Advise - A friend and a Baby

[BOUNCINGNRG]

Hi,

I've been asked by a friend to shoot her and her 9 month old baby. She want the shots in B&W .
Is there anything i need to be awear of, i'm assuming direct flash is a no no, but what about shooting through a umbrella?

I'm also looking for some insperation if anyone can direct me to some lovelly mum and baby photos (I'm sure the POTN book vol 3 will have some;)).

Cheers
Mark

[TheHoff]

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Enjoy. My default setup is a shoot through umbrella but you can bounce it, softbox it, etc, etc. Direct would be much too harsh for a baby.

[Rudeofus]

Direct flash is not the optimum from an image quality perspective, but it certainly won't hurt the baby (unless you pop your flash from close range at full power. But I assume you are a normal person like everyone here and never thought of doing that anyway).

One thing you should be aware off: 9 month old babies are very fast, so forget all plans with elaborate flash setup. The main advantage of the umbrella is that you get even light, so place your flashes so that the exact location of the baby is not critical. Babies don't pose, period :p

[tjongkristian]

I did just that shot today for the first time. Man, was I exhausted or what. The shot lasted for 3 hours. I just put my camera on Manual 1/200 at F4 with one 580EXII bounced to the ceiling (Manual 1/4 power) and one 580EXII shoot through a translucent umbrella. I control the flash using Flash Exposure Compensation. Rudeofus is absolutely right. The baby was certainly fast and would not pose. She moves like the flash from DC comic. I ended up with 500 pics and hope some of them is good.