Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Lila - Bowl and Tushy Up

so the five s is swaddle she swaddled swinging I'm swinging right now I'm acting like the womb side or stomach position she's on her side or on her stomach they love that they teach you this don't think you've she's like yeah I know this drill okay moms know this so you should know it too um she if she's really crying she I mean it's allowed sometimes you have to understand that baby's hearing is not fully developed when they're this age so it needs to be loud okay and then if I really needed last resort with a clean finger I would let her suck on my pinky toe you were sued mama's breast of course is a good resort or if they bring a pacifier it's a it's a good thing as well I'll use a pacifier first then my finger than mommy kind of in that order some moms are very against the pacifier so keep that might is this funny I totally have the mommy sway like swaying back and forth I think it's just a habit of all newborn photographers is we have a little sway so the next pose we're going to ...

get into is the bull shot basically there is a small bowl underneath the flick adi is this kind of like the little dark dirty dark secret of how we do this um there's a little bowl underneath the backdrop and then we put her on her back in the bowl obviously you can't see the bull and basically it's that shot back there that we were talking about earlier we're basically going to do that shot right now okay so we're changing being bad you beanbag backdrops all right um this is one that becky gregory a brand new one that she just made I love it's got danny lines all over it and so it's basically taking a regular fabric drop that you would think he would use as a background for you know like a bull shot and creatively using it in a different way okay so we're gonna put it on the beanbag instead and create a different look okay so all of a sudden all your backdrops that you have just have now a second years it has to be fabric wrinkle free of course and it has tio have a little stretch to it because that's stretchy fabrics are the ones that really works the best so um let's go ahead and I'll get handra I don't know yet hand her off to you she's all nice and toasty you got her okay okay so we have a pretty yellow backdrop I can do a couple of things here so we could do this tone the brighter yellow we could go cream when you guys think is in there there there there like we can't see all the way what do you think they're all right I know it's really hot which one do you guys like the mustard the mustard color second we go with mustard kind of like the cream to it's pretty um let's do what do you think if you decide for me little buster you like mustard he's good with ketchup we'll go to the monitor ok so we put the bowl underneath the flick adi and I usually put a couple of uh just towels underneath support baby's head so she's not so she doesn't have the she doesn't have the use that one for her at the edge of the bowl I mean I'm putting it all the way under this like six inches worth of padding so it's not going to but I'm just paranoid so I just basically put the bull right there where I want her and I'm assessing my lines on my back drop the's dandy lions are kind of coming down towards her so I'm gonna place her in the bowl here make sure it's well on the beanbag move beanbag over just a touch okay and then I'm going to place the scarf where we're going to set her down now I'm going to tie the scarf so the knot is on this side so to do that I need to make sure that my short end is over here in my long and is over here so I can wrap it around her okay this shot I do all the time with baby's asleep or awake and tiff pops are in there for me and helps control the feet and the arms and I just basically kind of wrap around her lower body and tie a square knot so left over right right over left and that creates a nice pretty lean square knot and then I have these little tassels to play with so she's not quite right we're gonna go ahead and drop her body just a little bit because with newborn photography you don't want the head and the body in line you want it tweaked like that feels funny looks great I'm constantly saying that my client's so if you were going to shoot this from above so you'll see it I want her head kind of cock eyed to her body so it has that cute little comma shape so we want her body to be in a comma so her head is the top of the comma and her body just kind of makes that little that little swing to the common do you know what I mean so head here the comma boom like that okay tightening another yeah and tiffany and I are sticklers about wrinkles in our fabric so um yeah I've got her she's going to clamp it down to avoid wrinkles because the last wrinkles you have the better off you are later and so tiffany can also pull the backdrop from the front to help remove some of the wrinkles around the bowl oh my gosh she's cute lighting this you tend to have to move this back a little bit more to create now instead of a butterfly pattern from above we're doing a short light situation it's just like any other portrait geiss this is not rocket science it's just like photographing any other woman she's just happens to be really little you know we want a short light butterfly light all those things okay I'm just thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking lincoln maybe over exposed here danny lions are so