Advice on taking pictures of babies

[theboyfold]

Evenin' all

Thought I'd pick the collective brains on here as my friend would like me to take pictures of his 1 week old son (For some reason he thinks I'm handy with a camera) but I'm not that confident with taking pictures of people. So I was wondering if you could offer any advice my way please. If it matters, I'm going to be using a my Nikon D80.

Ta very muchly
tbf

[RobDickinson]

I find a 50f1.8, shallow dof and B&W always works well.

[Simpo Two]

I'd add:

Soft natural light or bounce flash (ie not the built-in one)

[theboyfold]

RobDickinson said:

I find a 50f1.8, shallow dof and B&W always works well.

I'm assuming that I can make them black and white in post, especially as I'll be shooting RAW

[RobDickinson]

Oh Aye, B&W in PP.

Mabies always look blotchy and B&W makes them look much better.

[theboyfold]

I've already been round once to take some snaps and the GF pointed out I was taking pictures of him like I was taking pictures of my car!

What about the dad posing with the baby?

What are the things to look for, eyes, smile etc?

I've never been any good at 'seeing' what's good about this kind of photo, more just know what I like and dislike, if that makes sense...

[VxDuncan]

Personally I'd be getting down as low as physically possible, trying to get in its eyeline. Possibly really, really close and wide angle lens to get baby and some environment in to. Or shooting shallow DOF protraits as suggested.

Other things - read up on flash and babies eyes - don't know the effects of flash on babies undeveloped eyes. Personally I wouldn't risk the rug-rats retinas without checking first (also ere on the side of not flashing!), and always use a skylight filter over the lens when photographing children - they will grab the lens and get sticky fingers all over the front element!

[AndWhyNot]

Motordrive - keep the shutter pressed as you see a situation developing

Auto ISO - keep your shutter speed higher to avoid motion blur but lets the ISO drop for quality where light allows

Let the baby get used to you/ your voice/ noise of camera. Try moving around and chatting. Shoot from several perspectives - the light will change and allow for varying contrast. Portraits are a lot about eyes, but they don't have to be looking straight at camera - try and capture the parent-baby bond.

Try playing with the settings (beforehand!) to see whether you like the changes of various profiles like Portrait or Vivid (Vivid+ will be too much for people). Then shoot RAW+Jpg and save yourself some processing time. NB Profile settings will only be retained by your Jpgs (not RAW) unless you use Nikon's CaptureNX SW

[Stigmundfreud]

RobDickinson said:

Oh Aye, B&W in PP.

Mabies always look blotchy and B&W makes them look much better.

cover them in talc first then once the bronchial cough wears off the blotches are evened out

[crmcatee]

I found that if you want to kind of control where they are - get Dad / Mum to pick them up and put them over their shoulder. With some close framing you can lose the parents and just end up with the close up of the kid.

Even when you've still got an arm in the shot it's still nice.

[AndyKH]

1 week old he's going to be sleeping alot, try just putting him on a nice fluufy white duvet while he sleeps, At 1 week old he'll probably just sleep through you putting him in a nice curled up position. I also too shots of not just my daughters face but also other areas. Feet, little ears. Not the best shots but you get the idea.

Edited by AndyKH on Wednesday 15th October 08:29

[crmcatee]

oh oh - I fear this may become the baby thread

[AndyKH]

Become a baby thread? I think it already is one!!

[stevieb]

Have been doing the same with my Twin Girls over the past few weeks. Was thinking of buying a continous light softbox to help with the low light inside the house. Al ready have a

Would a softbox be better than a brolly for these photos??

[AndyKH]

I just use natural light through the window, i like the contrast it gives as it's from one side only, i have taken a few in the conservatory but they look rather flat due the the diffused all over light.

[SpydieNut]

i just had the kit lens on my 30D (1st camera) and just took loads of pics and got some i was pleased with.

like this of my daughter age 1 day



and this

Edited by SpydieNut on Wednesday 15th October 09:13

[Simpo Two]

crmcatee said:

Even when you've still got an arm in the shot it's still nice.

Well there you have it - (1) lighting (2) expression. How you get there is unimportant.

[theboyfold]

These are all straight out of the camera, so please be gentle on the comments

www.cloud34.com/Finlay2

[sa_20v]

theboyfold said:

These are all straight out of the camera, so please be gentle on the comments

www.cloud34.com/Finlay2

And you call yourself a father!

Seriously though, I'm liking DSC_0399.jpg - something to taunt the poor child with at a later stage - perhaps their eighteenth!

[theboyfold]

sa_20v said:

theboyfold said:

These are all straight out of the camera, so please be gentle on the comments

www.cloud34.com/Finlay2

And you call yourself a father!

Seriously though, I'm liking DSC_0399.jpg - something to taunt the poor child with at a later stage - perhaps their eighteenth!

Easy Tiger, he's not my boy!! It's the first of my best mate.