First Time Photographing A Baby

[zkogut]

Hi Everybody,

I had a family friend offer to pay me for some photos of her 3 month old son. They came by the house and I did my best but since I don't have a studio I was pretty limited to what I could do. I'm posting my best shots and want to know what I could have done to make this set bigger, better, more clean cut. I used a large recliner with a nice big sheet thrown over it, a reflector canopied over the top and a flash in a softbox aimed up at it. I used my 35mm f/1.8 lens and the rest is in the pictures. Please don't be shy to say what looks like sh*t etc.

Thanks,
Zak

[Shadowman]

Tell Auntie that light blue is not the correct color for a reflector.

Nice shots, a bit hot on the highlights, the glance to the side is nice but you want a few with the baby looking directly at the camera.

[Mark von Kanel]

But Zac why didnt you destroy the evidence? seriously though i think you know that these images arnt the best but S**T would be overly harsh and unfair on you i havnt done a lot of baby stuff so im no expert but those shots ive seen and that work seem to be shot on lighter colour backgrounds with really soft textures soft fury cream blankets wicker baskets... that sort of thing.

Brighter more colourful images work better in high tone or low tone for me.

35mm lens isnt ideal for this either and makes body parts closer to the lens look way to big (feet in shot 4) i know youve probably used it due to space personally id have found more space in which to shoot! outdoors maybe?

Less toys. although lots of toys can work, in you images they just make it look busy / messy, try just one toy.

You need to work on your lighting, despite your soft box the light seems cold and yoru getting some annoying shadow, the lighting works best on image 1 and isnt so good on the others, ive never bounced a softbox on a reflector you might have got better results by using the softbox direct and the reflector to remove some of the shadow

Its a good first attempt Zac and to show you how good ill dig out some of my first attempts at baby stuff

if Colin sees this he will offer you better advice than i can give you.

these are my first attempt with a young child shooting the child wasnt the exersise of the shoot, i just wanted to play with my lights and high/low key stuff.

Low key, i couldn't get him to smile at all!! shot on a soft black backgrod with 2 monblocks through soft box's camera r/l quite high prob 45deg



High key, shot on white vynl 2 monos camera r/l quite high again 2 x speed lights to over expose the background