Taking baby photos. Help!!!

Black and white
Use zoom to get close to them, but stay away as far
as you can so they attempt to look at you.
Blinking lights bring thier attention
nude babies with blankets brought around thier heads are great as well.
put them close together so you can see thier interaction together.
take MANY pictures in each minute.
it takes 1,000 shots to get the perfect portrait.

1000 !


thank goodness I've got a new memorystick and freshly charged batteries


Thanks, SheWolfNewMom. I'm kinda sweating about this assignment. I'll see if I can do the close together thing. They tend to keep them separated as the girlbaby is a real scratcher.

Get down to their level to take the pics. Don't just stand over them and shoot. Lie down on the floor if you have to. Take the babies, not the background. Fill the viewfinder with your subject. Don't take the pics just afer their mealtime as they will probably fall asleep. Have ambient light on in the room to help prevent shadows. Open the shades or curtains to let in natural sunlight as well. Add some small teddy bears or such into the pics. Don't wait for the babies to look at you...take natural pictures. Good luck and have fun.

Thanks, Intrepid.

The babies are either in their cribs, their carriage outside or their Snuggli. They haven't been on the floor yet. Maybe if I'm in a chair next to the carriage/crib?

Here are some ideas from Ann Geddes

http://www.annegeddes.com

So - the teddy bears - prop them up around the baby/babies?
I'm hoping I can catch them in the brief moments they're awake.

Toss them off a cliff and take photos of the startled looks on their faces.

Can they be put on a bed?

5 pounds each?! Unbelievably teeny.

Seems like there is some potential for pics with mom or dad holding them -- naked or with a white or black t-shirt, maybe -- to show off their incredible teeniness. (This would be especially nice with dad's big hands.)

Thanks, CJane.

Interesting ideas. These five pound miracles aren't quite responsive enough yet for some of those - but a great resource for a few months down the line.

Gustav - definitely a concept you've got there, but I suspect they wouldn't wake up or be startled.

They're teeny all right - came home at three pounds apiece!
Holding them now, they still seem too small to be newborns, let alone one month old.

Soz, the dad's working two and a half jobs right now, so I'm not likely going to have access to him - but the thirteen year old brother might be a good baby-holder <when he's not at work>.

Big hands.

<mulling>

Everyone in the neighbourhood adores them. Someone with big hands will volunteer to hold them. Right?

mmmm - nekkid's not an option. They're Muslim, recentish immigrants from Kosovo. Not that traditional, but not THAT westernized.

So maybe simple white cotton onesies on the teenies, and then the holder wearing a simple white cotton t-shirt (I think simple would be better but that part probably isn't too important.)

In pure photographic terms, I think big hands highlighting the teeniness would be cool, but in terms of what the family wants, probably would make more sense if they are being held by someone meaningful -- mom or bro.

(I'm sure boomer will come around at some point with some butt-kickin' ideas...)

Not much you can do with them at one month old -- my favorite teeny teeny sozlet pics were taken with her reclining on a cream-colored down comforter, kinda rumpled, with natural light.

This was with a 20-year-old point and shoot camera:



(Sozlet was about 6 weeks old in that pic.)

Isn't putting them on the floor on a plain coloured blanket or on a bed an option? I have shot babies as young as 1 day old and every age after that. Great shots are possible even at that young age. If your only options are the cribs, carriage or snuggli I would suggest that you get real close and shoot through the bars of the crib rather than down on them. The carriage gives you no options. Since you are using a digital camera, you have some leaway to crop and adjust the pictures after they are taken. This will allow for removing body parts of those holding the babies etc.

Intrepid, I have some kind of hint that the not on the floor thing has some kind of cultural connotation. The mom feels she's being quite a rebel as she brought the babies out of the house before they were 40 days old. That isn't done at home. I'll ask about the bed tonight.

Soz, I like the white on white idea. I think one of the preemie outfits I took over is white, and I can give mom or bro or cousin a white t-shirt (or loan it - cultural stuff I don't quite get comes into play there as well).

I'm quite honoured that they'd like me to do this but five pound people who rarely open their eyes are an unusual challenge.

<love the baby sozlet pic>

ShewolfNewMom - thanks for sharing.

Here's one I did of Mo's half-sisters when they were about that age, maybe a bit older - they were premies too though, and very small:



What I did here, and usually do with kids that small is take a bean bag chair and dump about 1\3 of the stuffing out so you can really squish it around to where you need it to be, cover it with a sheet that matchs somewhat matches their skin tones, bounce some light into the frame and start shooting.

One great prop to use with tiny babies is a measuring tape -- just kind of wind it around them. I have one like that of the K's around here somewhere, if I can find it, I'll post it.

A rubber duck makes a nice prop too - especially if you colorize it on a black and white shot.

Like a lot of people said, moving in close is good (I do that with all ages, not just babies) but most people really want "body" shots.

Having fun with it is the most important part so relax and enjoy!

Oh one more thing --

To me, it is always really important to find out which are the "most wanted" shots - which outfit in particular.

Babies get crankier as the session wears on.

Start with the "most wanted" and work through "least favorite".

If they're friends and neighbors and they aren't paying you for your time this might not be such a big issue if you can stretch the shoot over a couple of days or whatever.

Okay, two more things --

Have mom or dad stand right over your shoulder and talk to the kids to draw their attention. I mean, put their chin on your shoulder, close.

Okay, three more --

If you have a long feather and quick reflexes - tickle the baby with a feather and yank it out of the way (or have mom or dad do it) and then take the shot - you can always crop the feather out if it shows up.

Okay - four more --

I have this little dog toy (bought at the pet store) that is soft and barks. I hit myself on the head with it, which sets off the barking and gets them to look at me (and causes less headaches than the maracha I used to use).

You do have to have auto-focus and be able to use your camera one handed to do such nonsense.

A hard head helps too.