Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: 4 Month Old

As we as we bring in, oh, as we bring in our first baby, are these all the same a lot of the same props and colors and tools that you use for your newborns as well, yeah, yeah, I've got pretty much everything set up exactly the same way I had it set up before a little less with the the props because we've got older baby, so we won't be using as many smaller props, and I decided to have stuff put in here that babies can sit in comfortably and safely so it's not things for smaller babies, it's all for older babies, and I've had, um, jd vintage props online. They have been so generous to be able to send me a heap of props for me to work with today, which is amazing because this stuff is so good. Um, I hate that they're all the way over here in the states because I can't, you know, I don't often to get a lot of shipments, teo, australia, but yeah, they have some beautiful things, so I pretty much have it set up really simple, really beautiful. All my natural tones and colors and it's nice ...

and warm in here got my beanbag set up, ready to go for my my four week old baby, I'm gonna, um I think she's asleep is she asleep? She's asleep so this is great because I can still get some beautiful, sleepy shots of a four week old baby say, if your clients just didn't book you in time, so a lot of my clients book in advance, but there are some people who just forget or in her the time that after you've had a baby, just flies and they might not have thought to book in for a newborn session, so I will get a lot of enquiries for older babies because they've seen someone else's photos on the internet or or they just ran out of time and things happen because as you know, your life, especially with your first baby, your life changes dramatically so that time just flies by. So I do get a lot of enquiries for older babies, so knowing how to photograph them safely and simply, um, is what we're gonna work on with this little one here and she's so cute, so I've got my beanbag set out, I've got some layers and some great textures and a wrap, so with an older baby because their arms and legs are stronger, I am going to try and wrap them, but this is nice and soft and stretchy, so I'm going to use them and I'm going to get mum to come and sit down, booth bring my camera over so it's nice and close and ready to go and this is georgia I have a georgia she's just divine okay, just leave this wrap around here and I'm gonna I'm gonna come and grab her off you just lean him back into my hand that's it oh, sweet baby he can see that she's a lot bigger than a newborn how much weight has she gains into birth? But is that not the cutest thing? So I'm gonna keep this really really simple she's really comfortable like that and it's beautiful I'm not gonna try and do anything complex because she's just gorgeous the way she is I'm going to put it down I have got some hash in here and it's quite scratchy and that's why another reason? I'm going to use a wrap underneath her well, the noises coming out of her? No so I have set my bag up the same way I did last time on angled wall it's it's pretty much ninety degrees to my window but I'm going to position her on a nice forty five degree angle towards my life and it's a beautiful soft line and I haven't got my backdrop stand because I'm going to shoot directly down and about her and get some beautiful close up shots she's gonna be on her back and that way I can move around the bag safely without knocking anything over so if I just peel that back, I'm not to the stripping her down. Um, but I'm just going to roll her onto her side now so I can pull the rip out without upsetting her. Too much ises he's like, why you waking me up when you moving me? So I will probably spend around the same amount of time with baby this age for a session to get as much as possible and because they're older and they're going to stir mohr and move more, I'm gonna need a lot of patients and allow a favorite time with them as they get older and then you know, they not going to sleep on my session's gonna get shorter because they're going to stay awake longer these cute little replicants. So I'm just going to use this rap just to come around her and support her, and I am gonna use my my coffin, appease her brought back with me to support and proper up from underneath so she's on his side now, and I got a great side profile shot of her face, but I want to see her face because we're portrait photographers, we want to see a ll the little features and so I want to bring I want to keep her bottom half. On the side because it's a great little angle but I'm going to bring her shoulders through a little bit more so she's up onto her back and we can see everything I slide my hand and underneath her head just tenor and she's giving a little bit of a regal so I'm gonna keep my hands on hers just to keep her nice and secure comfortable oh oh oh oh ah oh baby you dummy oh, so the only reason I've asked if she has a pacify is because she's going like that with her mouth um and she might just need that just to settle her to comfort her back into slaves oh, I love the way she's just, um bringing up her hands herself wait so we're just waiting for her little dummy because it was in the other room. Ah oh like magic. So