Newborn baby photography hints?

[readstoomuch]

I am leaving tomorrow for two weeks with a new grandchild. We as yet don't know if we will have another grandaughter or grandson!

I would love to have any photography tips you know when it comes to taking nice photos of newborns. I have a 1.4-50mm lens and a Canon SLR (50D). {I am taking Katrina's class, but haven't been home long enough to work on any of the lessons. }

Should I take them in RAW? I have never used that format before, and would have no idea what I was doing. I would, however hate to take a fabulous shot and the settings be all wrong. Should I take them on auto? What mode would you use? This babe will be grandchild no. 8 and I haven't previously been thrilled with any of the photos of the first seven.

Thanks for any input you may have. I know that I am cutting it close in the asking for tips!

[donitab]

I'm no expert, but I would take them in Raw + Jpeg if your camera has that option, since you are not familiar with Raw. If you ever get used to Raw, you won't want to go back, you have too many options to fix things after you take the picture. This way you can go ahead a print from the jpeg & then play with the Raw when you get home & have time to learn it. Katrina got me hooked on Raw btw!

Babies look really great against black - have the parents wear black for close up photos or buy some black velvet at a fabric store to put the baby on - I got mine at Hobby Lobby for about 6.00/yd - I use it all the time for photos.

And Congrats!!!!

[dugarner]

Yes, congratulations, Mollie! I second the RAW + JPEG option. It doesn't take that much more space up, and believe me, I've had some photo shoots lately that would really have been ruined without the RAW. But you can just keep the JPEG if you like it, and file the RAW file away to work on later. They are really very, very easy to work with!

I don't have a lot of tips, and Donita's is great advice. Black is a great color for newborns, it softens so well as a background and highlights the baby's creamy skin.

Maybe someone else will jump in, but I'm sure you'll do fine, you take absolutely stunning pictures all the time!

And have fun.

[ajfetzer]

Mollie congratulations on the new baby!
There is a good video for posing newborns at lookgoodinpictures.com. Some good advice there. If it were me I would shoot in AV mode and set the f stop based on what you are wanting to get. So if it is just feet a low number maybe 3.0 or lower and if it is the whole baby maybe 5.6 just depending on the look you are wanting.
Good luck I hope you get the photos you are wanting with this little one!

[katrinak]

Echoing what the ladies have said above Mollie. Also don't turn all of the house lights on trying to get more light, ugly ugly things happen then! FInd nice light filtering in from a window. The first week is such a perfect time too. Right after the baby is fed is perfect timing to be able to manipulate him/her for shots. Get down on the level of the baby and do some from a straight on angle.

Definitely use AV mode and keep your shutter speed above 1/50.

Hopefully Kim will chime in here since she's the baby expert

[Amy L]

I heard a photographer say once to photograph them in the bathtub! Lay down a soft sheet or cloth as a background. I think she was talking about using a tub close to a window. Good luck!

[ShaylaSharp]

Natural lighting is perfect for newborns--in fact the lights I use to photograph them mimic large windows (not every house has the perfect window!). Black backgrounds are a nice striking contrast, but don't forget that white offers a soft pure-from-heaven kind of feel--maybe a nice blanket. Photos of their tiny parts are always precious--hands, feet (upclose, maybe put the wedding rings on the toes, etc.). Photos that show togetherness with the generations or contrasts--big strong dad arms, little itty bitty baby, etc. And I admit, I'm a sucker for those images of the dad's bare chested holding a little one so carefully, just so sweet. Maybe one of mom leaning in close to give a kiss or something. Newborns don't need a lot of props, they're perfect already, but if you want you could always include a small flower or something that relates to mom or dad, aka fireman's hat for a fireman. Have fun and don't forget--get someone to take some shots with you in them!

[bluelemur01]

Mollie, congrats on #8 to you & the proud parents to be! How very exciting! Here are my best tips for newborns and young babies. I hope it helps and I am sure you will get some great tips from others here too! Basically -- wide aperture, natural light, window light, fill the frame (zoom in), prop baby up for some shots, and definitely shoot RAW. We can help you figure it out later, but USE RAW!

Infants don't move too much, so you don't need to really worry about motion blur from the baby moving. So it's safe to use a REALLY wide aperture. Just make sure to focus on the closest eyeball and minimize camera shake by holding the camera firmly with both hands, close to your chest, feet spread apart a bit in a firm stance. The wide aperture can help you in low light, too, since I often love to take infant pictures using NO FLASH AT ALL, only natural light. I like this because it just looks good (as long as there IS enough natural light!) and also because infants sometimes blink in the flash. Also, moms get annoyed if there is too much flashing around infants.


Many cameras send out an imperceptible (to you) flash BEFORE the main flash to obtain exposure information. To the human eye you can't see the "one.. two" of the pre-flash and the main flash, but an infant's extremely sensitive eyes often blink fast when the pre-flash hits, more so if there is not a lot of ambient light, and then you get a sort of squinty look in the picture. Depending on the angle and power of your flash this may or may not be an issue, but keep it in mind. If your infant IS sensitive to the flash in your particular lighting situation, taking more pictures with flash doesn't necessarily help, b/c then they sort of get "used to" it and learn to blink even better.

