My First Baby Session

[710 Studio]

As the title states, I did my first photoshoot for a baby - a 2-month-old, in this case. Things started out with the baby doing a lot of fussing and crying which made the parents a little on-edge. I think the parents felt like they had to rush. I tried making them feel a little more at ease telling them that there was no time limit and with 3 children of my own, I was able to wait things out until the baby was content. It didn't take long, at all, and the baby was happy as can be.

The mother had an idea where she would place a red bow on the baby's back and do some selective-coloring... keeping the bow red while the rest of the photo was monochrome (sepia, in this case). I'm not a fan of selective-coloring, but the result was pretty cool, in my opinion. This is what we came up with:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/3167557649_6c48e63df7_o.jpg

Overall, a very fun shoot. Kids are awesome.

[bobbyz]

I think it is too tight in the frame. Need some space atleast on left hand side. Did you use flash for this? The face area looks a bit soft but could be resize, not sure.

[710 Studio]

Most likely resize/compression/etc... the original RAW looks pretty clean. It is rather tight, isn't it? I could easily add some empty space to all sides (to keep it symmetrical) to give the baby some breathing room. Probably will have to do this, anyway, to allow for framing.

[Skrim17]

If you desat your reds a bit you can reduce the mottled look to the skin.

[710 Studio]

If you desat your reds a bit you can reduce the mottled look to the skin.

Aha! Good to know. I was wondering if there was an easy way (other than skin smoothing, which I didn't want to do on a baby) to help reduce those markings. Thanks for the tip!

[samoan_ridah]

Nice idea and great job on the execution. What type of lighting setup did you use?

[Armywife]

Just a quick tip on shooting babies, especially that young, the splotchy look can be due to the baby being cold, if you are going to do naked photos, make sure the room you are working in is VERY warm, that will help to reduce those splotches! Remember, babies have a harder time with their body temp then we do, so even if you are warm, it doesnt mean the baby will be! So warming the room up *should* take that away!

And i agree about spacing, especially if they are wanting to frame! Great photo though and welcome to the world of baby photography, they are sooooo much fun to shoot if you have the patience!

[710 Studio]

Nice idea and great job on the execution. What type of lighting setup did you use?
Thanks! The lighting was really, really simple for this shoot (as this particular baby happens to be very sensitive to light... especially flashes). The lighting was an on-camera flash, with a diffuser, and an off-camera slave shot through a shoot-through umbrella. The softness of the diffused light seemed to not bother him, thankfully...

[710 Studio]

Just a quick tip on shooting babies, especially that young, the splotchy look can be due to the baby being cold, if you are going to do naked photos, make sure the room you are working in is VERY warm, that will help to reduce those splotches! Remember, babies have a harder time with their body temp then we do, so even if you are warm, it doesnt mean the baby will be! So warming the room up *should* take that away!

And i agree about spacing, especially if they are wanting to frame! Great photo though and welcome to the world of baby photography, they are sooooo much fun to shoot if you have the patience!

Great tips! This could very much explain the splotchy appearance of the skin... not because of the room temp (we warmed the room up to a nice, toasty 74 degrees F for this shoot), but because the parents seemed kind of in a hurry to do the naked shots. They wanted those shots to be the first ones done... mainly because the baby just woke up from his nap and was content. I'd be willing to bet that, as the outside temp was barely out of the teens, the outside air temp (and the long drive in it - about a 45 minute drive) made for one chilly baby. It probably would have been a good idea to try to convince them to save these shots for last - or at least later in the session.

[710 Studio]

The baby's so cute!! you can improve the picture by having more background. just a little.

By "more background", do you mean not having the baby so tightly in the photo?

Yeah... he was just so adorable. After he got used to having a camera pointed at him, he started with the cooing and just chattering up a storm! He was fun to work with!