pretty wait and her head yeah thank you tiffany caught it she just knows me too thinks like me um the head is falling off a little bit to see that show she's going toe pop it up just a touch more to really help her kind of get that cute little comma shape in your body and of course fix her darling little her awesome too thank you uh so cute I love this background it's beautiful I think she's threatening to smile again look at that come on baby girl it is dark on the left side I have a kind of a high contrast ratio here you guys so um yeah teddy's going to go grab the reflector for a little film way might need the silver one or is that silver one back there someone grab that for me and you see why I'm wanting to correct that it's a pretty strong contrast ratio on the left there my camera also really want to make these images warm doesn't it did you smile on me and I missed it you stinker not my gosh of course murphy's law minute you take your camera way give it to me it's like I totally missed it it happens yeah that's better so let's look at the difference you got a smile on me I'm gonna it's a little bit better it's not quite it's a little um challenging sometimes there we go that's it you see the difference when those two come up and you'll see the difference in the lighting quality softness is just gonna eat her yes I eat babies so trying to highlight some more the backdrop and yes I am shooting into the light a little bit for a little bit more of a flatter look but um the backdrop is creating those beautiful lines around her with a dandy lions like falling on top of her then I kind of wanted to capture that okay so that's bull shot let's go ahead and um what else we have we have um forward facing with the talk where you can do to show up um we could switch to her how is our boy doing is he sleeping there we should he issues to an awesome some kind of winning if we just continue keep going with her um okay let's go ahead and change back drops again and we will try toshi up with this sweet girl let's go to a brown brand do haven't used yet tag still on you gotta learn that I will go ahead and do this one for you okay awesome thank you so do we have any questions while we're kind of changing sets here yes stephen three different lenses for three different crimes but right now when you're doing the our medium and close you're not changing lenses so when do you set your shooting with a fifty prime right now when do you use the other ones I used the eighty five for family images and parents I used the fifty exclusively on the beanbag and for bucket shots so the fifties that none of the camera lens on my camera ninety percent of the time all use the macro for details so like if I was shooting for an album for client when we're out here in this cute little position here um she would I would get those little lips in macro at that time so you just kind of have to gauge when their features look really cute and start shooting macro images at that time so I would have done that at that point we were shooting for an album okay there's a question couple questions from online yeah let's go for it so question from uh bottle baby who would like to know do you ever do anything to get the baby to smile we've talked a lot about all the baby might smile um do you ever blow at on the baby's face or tickle them or is there anyways sometimes I occasionally I'll blow I think I just did there I'm not I'm sometimes I'm a little nervous to blow just kind of don't blow on a baby's face you know but I will we will like tickle their little cheek but I don't see it doesn't work that often um if they're going to smile they're going to smile what really does work sometimes if mom if if they hear mama's voice they hear mama's voice they kind of do a little smile or if you talk to him that's why tiffany was kind of wanting teo talking to her limit come on maybe lyla you're gonna smile this that kind of thing so yeah if they're going to smile or a smile or not they're not they're just kind of she did and I missed it too bad photographer sorry and then one word one more quick question from the internet yeah let's go for actually a couple people ask this I just want to clarify for them so when you're shooting for those vertical images with the baby's face really close up those air staying those are going to remain vertical so they're going to drop the horizontal my camera thinks it's a vertical because I'm tilting my camera no those will drop to horizontal I shoot ninety percent of my stuff is on perfect thank you actually one more quick question from heaven storm are you focusing what are you focusing on a lot of people have asked what are you focusing how do you know where you go I focus my so called I focus with focus points and I will focus on an I you know the closest eye to the camera plain and that will get me my best depth of field sometimes I switch like I'm not supposed to but sometimes I switch eyes and I'll do the wrong eye and that's when I usually make mistake and get something but you try to do the eye that's closest to the camera and sometimes it'll end up being the lips because I'm just an awkward spot and my I want the composition I want and the baby's head is not quite in the right spot for the focal point even though I have fifty one focal points of my cameras that's it's enough if you know what I mean so he's kind of go we'll go with it if that's the case like on that angel shot from above I will