I love window light...it is so pretty! Basically, find a window. Pull back the curtains. Have mom stand there at an angle, like a 45 degree angle, so that light from the window skims 1/2 her face and 1/2 baby's face. Make sure that you see catch-lights (twinklies) in baby's eyes through the lens. Turn on room lights, open blinds, open doors, bump up ISO a bit, and basically do what you need to do to get enough light in so you can hand-hold the camera in natural light without using flash. Put your camera on RAW. Then use your widest possible aperture and take some great shots! In natural light especially it's good to use RAW, because sometimes you may get a blue-ish tint that is easily removed from RAW but not so easily from .jpg.

Cover a bean bag or big floppy pillow with a clean, not-too-busy blanket and lay baby on it so that he/she is not totally flat. Take some cute pics. Eliminating "junk" in the background goes a long way to getting cute baby shots!

Have mom hold baby over her shoulder so baby is upright, looking at you (if possible.) Take cute pics of baby's face.

Have mom cradle naked baby in her arms, looking down & smiling. Add dad in over her shoulder, also smiling at baby.

Lay baby down on changing table and take cute pics of baby's face, feet, hands, etc.

Take pics of mom or dad cradling baby's tiny hands or baby's tiny feet in their hands.

Lay baby on changing table or blanket on flat surface; orient baby so he/she is looking at you. Crouch down so you are eye level with baby. Take pics of baby's face and entire body this way. Put on baby's newborn hospital hat and repeat.

I'll see if I can send you some samples!
good luck and I can't wait to see your pics! Congrats again!
Jennifer

[bluelemur01]

You asked what settings to use. My suggestions are:

Put it on Av (you pick aperture, camera picks appropriate shutter speed.) Use a wide aperture, 2.8 if possible. If you don't have access to 2.8, use 3.5 or your widest. Just remember to focus on the closest eyeball. Sometimes the depth of field is shallow enough that "fuzziness" across the face will vary in the picture, so it's important to focus directly on the eyes. Closest eye in particular, if one is closer to you!

Check the shutter speed that the camera is giving you with your given aperture. Most people can't reliably hand-hold a camera at less than the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens. For example: If you have a 50mm lens, don't try to handhold at less than 1/50th of a second. If you're using a 200mm lens, don't try to handhold at less than 1/200th of a second. Of course if you have IS (image stabilization) or really steady hands you may be able to hand-hold at lower speeds. And if you have really shaky hands, you may need an even faster speed. Generally I try to avoid going below 1/60th second b/c my pics then have a sort of softness to them from a bit of hand-shake that cancels out all the beautiful sharpness my lens is capable of giving.

If your camera DOESN'T have at least 1/50 there, you can do a few things to get a faster shutter speed. One is to add more light. Open doors, other windows, pull back blinds. If that doesn't give enough, then start bumping the ISO one increment at a time until you get a speed you're happy with.

Basically, for example: Set Aperture = 2.8 and ISO = 200, see what the camera gives for shutter speed. If it's not fast enough, set aperture = 2.8, ISO = 300, and check shutter. Although most cameras these days have relatively good quality at high ISO's, lower ISO still gives the crispest pics. So try to hit the lowest possible.

Then, once you have ISO all set up, take your shots!

I do like black backgrounds, but I LOVE pure white for baby pics. They can both give great shots. Good luck & happy baby-visiting!
J

[bluelemur01]

Molly, I just posted a page with some sample pics that I put together for you. I hope it helps give you some ideas!

Baby pic samples for Molly - Digital Scrapbooking Ideas - DesignerDigitals

[bluelemur01]

and here's one more page of pics taken in natural light. I needed to use a high ISO (800) in order to hand hold the camera in the natural light.

Natural Light Baby Shots - Digital Scrapbooking Ideas - DesignerDigitals

[KerryMac]

Mollie, congrats on the impending joy!
I'll just add this: since you'll be around for a while after the birth, keep your camera out and watch for the wonderful interactions that will happen.
You can set up for some shots for sure, but since you'll be there when the baby is sleeping, being fed, cuddled, bathed, dressed and loved, just have the camera ready to go. That 50D coupled with the nice lens that you have will allow you to shoot in almost any setting and light conditions.
Keep the ISO high in low light and in all conditions keep the aperture open pretty wide. I often shoot newborns at 1.8 or 2.0. Just be careful where you're focus falls.
Shoot close up, but also back off every so often for the bigger picture when the parents are scurrying around. You can really tell a story about the first days of the baby's life.
I'd start by taking some pics at the hospital. Depending on where you'll be and what the mom & dad want photographed (maybe talk to them a bit before, so they won't be surprised), you could get a few really meaningful images. Just work with the available light.
I love to include hands in the photos, whether set up or spontaneous. There are few things lovelier than a baby being cradled by its parents.
Have fun, relax and look for things to happen. I hope you'll share with us!

