't believe the D70 supports remote triggering)?

It does, using the built-in flash in Commander mode to trigger an SB-800. Personally I found it such a faff to set up, and it's directional, that I leave it on the hotshoe and bounce it from there.

page3 said:

I am also thinking of a light umbrella and reflector.

That's good but you lose mobility and immediacy (if those factors are important to you). I started with a second-hand Elinchrom setup from eBay and bought and sold various bits as I figured out what I wanted to do and what I needed to do it.

Edited by Simpo Two on Monday 17th March 12:59

[mogul]

Good lens and flash I find helps. Not quite a baby but taken from a fair distance with bounced flash, 70-200 2.8 L

Picture deleted due to new PH forum rules

It was also this photo which highlighted an infection our daughter was just getting in her left eye which for some strange reason wasn't as obvious under normal light!

Oh, and excuse the dodgy fringe - Mrs. M went mental after I had a go at cutting it!

Edited by mogul on Monday 31st March 21:38

[bd02]

'Interesting' light is what your after - by interesting I mean light that will give you tonal contrast. Easiest to achieve with natural light...



but also possible with flash (and b&w avoids problems with white balance etc)....



Good composition is your other friend when it comes to baby pics... you need to create a bit of visual interest with babies (they are lovely but often a bit static in front of the camera!) - make the photo tell a story - try putting something / someone else in the frame - eg. me (dad) above and big sister below...

[nogginthenog]

I like to use daylight ( when available ) and maybe a reflector - could just be a piece of polystyrene or a white blanket, get close to a window and shoot as wide-open as possible to drop the background out of focus ( this usually results on lots of unusable 'everything out-of-focus' shots though! ) .

[Scho]

noggin those are ace baby pics.

technically accomplished, great expressions and non of the usual whiff of cheese you get with photo's of peoples kids. nice work fella.

rick.

[crmcatee]

Depends how old they are.. a little older is always easier to control.

Draped over his dad's arm means you can get him where you want him - especially when you've got his favourite toy sitting on top of your lens.


And when they can sit up - even better

[AndyKH]

I like to use natural light, these were taken with a very crap popint and shoot digi cam. Hoping to upgrade to a d400 very soon though.

[AndyKH]

Oh and please forgive the flaky skin, my childs not a strange reptile she was just over cooked by a week and went a bit wrinkly.

[page3]

Some amazing photos here.

I got my little one in the perfect pose last night, but then he decided to throw-up all over me in revenge.

This shot is fantastic, and I'd love to be able to do something similar. Is there a specific technique, equipment, or is this photoshopped?

crmcatee said:

[Vipers]

What a pleasant thread for a change........

For taking indoors photoes, I use a flash with a custom diffuser fitted, just pointed up or away, and bounce it off the ceiling or walls to mask unsightly sharp shadows.

[crmcatee]

Praise indeed Thanks...

Straight from the camera..


Two studio lamps one on the right hand side in front of him with a softbox, the other to the left hand side of him to provide a washout of the background (you can see it just washing out the left hand side of his face too much). Get his mum to stand to the left with a reflector to reflect back some of the light coming from the softbox on the right to light his face.

Ideally the bed that he's sitting on would have been perfectly white - as it is, you can see the creases/folds of the bedsheet.


I actually liked this one for it's comical value but I guess the parents wanted photo's of the kids face..

[stigmundfreud]

whatever you do do not use flash on a baby, certainly before 8 months old (I think that actually might be a legal thing too)

[ste_uk]

Hiya all,

Well, this is my first post, but i have been an official 'lurker' for ages! Some amazing photos and treads with some true talent out there!

Thought i start posting on this thread as just brought home my new baby today so.....time for millions of photos!

Seen some great pics of babies feet/hand in nice closeup with black backgrounds, always looks stunning...anyone got any like that so i can ask questions about technique/setting/lighting etc.

Cheers, and keep the cute pics coming

[sstein]

Some more baby pics,









P.S Love that one with the baby with the shirt over it's head. He must have been thinking 'what is that plank doing'

-

Stuart

[nogginthenog]

AndyKH said:

Oh and please forgive the flaky skin, my childs not a strange reptile she was just over cooked by a week and went a bit wrinkly.

Love those shots Andy - very 'reportage'. They would make good stock library shots - if you can re-size them to 50Mb??

Scho - Thanks for the compliment.

[AndyKH]

Many thanks nogginthenog (great name by the way!) I'll have to have a look into that, where abouts would i set up a stock photography collection?