if if I had a baby in my studio that was like this and it looked like it wanted to feed and didn't have a dummy I would just ask the mom she was comfortable with being wagon so just try for a couple more seconds to save show doze off to sleep here ah did she have a big feed? Yeah says she might just have a bit of a belly pain as well and feeding is just so comforting to them it's what they love to do best ah I would normally put them up on my chest but I'm a microphone and I don't want to scratch her so I'm asking a rocket ah so this happens in my studio every week I'm gonna give her back to her mom and we might we might start with their next baby just so we can keep moving so many babies to photograph today on once she's a little bit more settled she might just have a little bit of wind or something like that mom is gonna know is she she's been doing this and we'll move on with the next baby and then we can bring her back on when she's a little bit more comfortable because she's sir ready to go to sleep? Okay okay, thank you. I bet you I give it back and she goes straight to slave and then she's fine wasn't she could hand up like this hold the blanket so while I'm holding her in rocking here I'm gonna arrange the wrap around her see if we can keep going shut down again yeah, uh, veil fujii would like to know if you can go through in detail you're swallowing technique the part that she can't get quite right veil says the nice tight swaddle yeah I don't personally wrap them very tightly I like it nice and loose and comfortable and older baby though that likes to be wrapped and it's been laying route I mean, babies do like to be swaddled because for the last four, you know, for weeks inside their mother's stomach it's titan there they've done a lot of growing and they put less room to move, so yeah, but wrapping them I always start with on their back on wrapped one side over and in the other side over and then took it under them and I find that doing it that way instead of wrapping around and around and around when I want to move on to the next pose, I can just peel it back I'm not having to pick them up, unwrap them and unsettle them, so I keep it really, really simple and just put them on their back on the rap wrap one side over, bring the otherside around and then the baby's not upset when I want to move on to the next phone because in a normal session, especially with the baby, what a newborn I would start with them on the back I would maitham like take a shot, move them to the next to the side, move them onto their tummy and then bring them forward not once and I've done four poses have I had to bring the baby off the bean bag, so I'm going through a transition of flowing like a flowing poet like yeah, I'm I'm transitioning through my poses just by little adjustments and music movements and dressing them a little bit different as well. So I always start like this, but if the baby's uncomfortable on their back or anything like that, then I'll move on to the side one so that that way I'm moving through my poses really quickly and and it's a flow a cz well without having to move them, so if I do want to wrap them when they're on the beanbag on their back, I don't want to wrap it around and around and around really, really tight because when I move onto that next pose, you have to pick them up and unwrap them, but if it's just placed over them tightly and tucked in underneath, I can peel it back, roll them onto this side and take it out quite easily from underneath them without disturbing them too much. But she's um she's starting to go off here so I'm going to see if I can put it back down there's so much more um reactive to to touch and sound now because they've become so familiar with their environment. I just pulled my hands away and little legs kick down so she's very much aware of me talking and she's trying to go there go off again, starting to get that we'll head wobble when they breathe, that means they really relaxed so see what happens when we put it down and if she starts screaming again a little four month old baby girl has just come in sir move on so I just want to bring this hand out put this hand in underneath her so I can put it down I'm just doing it very gradually because she's you can see hell alarms and everything moving oh oh oh oh oh she was like she's about baby girl wait and I would do that in harm's way so I'm not going to photograph a four month old baby on my beanbag because they're going to move but I am going to photograph them on the floor so mom's going to take her off and settle her down a little bit when we have our next model isn't she adorable? Oh hi hi beautiful girl and did you bring your favorite toy in with you? Great so I'm just gonna slide the bean bag out of the way because I'm not actually gonna shoot down here his mom's on the blanket so I continued to put georgia down onto her back. She was making a little noises and sucking on a dummy and I you know, I haven't been with her for the last four weeks so I don't know if she's going to settle and mom said mentioned that she takes a little little minute tow, adjust and then settle down so I kind of thought well she's not crying she's still sucking on a dummy I'll keep going but once I like once that dummy comes out and they start to cry it's his best to give