Lighting help with newborn!

SOOC Shot

OneDeep wrote in post #16333062
SOOC Shot

Canon T3I
ISO 400 - f/5.6 - 1/200sec
50mm 1.8
Westcott Apollo 28 x 28 Softbox
Speedlite Neewer TT560

Haven't had my camera for 2 months yet so I'm a newbie and still learning.

2 month old baby boy. Had the flash and softbox at about 45 degrees to the left facing him. He would not sleep unless somebody was holding him and whenever he did sleep and we put him on the beanbag he would wake up. So awake shots all I could get. I know its because hes not a newborn anymore but I can practice photographing him until I can get a real newborn in December.

1) I need help with my lighting setup how can I get NO shadows on the back of his head its like the flash is extra strong on the left.

2) I want the natural look and I know its possible with softbox but is my softbox to small for newborns? I could get a Westcott 50 x 50 but figure it would be too big. (Tried window light but it wasn't enough light coming in)

3) Do I need a different and better speedlite maybe the Canon or AlienBees?

I need all the help I can get. I do have a reflector also

Thanks Marvin

I don't know about photographing newborns but the better pics I've seen here and elsewhere seem to use reflectors and flash. So maybe find a larger north facing window and break out that reflector,
There is also a thread in the people or family section here dedicated to shooting newborns, check that out

This person (on another forum) shoots a lot of babies with reflectors (albeit with better lens and full frame model)

http://www.fredmiranda​.com/forum/topic/12128​07/0

The shadows provide dimension... that said, if you want to eliminate them you can start with a reflector, but it may not provide enough fill to eliminate them to your liking. It won't give you flat lighting, because the reflector won't be as efficient as the light straight out of the softbox.

Flat lighting also works. Softbox (28x32 in this case) held close to the camera and shooting straight down.

I think I used 24" Qbox for this one.

Raise the softbox to a higher location and shoot more downward towards the baby. Since I don't have a softbox yet, I still use a lot of bounce. You could bounce and use the reflector. Babies are great subjects, you just have to keep shooting.

I guess i'll have to work on getting the softbox in the right level and angle more. You guys make it seem easy

Ask someone to hold it right above your camera. Not that hard.