Baby lighting question...

I have likely a simple question, but I just don't know the answer:

How do you create this kind of photo with a black background where you only pick up the skin and not the person's body that's holding the baby??

Here's a sample from a google search of what I mean:

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Yes, the parent is either wearing dark clothing or you drape the black drop over the parent. Feather your light.

andrea31419 wrote in post #9343542
Yes, the parent is either wearing dark clothing or you drape the black drop over the parent. Feather your light.

I was really thinking about putting the backdrop over the parent, but was thinking THEY'D be thinking I was nuts!! Glad I checked first !!

Thanks so much!

This was done with Dad in black shirt, and no BG lighting. You can try either long or short sleeves, depending on the look you are after. Shot at f5.6, iso 100, Tv=1/160

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Like the others mentioned, use a black blanket or have the parent holding the baby wearing black. Just use a levels adjustment, or the burn tool set to shadows, or a selective color layer with blacks selected to completely 'blacken' the black (so many ways to do it).

Thunderbird33 wrote in post #9343632
I was really thinking about putting the backdrop over the parent, but was thinking THEY'D be thinking I was nuts!! Glad I checked first !!

Thanks so much!

YW...I do this all the time...they don't seem to mind.

Inverse square law. The closer your light source is to your subject, the more dramatic the falloff. The further your light source is to your subject, the more even the lighting.

So, if your light source is RELATIVELY far from your subject, and your subject is RELATIVELY, close to the parent holding them, then both will be fairly evenly lit. You don't want that. You want the relative distance from the light to your subject to be far closer than the relation of the light to the parent.


big light source -> really close to the baby -> gives nice soft light with RAPID falloff.


An example:

Very nice Brian.