Need help with baby with cleft lip

[Noelle8818]

I have a session scheduled next week with a 6 week old baby with a cleft lip. The parents want me to minimize the cleft lip. They said that they don't want to "hide" it persay, but that even though that is who she is now, that is not who she will always be.

I told them we can try some poses on one side that minimizes the cleft lip, if she has one side that shows less than the other. But do you have any suggestions for poses I can do to make this a successful shoot? Better yet, any portraits you have taken of a baby with a cleft lip?

Thanks!!!

[suecassidy]

That's the most bizarre request "minimize the cleft lip". Oh well. You've answered your only question because the only thing you CAN do is shoot it on one side, but since a cleft is usually in the center....I wouldn't worry about it. I was born with a golf ball sized hemangioma on my nose, which is HUGELY disfiguring on a newborn's tiny face. I wish my mother had taken pictures of it, because it was removed when I was three years old and being 5th of 6 kids born close together, I have few photos of it. I suppose if the baby is asleep enough, you can put its thumb in its mouth and tuck a teeny tiny teddy bear under its arm....

[cdifoto]

You could liquify it a bit if it's an incomplete. It's a bit more work on your part but that's why you're paid the big bucks. ;) :)

It's not so bizarre, sue. Kids can have surgery and as they grow older it heals considerably. One of my brides had one but you can't really tell until you get up close. Besides, everyone has something they want minimized. Zits, scars, assphat, etc.

[suecassidy]

You could liquify it a bit if it's an incomplete. It's a bit more work on your part but that's why you're paid the big bucks. ;) :)

It's not so bizarre, sue. Kids can have surgery and as they grow older it heals considerably. One of my brides had one but you can't really tell until you get up close. Besides, everyone has something they want minimized. Zits, scars, assphat, etc.

ha ha ha. assphat. that's funny. I'm the biggest fan in the world of photoshopping out zits and whatnot especially on female subjects, but what I found bizarre was them requesting of a newborn shot, that it be "minimized.", but not removed. We all could photoshop perfect lips onto that baby, but that is not what the baby looks like. (I suppose we could argue that about make up or anything else, but that really is a different "Oprah.) Cleft palate repairs done on babies these days are almost invisible once they've grown up, so they can reasonably sure of a good future outcome. I guess my point was that I can understand the request to "remove" it, or to show it, but to "minimize" it would not be clear to me unless they meant, only shoot the baby in profile so half of it would be show. Yeah, I guess that's it.

Assphat. That's funny.

[Fenster]

Lots and lots of 'smooth baby butt' photos?

[GQsmithy]

Perhaps?
:D

[tiredoffilm]

Perhaps?
:D

lol, that's just cruel!

You could stick something in the baby's mouth though, a dummy or bottle.

[scotiaphillips]

Every baby is different , but most clefts are actually to one side instead of straigt up the middle. It is a common mistake in prenatal diagnosis to assume one is not present by seeing the middle of the lip. Gotta show the whole thing to be sure.

Anyway, if it is an assymetrical cleft, it should be pretty easy to profile or 45 degree shoot a minimizing view. If I can get that in utero, you can get it in the studio.

And a face down butt shot head turned to the side pose would be great for any baby. Maybe have some fabric or fluffy stuff on the side. Some parents display before and after pictures to the child later to explain what happened and how it got "fixed".

[Mom27andblessed]

Aw...I know "to each their own" but that just makes me sad.

Good advice you've gotten tho.