what equipment needed to set up baby shoots

rteone

Hi All,

Could you please advise me as to what equipment i will need to set up a small business doing baby photography in peoples homes.

I am looking at either a cannon eos 5d mark 2 (a bit expensive for me)
or Nikon d300.

I need a white/ Black back drop. Photograph wise what else do i need?

I have all the props that I need.

I am new to this all. I just plan on doing family/friends for practice and dont plan to charge them.

I am also undertaking courses with IOP.

any sound advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

qwertz

Lights. Flashes. Insurance. Register as Sole Trader or limited company.

I've no idea about this kinda stuff, though I've a mild interest in it, so take my post with little conviction.

Anyway... Not really sure such expensive cameras are necessary, to be honest. You'll essentially be working with a portable studio, with controlled lighting indoor.

I'd personally buy a cheaper camera and put more money towards your lighting and backdrops.

Really, what you need is a portable studio set up. A backdrop is needed. Lastolite HiLite is mentioned on here a fair bit and could be useful for that perfect white background (though obviously not much use if you want to go with black or such). Otherwise the traditional paper/muslim backdrops on a stand seems to be what you'd need.

Then you'd be looking at investing in some flashguns, a bucket load of good rechargeable batteries for them, compatible light stands and softboxes/umbrellas and you're laughing, I believe.


Could be entirely wrong, though.


As for being a business.. I wouldn't set up as an actual real business until you've actually made a small amount of money and have a very, very firm belief that you can actaully go on to be profitable. Definitely don't register as a business until you've about 12 months experience taking these photos beneath your belt.

Not that I'm trying to sound condescending here or anything, but your post does seem to have a whiff of "I'll buy an expensive camera, do a course, and take a few photos for money". Unfortunately, there's a fair bit of learning required. Nothing a good bit of reading and lots of trial and error won't fix, though.

sunny2004

and a BABY !!

gsxr1

After my couple of months of pottering around I came to the conclusion that it is like any trade. Ye have to learn soooooo much to get out of the automatic modes and find nice light. Producing and binning most of the pics .


I really did not think there was so much to learn. PhotoShop being a big one.

Wish you all the best and I admire your balls:D

Squidgy Black

I've on recently finished work experience in a studio that mainly dealt with baby shoots. The main thing would be the lights and softboxes. White back drops work best for babies, and are more forgiving in Photoshop. One of your main needs is a decent computer and buy Photoshop and lifhteoom, no free trials etc. And a few props is always handy to have

squareballoon

If you're shooting in people's houses make sure you've got some backup light source because you never know what you're going to get. A directional flash with a diffuser is a good start.

stcstc

and some marketing!!!

ttcomet

Buy this and this (Zac Arias & Tamara Lackey's creative live course's).

Tamara who specialises in childrens pictures also covers a ton of the business side.

showit

Apart from getting up to speed with using a Camera & Lighting

You really must have insurance if your planning on going into peoples homes to take images of their kids. This is for your protection -

A lighting stand could easily fall over damaging furniture or worse still hitting a child or parent.

S

Thecageyone

D300 is a top camera, add a nice prime to that and you have a great start. the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is a great lens but might be a little tight for mostly indoor work, I'd suggest a 35mm f/1.8, fantastic lens. Also consider short range fast zooms [example, I have a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, I find it almost as sharp as the 50mm prime, but it allows me more wide scope for indoor shoots while still being sharp and fast] If the photos aren't sharp from any of these lenses, on that camera, you're doing it wrong. Get to know your manual settings, no point in buying a semi-pro camera and sticking it in auto all the time!

Get a flash gun and learn how to use it. Get some triggers to boot so you can position it anywhere you like off-cam, get a light stand with connections for flash and either soft boxes or umbrellas, just getting into this kind of gear myself, google the bejaysis out of it and read, re-read, read again until you're comfortable with what you want to achieve and the settings to get there.

Good luck

BrendanRyan

Courses will definitely be important and practice! Like another poster said id splash out on lighting and perhaps cut back on the camera, think about a 40D or is 60D the new equivelent. Have a look at a bowens gemini kit, about a grand for 2 lights brolly and softbox i think, if you've never used lighting before working with flashguns can be very tricky, bowens kits last forever, they're brill.

I've been thinking about getting into wedding photography for a while, and knowing about photography is only the first step, might be worth, actually i think it would be a really good idea to do a business plan. With all the equipment you need + marketing/advertising + insurance. figure out what you need to charge to make some monies!

don't forget about a decent computor with photoshop, lightroom or whatever software you decide to work with. If you do end up buying a 5d its worth thinking about a decent spec desktop, my macbook is slow as a week since i upgraded my camera. huge files.

not sure about a backdrop, i have a manfrotto backdrop stand which is nice, but is pretty big especially when i try and set it up in a standard living room or that, laslolite do pop up backdrops but i'm not sure if they have one with a 'floor' if ya get me, so only good for headshots really.

Theres lots and lots of choice and options, what i'd choose might not be what someone else would choose. I don't know your photographic experience but if you haven't much studio experience maybe try and get some work experience with a studio photographer.

Good luck

rteone

Thanks so much to you all for taking the time to give me your advice. I definately will take it on board.

I do know that i have to give this everything and that It will take years for me to get up to speed. I am prepared for this.

The initial set up will cost a bit, but I will need that to practice, so need to get the equipment. I am sure that If i register as a business I can offset my losses for income tax against any PAYE income I have.

It has been mentioned that I am going for too high a spec of camera, Could any of you that are doing this business advise me on what camera and Lenses you use?
Cameras that have been suggested to me are

Cannon Eos 550d
Nikon D3100

Thanks to everyone...