Here are a few ideas from some of my pics:





The third one was taken on a bean bag covered with a soft off white blanket. Bean bags do work very well! Oh, and I don't use flash with them. Little eyes are pretty sensitive.

[katrinak]

Oh Kerry! I love these. The second to last one is just too precious. Your conversions rock!

[anke]

Congratulations Mollie, how wonderful that you get to be there from the very beginning!
Ladies, your tips are wonderful and your examples are so gorgeous!!!!

[readstoomuch]

Gosh girls ... I've gotten such good advice! And, the examples will put me to shame for sure ... but I will try. You gals are the best!

I now must figure out how to set my camera for RAW & JPG images before I need to use the camera. If I can do that I can send the JPG back to friends and family and then learn about RAW when I get home in a couple of weeks. That should cover my bases. I ordered a 16G card to be sent directly to my DD's home so I should be able to handle it.

Should I take my card to Ritz camera and have it burned to disks rather than loading them to the laptop, or can my laptop hold RAW images?

[anke]

your laptop can hold them, they are like regular photo files, just larger, so you need lots of memory, depending on how many pics you take. You should be plenty fine with you laptop though

[Julie DeGuia]

Mollie - The last two pages in my gallery have a couple newborn photo I took for a friend. When they are little you can really scrunch them up into cute postitions while they are sleeping. I like this one becuase it has both parents hands holding the baby. This was just natural light against a black background... in an open doorway. No special equiptment. Well, a reflector but that is all.

Have fun!

[deanie]

Mollie, I got a really nice little 500GB hard drive that is as big as a small envelope. You could take this with you and just plug it into your laptop if your disk space is limited. Working with raw files is virtually that same as jpgs. I don't know what version of lightroom you have, but be sure whatever one it is can process raw files from the 50D. Have a fabulous time meeting No.8!!!

[echogirl]

I have no photography advice (wow you ladies are really smart!!).Congrats on the new grandchild...I look forward to seeing your pics in the gallery!

[hulseyfam]

Love these ideas. I have a newborn and two nieces, so I'm always snapping pics and trying to improve!

[digigrandma]

I'm trying to take in all of this advice since grandson #3 is due in August. So glad you asked the question, Mollie.

I can't get over all the beautiful newborn photos you all shared for this thread. Certainly inspiration for me to try to be ready when the time comes.

Can't wait to see your newborn photos, Mollie.

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by readstoomuch

I now must figure out how to set my camera for RAW & JPG images before I need to use the camera. If I can do that I can send the JPG back to friends and family and then learn about RAW when I get home in a couple of weeks. That should cover my bases. I ordered a 16G card to be sent directly to my DD's home so I should be able to handle it.

Mollie, if you have your booklet, instructions for setting RAW+JPEG are on pages 60 and 61 for the EOS 50D. It's a great idea for you to shoot that way, so that you have the no-stress images right away---but once you have time to sit down and learn, you'll see the possibilities that open up with all kinds of aspects of your pictures. You have an amazingly talented eye for light in your pictures, and I think shooting in RAW will take you to even another level.

Also, think of RAW and JPEG as "raw" and "cooked" files, like a cake. When you shoot in raw, it's raw---unprocessed. The eggs, flour, butter, are all separate. So if your eggs are rotten, you can replace them (say the lighting is off, you can fix it). Once your camera processes a JPEG file, it's "cooked"---it took all the eggs, flour, butter, etc., and cooked them together, so you can't extract one thing or another from it. You can't replace the rotten eggs, for instance---it sort of ruins the whole thing. So a RAW file is just a regular photo file, but with all the original data---all the millions of sensor points in your camera, it preserves all of them. JPEG files throw away about 2/3 of those data so the file won't be as big, and as a result, it gives you more of an estimate of the original capture, rather than the actual capture itself.

Anyway, that was a long and convoluted explanation. It looks like if you use the higher-quality RAW+JPEG setting on your camera, the RAW files take 15 megs and the JPEGs about 5 megs. (I can't remember the exact number right now!) So each photo file will take about 20 megs. You might be able to fit 700+ images on that card? I might have done the math wonky, but anyway, a 16GB card is great, and you can empty it on your laptop if you need to, as long as you have that much space.

Have fun!

[KerryMac]

Sarah, I like your raw/cooked analogy!

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by KerryMac

Sarah, I like your raw/cooked analogy!

Thanks, Kerry, but I can't take credit for it---the guy at our camera store explained it that way. I thought it was a great way to explain it, because it made sense to me immediately. (He struggled a little bit to come up with the components of a cake, but he did a good job in the end!

[hulseyfam]

I'm embarrassed to admit, but I sooo photography uneducated! I had no idea about RAW. I'll have to check my camera. I took a bunch of pictures at Lake Powell this weekend and was unhappy with a lot of them and wish I would have known about this. I wondered how anyone actually learned without sacrificing lots of what could have been memorable pictures!