Newborn Baby Session C&C

oshead

I finally got a chance to photograph a tiny newborn baby yesterday. Since it's my first time doing this I guess I better put it up for comments and criticism among my fellow peers..... :rolleyes:

I know it's not too easy to make impartial judgments when such a beautiful little child is the subject, but try....

Here's three, The rest are up on my Facebook page.

All these were shot using a 5D MkII and 24-70mm 2.8 L and a 3'x4' softbox.

AnimalRights

#1 is best, cept for that sig.
#2 Is noisey?
#3 Reminds me why I'm pro life and anti abortion....TY.

mehfesto

Fantastic set.

Can't knock anything in them at all - except that I personally would brighten up the grey bit at the bottom of the third pic. But that's me - and I couldn't pull off shots like these!!!

They appear very professional, and the colour theme and similar treatment throughout is fantastic.

And lovely bellybutton for a newborn. I used to work in the Rotunda and they're not always that pretty!!

hmboards

All three are really great shots. The second pose doesn't work as well for me as the other two, but the name on the bed gives it significance. Is that something you edit in to your own prop, or does that belong to the parents ?

Edit: Just had a look at your facebook set too. What a great first shoot! Definitely an area you can specialise in.

IamBlip

Overall excellent baby photos David, I think you got the DOF spot on in the first and third. The second as AR said looks noisey, if thats the shot your where trying to achive then you got it, personally I'm dont really like it, it may look soft and distract from the other two.

Also and this could and well just be me but I dont like the green and white hat outfit, call me old fashioned but I do like pink for girls and blue for boys, simply because I will know if the baby is a girl of boy :rolleyes:. Granted the parents will know who their looking at but maybe not some family friends visitors etc.

Anyways congrats on your first newborn job, first of many I'm sure.

pixbyjohn

Excellent set of shots, 1 and 3 are particularly great.

magicbastarder

my first reaction to #3 was that it seems to be a cliched pose for newborn shots.

Buzz Lightyear

Beautiful set David.

1 & 3 would be my favourites, but 2 holds something special. While I'm not overgone on the pose, I find it sweet.

Mountainsandh

I find them all mindblowingly good, but then I'm only a pretty still ignorant learner .
On facebook if you numbered them from left to right I love 9 and 11 best (on plain pink background) they encompass what a newborn is to me best. I really like the one where she's looking at camera with first name showing too.

I love the prettiness of props ie hats, but somehow the plain ones (no props_except for bckgd) touch me more. Last b&w one is a classic but still so effective IMHO.

Nebezpeci Mys

Amazing photos, Dave. Love no. 1 and on your Facebook, it would be no. 1, 10, 12 and 14. Great job!

smelltheglove

I love no. 2 excellent prop.

oshead

AnimalRights wrote: »

#1 is best, cept for that sig.
#2 Is noisey?
#3 Reminds me why I'm pro life and anti abortion....TY.

AR, the sig stops the parents and relations from printing. It's a necessity. I don't see the noise in #2, but it is a bit soft.

Btw, Here's another thing to remind you of Pro Life.
[Y O U T U B E ]IrK6aUjrPCg[/Y O U T U B E]

mehfesto wrote: »

Can't knock anything in them at all - except that I personally would brighten up the grey bit at the bottom of the third pic. But that's me - and I couldn't pull off shots like these!!!

Thanks Mehfesto, the grey bit at the bottom of #3 is too much. I did it in lightroom when Jessica told me it was too bright on the bottom (yes, my 3 and 3/4 year old critic). Maybe I over did it or could have used a pink tint instead of neutral grey.

Btw, you don't know if you can get any type of shot till you try.

hmboards wrote: »

All three are really great shots. The second pose doesn't work as well for me as the other two, but the name on the bed gives it significance. Is that something you edit in to your own prop, or does that belong to the parents ?

hmboards, Yeah, It's my prop and I PP'd her name on it. Plus PP'd a little varnish on the wood too.......

IamBlip wrote: »

Also and this could and well just be me but I dont like the green and white hat outfit, call me old fashioned but I do like pink for girls and blue for boys, simply because I will know if the baby is a girl of boy :rolleyes:.

I hear ya Blip. Colour is very important, especially the significance it gives to newborn children. I had to make a choice when buying the props and some of them are generic. The parents loved this hat so I went with it.

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Excellent set of shots, 1 and 3 are particularly great.

Thanks John.

magicbastarder wrote: »

my first reaction to #3 was that it seems to be a cliched pose for newborn shots.

Cliched????? lol.. I get ya. I prefer to call it 'Standing on the shoulders of giants.' My goal is to sell these, so the first thing in my mind was to keep it Safe. Especially since this is my first attempt. For now I think i'll keep to the rules before I try to break them.

Buzz Lightyear wrote: »

1 & 3 would be my favourites, but 2 holds something special. While I'm not overgone on the pose, I find it sweet.

Philip, The parents seems to love #2 too. Me too. Very sweet. The child was very restless while we were trying to get the shot. Hence the stretched out legs and twisted arms.

Mountainsandh wrote: »

On facebook if you numbered them from left to right I love 9 and 11 best (on plain pink background) they encompass what a newborn is to me best. I really like the one where she's looking at camera with first name showing too.

Thanks for taking the time to look at them on my Facebook page. I agree, #11 is so cute. She pulled some great faces and I was lucky to be ready at catch them.