them back to their parents for a little bit of comforting and she's she's dozing off over there she knows where she's when she's good mom stuff hello khun oui I know you just turned it off but folks are wondering if you could talk a little bit about the uh the heart monitor so that that's just a little heartbeat monitor I suppose that's what they called it when I bought it and it was in the back of a teddy bear um I wasn't going to use it because I didn't think I would have too with older babies but maybe because it was so quiet in here and she's trying to go to sleep and I'm talking I thought it might have drowned out my voice a little bit I don't know I was going to try anything to get her to doze off but yeah basically came from a shop in australia you have it here called toys r us and its sister teddy ban it was about forty nine dollars that's about three four years old so I don't think you can actually buy the exact same one anymore but you could get something very similar but also with white noise and heartbeat sounds and things like that, you can download those off itunes and so by some great cds and have those playing in your studio there's some amazing cds out now, and she coaches so I talked before to mom and dad to find out exactly where she's at, and I'm gonna have them quite close by I would never have them sitting on the light side so that when my light is coming from, I would always have them on the other side. S o they're not going to block any of my line and because this two of them I can get dad on the floor and I'm always going to say, sitting down back to the wall, feed out towards me, he's going to be really nice and close and mom can come and sit next to me, she's not going to be doing any off the, you know, look at me look at me type stuff, but she's gonna be sitting there and that way it's going to be nice and and comforting to her to know that she's in, you know, in a safe environment cause that's what we want, casey, come on over, I'm gonna grab that. Thank you to all hands at grand china grab it away from me okay so have a seat with your back to the wall and your feet out towards me and what I want you to do is just pop her down on her belly but I want you to put her head here and her feet over here so she's kind of on an angle towards the light I get most of the parents to do a lot of the handling with all the babies because they know some of them just don't like to be touched hello beautiful girl so when I'm shooting my mat is not very big doesn't have to be a giant map but when I get right down low to the floor you're not going to see where it doesn't meet at the background because I'm gonna be right down at her level now so I'm just gonna grab a quick exposure shot oh she's too cute now what is her name again alina isn't that so pretty highly now could you do me a favor dead and could you just lift your finger what underneath her chin he's got a little bit of drill there just go she's looking around no I you get a smile he's looking at that toy you know what if I do use something to get their attention with if it makes a noise or anything like that I always have it really close to my camera and and hiding it in behind because I want her to look in there I'm not gonna hold it up here out there and hold it really close by and then bring it in behind hello lena hi hi she's looking around and everything alina no, I love you too. Okay, so can I get you to go in and bring her around a little bit more towards may and can you bring both of her hands sort of in front of her so they're a bit more supportive hello, beautiful eye it they loved the field of all the texture. I had a baby in the other day and she just kept going like this and she was rubbing the very mad and now what is it? What is it? No does one smile I'm gonna come in close and get a close up? No, she gave me the most beautiful smile before when I was out out in the in the room with her. So how does she go on her back when you pop around to her back too? She she had me on her back if you want a proper over onto his back and bring her around this way yes that's it but what I want you to do is pop hit over here so her feet are over here and I'm gonna be shooting down so I'm looking at my direction of light so the shadows that fall across her face if I've got light coming from down here I'm going to get a shadow under my nose and if I'm if I'm sort of like that with the light I'm gonna have a little line up going up into that direction I want the light to fall softly against the face to be able to see all the little curves and everything around who knows but she's very happy and with my my safety rules that I have and I um with my newborns, they completely apply toe older babies as well so if I'm gonna be shooting above a baby I was my camera strapped around my neck um because if if I was to trip or fall or anything like that you sorry, okay? Let the cat alone now if I was to put her feet in her hands but I don't think she's going to be able to hold on to them for too long, but she's got a handful of fluff hello and a you know, a big camera can be quite scary to a little one is again, yes, I can so I'm shooting still a two point eight because I want it really soft and I'm focusing on the I and I'm about I'm actually shooting with a pretty high irs so because the