New born

Cousin had her first child very early yesterday morning and went last night to get a few pics of her, haven't done much portrait work so any tips would be great.

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Let me start by saying that it’s a cute baby and I think the parents will be happy with these. I’m not a pro but I am a father of 3 so I have taken lots of shots in situations like this and I have a few comments which can hopefully help.

1. I like that it’s a fairly tight crop to emphasize the connection between the two, but the light seems a bit hard and I would have liked a bit more light on the child. Maybe you can lighten her a bit with some pp.
2. This looks like direct flash and I think the light could have been a lot nicer if you had bounced your flash behind you to the right. I also think that if you had taken two steps to the right, it would be possible to see more of the father’s expression as well as the other person and at the same time it would have created a less cluttered background.
3. Looks a litlle underexposed and I think I would have preferred a tighter crop to remove some of the dead space above the head which actually draws my eyes away from the child because of the red color which is quite bright.
4. Nice shot and nice expression. If you could have had just the floor in the background instead of the bed it could have been a cleaner image, but I still like it the way it is.
5. Nice moment but I think I would have liked to see a little more of the mother’s expression and crop out the hands on the right instead.

I hope some of this helps and I think the best tip I can give is to bounce your flash as much as possible

I agree with all of what you said and I did bounce the flash off the ceiling on all shots. Would have liked to of positioned myself better in a few of them but it was very crowded in a small room. There was about 10 people who all wanted to see the baby and I was trying to not get completely in the way. Once she Is home ill go visit and try out some of your tips! Thanks!

Went yesterday to take some more pics, Lets just say I have a lot more respect for people who do new born shots for a living because it wasn't easy at all to get her to go along with it. I went there at 2pm yesterday and it took about 4 hours and multiply times being fed before she wanted anything to do with having her picture taken. Not to happy with the background but, After so many hours, Once she finally went along with it we just shot as much and as quickly as we could. I tried using both flashes off camera yesterday also and need a lot more practice with it. Any tips on how some of you are able to get new borns to pose? We tried a few times but, She just kept falling over and wasn't happy about laying on her back when we tried that.

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