Nebezpeci Mys wrote: »

Amazing photos, Dave. Love no. 1 and on your Facebook, it would be no. 1, 10, 12 and 14. Great job!

Thanks Nebezpeci, For me it's #11 all the way.

smelltheglove wrote: »

I love no. 2 excellent prop.

Thanks STG. €16 from Ikea in the childrens dept.

hmboards

oshead wrote:

Btw, Here's another thing to remind you of Pro Life

Wow! Amazing video.

magicbastarder

oshead wrote: »

Cliched????? lol.. I get ya. I prefer to call it 'Standing on the shoulders of giants.' My goal is to sell these, so the first thing in my mind was to keep it Safe. Especially since this is my first attempt. For now I think i'll keep to the rules before I try to break them.

yeah, not the most constructive advice i've ever given, but in my defence i'd been at the whiskey (very nice stuff too).
C&C from us is not nearly as important as C&C from the customer. plus, we'd be C&Cing the customers choices as much as the photographer's choices.

AnimalRights

oshead wrote: »

AR, the sig stops the parents and relations from printing. It's a necessity.

Oh, I thought u were already paid for these?
Unless you don't give the rights to the pictures once you've sold them?

oshead

AnimalRights wrote: »

Oh, I thought u were already paid for these?
Unless you don't give the rights to the pictures once you've sold them?

I was, in a way. I'm trying to build up a portfolio so I did the session for free. In return I'll give them an 8x10 print and about 10-15 of the images with my logo on for use on the web. That was the deal. If that's as far as it goes then thats fine. Then I would be happy, kinda..... lol.

She has already intimated to me that she will be buying a photobook and some prints from me. Plus, directly from this, I got a couple of session's provisionally booked for the rest of her extended family. I hope to secure with deposits by the end of the coming week.

humberklog

Great set Dave.

Love the gorgeous colours.

AnimalRights

oshead wrote: »

Honest Guv'nor!

Pictures groups of solicitors standing on each side of respective parties.

oshead

Thanks Jude...

It's not like that Janer.... lol. One thing is for sure. I'm not gonna let them overspend on their budget. There are too many stories of photography companies doing the emotional blackmail hard sell on the parents who probably can't afford it in the first place.

AnimalRights

aahh I'm only ripping ya lol, The 'Mun etc

Crispin

Pictures are fantastic!

Not sure about the pro-life sentiments though... esp on a photography forum :rolleyes:

oshead

I know... The mun n'all....

oshead

Crispin wrote: »

Pictures are fantastic!

Not sure about the pro-life sentiments though... esp on a photography forum :rolleyes:

Crispin, you're right. I'd hate for someone to be offended by the video. I'll link it instead.

DaireQuinlan

These are really lovely, gorgeous tones on them. Looks like Squareballoon has competition I've really realised over the last couple of months how impossibly difficult it is to get decent pictures of newborns. I think I've yet to get some that I'm actually satisfied with.

oshead

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

These are really lovely, gorgeous tones on them. Looks like Squareballoon has competition I've really realised over the last couple of months how impossibly difficult it is to get decent pictures of newborns. I think I've yet to get some that I'm actually satisfied with.

Thanks Daire. It's insanely difficult to achieve something worth while. Patience is the key I think. I was trying to get delicate almost muted tones (without going bland) with some of these. The others, ie the bed shot, while using much the same pp methods, I went for a little more contrast and punch. For inspiration I used this group in flickr. Newborn Posing and Inspiration Group

the_monkey

oshead wrote: »

I know it's not too easy to make impartial judgments when such a beautiful little child is the subject, but try....


All these were shot using a 5D MkII and 24-70mm 2.8 L and a 3'x4' softbox.

Wow , very impressive - especially the 1st one, I honestly was thinking
when I clicked the thread that as it's a newborn they wouldn't be so nice,
but very nice especially 1 and 3.

Not too gone of 2, maybe it's the name written on the cot ?


For me, I shoot my 2 nephews (2 and 6 months) and found it difficult to get nice shots when they were newborn, but get great ones from the older lad since he is about 9-10 months.


Did you process the shots much ?

cheers

3*4 softbox is that to diffuse the flash ?

oshead

Thanks the_monkey
Softbox was to diffuse the strobe. I did a little bit of processing in photoshop. Probably about 5 - 10 mins on average per pic.

squareballoon

some great shots! well done. for me the favourite would be #9 on Facebook. no.4 has a few red skin tones that don't really work well with the rest of the set but lovely overall.

spinandscribble

I really like the second shot.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Great work! Any parent would be very proud to have those, they're about the best baby pics I've seen (not that I've seen many, but still!).

Also, abortions for some, miniature american flags for others...

Borderfox

Beautiful set of shots David, great eye for detail

positron

Wow, brilliant work indeed. I love the tones, and how you have setup the shots - green wall, and green cuddle sheet and the overall tones look amazing. Thanks for explaining how you did it too!

oshead

Thanks again for all the comments.

SusieQue

Absolutely LOVE these David!! Might give you a shout with few questions if you don't mind....

mrboswell

Great stuff as usual dave.
Really sharp and the colours work well as I find the skin tones of babies can be a bit cold.

Hit the money on the first try!

oshead

No bother Susie. Though I'm most likely not the only one here who could adequately answer any Q's.