light is very soft in here and because babies like this move quickly I don't want to get a blurry hand or foot in the shot I want to get everything nice and and shop so I'm gonna have a fast shutter speed so I've got it about a thousand s o in here just for today because I want to make sure I get it yes I do a little bit of a gale no hello so I would take his many shots as I can just get that reaction teo get an expression to get anything she's a little bit taken with um everything that's going on in here your shoes I would do a couple more we might see if we can go back without our other little baby yes let's see if you can hold hands with your hands up here she doesn't wanna hold hands you wanna hold my hand hello carrie all right said that is pretty much I mean and then I would go on to do the family shots I would get a couple of different things I would possibly try some different props and stuff like that but I would keep it very very safe so either on her tummy or on her back and and yeah I mean you can use different textures you can use different headbands and hats and lots of things like that just to mix it up and give them some variety but your session should go pretty quickly because some they're gonna get tired quickly oh now you smile right thank you so much she's just adorable smiles from mom smiles from mom he's stay like that for two seconds let me see if I can get one above your shoulder and just give her little cheek cheek a little wipe talk to his stomach well that was cured hey the next morning on one more hey, that was really cute ok all right he did there's her toy oh, she did a good job but thank you beautiful girl thank you thank you very much nice smile now she smiles right let's get out of the baby back in here and see if we can get some photos off off her but do we have any questions so kelly yeah we're just gonna take a couple questions our other baby are one month old is feeding right now but I just need a couple more minutes so now is a great time for questions and we will start in our studio onion got a question about lighting I saw in your studio you have the big window and in here the um you're shooting a little behind the light yet what do you prefer? Do you prefer it down to the ground in my studio I have windows across the whole side so there's a lot of light I just wonder if I should block off a little bit toe let it fall off more or if that matters you know, I think like when you are a natural light photography I you have to make do in every situation that you've given so here the light is still beautiful it's really, really soft with the really big lights and I mean sorry windows I have a big window but it's filtered with a a sheer curtain so that really filters that light into the studio and it doesn't have any directs online if you've got direct sunlight coming in that's going to be a lot of light you're gonna have to filter that with curtains and things like that but if you have beautiful soft light like this it's just going to filter in I mean down there is fine like she has beautiful catch lights in her eyes she's got little shadows around her nose and on her cheek and yeah, I'm I can work in pretty much any lighting condition so it depends on on where you feel comfortable with with the light and you're excusing your exposures and things like that if you find that it's just too bright than your doll down your exposure and things like that you some reflector boards if you need to if it's too broad on one side so yeah, you just sort of make adjustments to your conditions because no you're right I was going to say but you know when you work from home you have to use a space in your house that you have available so you might not have the most ideal lighting environment, but it's, how you use that light with, you know, things like curtains to help filter reflectors, all those things is and and yeah, and if you find that there's too much light and they're definitely blocks him out, but you should be able to use it perfectly and on your, um when you lay the next baby down to have a particular direction, you like to shoot, so you're gonna lay on it next year where you're like, yeah, from when I do lay them down on here, I I want them on a bit of a forty five degree angle to my light source, so I'm going to have her and I don't tend I personally don't tend to face them away from the light unless that they're, you know, that's all I can get if if I'm having trouble turning their head towards the light or anything like that, I'm going to go with what they're comfortable with, and I'm just going to make, you know, make do with what I've got on bringing some reflectors and whatever I can because they're babies like it's, not it's, not a still object that I can, I can, you know, but so yeah, but prime, like ideally, I want to be on a nice angle towards my life to get that beautiful, full of shadow. And, like I was saying before, you know, I'm not gonna like my baby like this, because the light's gonna be going straight up. And I'm gonna get, you know, terrible shadows in around the eyes and and all those things. And I'm not going to be like this, because then the light's gonna come straight down. I'm going to get shadows under here. So I want to turn them towards the light and get that beautiful fall off across the face.