literally have to focus hold my lock button and recompose in order to get it right so any other questions we're good new tissue okay so all tiffany did for tissue up was put in two lumps basically on either side now there are a little far apart right now she is a pretty short baby and once we tuck her in a little bit more she's going toe we're gonna need that to compress but the key with toshi up is getting the camera forward knee and the camera forward elbow to touch okay doesn't always happen but that's the goal that will get you that back curl and all those wrinkles in the back that we love so much ok so here I'll show you how how it's done the other key with tushy up is to put the camera rear leg inside the camera forward knee see that so then I'm gonna take the blanketing kind of tuck it under a bottom okay so she's a long baby but if you look at this from above I'm curling her body like this okay almost like that comma shape again I'm gonna shoot it from the side but I want the curl so to speak to get that little tushie up now the one thing you don't want to do is shoot butt crack don't shoot baby's butt crack okay so that's the one thing that you're gonna have to focus on so if you're seeing too much of a butt crack you got to bring the elbow in and kind of helped proper up of it so let's get a washcloth you can see that tiffany is holding her hands should she liked you way supporter in the front here you could just kind of feel where they need a little bit of support that's pretty cute she must support back there okay you could see where tiffany's holding her she's kind of like um she's not quite right here way she started to wake up a little bit can you guys see how she's kind of squirming a little bit and see only one side to get way way I'm a perfectionist she's got a long back so she's not doing too she up like as wrinkled ese I want her to be we're gonna go ahead and shoot it way I think you guys can kind of see what I want and tushy up is more of a straight on shot but it's still down the nose and you can see that she's doesn't have quite that angle that we I want you know she's not the sagging in the back but the biggest goal for me are those wrinkles in the back but I will even shoot this kind of like I do the bean bag with my camera with the like the sideline pose with my camera kind of tilted a little bit to create that now that was a vertical shot right there but the new one I just shot I shot it as a horizontal would probably come in is a vertical but the you see how I kind of shot down her back like thie angle his different and then I tilted my camera towards the light the left side of the camera towards the light to create that little uphill impact it effect and you can do the same thing with toshi up you khun dio drapes you can do headbands you can do all kinds of props let's do a cute little hat on her so what we got here you know pink or let's teo purple this is from um a bit of string peggy does amazing hats they fit every single baby no matter what I love it you know with little girls I tend to tie bows and with little boys I tend to just let it um let it drape a little bit let's go heaven switch the post to forward facing so we can get through prose is here so now we're going to switch poses we're going to go to forward facing which my sister is a master at she is so good at this one so I'm just cause she's gonna live baby up and I'm gonna move all that build up to the front and she's going toe put baby with her face towards the front and we're just building up right there and then I'm gonna hang onto her back just a little bit sorry I mean you scratch you and then she's gonna we're gonna transfer her over like this thiss baby is a dream baby not normal I'm not usually this easy guys I'm kinda out when I get the harder baby so we show you what it's really like oh my gosh she is so cute let me to shoot this so we get it a lot safer than that composite that people want to do with chin up you like the stream yeah I just I wanted to shoot it so we know we got it yeah go ahead bo um strings there it doesn't matter I like the bow is cute girly yeah this is a lot safer than this post that's little froggy pose that people do that has to be a composite to me it's unnatural this baby's doing this perfectly naturally just fine um her feet are kind of still in that so she up pose like one's behind the other like that we'll shoot it for you so you can see it will be weird light but it's actually kind of pretty so you kind of see where her her feet are and noticed the lines of the backdrop they're all going backwards to create that you know beautiful look color on that monitor seems little where does that seem weird to you guys that my white balance didn't take but the beautiful thing about this shot is I can now all of a sudden create much more interest so you notice how I'm shooting like baby on the right side all the time well now all of a sudden I can put her on the left side of the frame and create an image that looks like I changed my lighting direction and everything and I put her on the left side okay yeah thank you tiffany is seeing that I need phil and she also holds a background in the front so I can really create neat depth of field it's my exposure okay I'm such a temper you guys I hope you don't mind I should usually I look at my history ram which is really super helpful but I can't really see it I rely on it so much I used to meet her all the time and if you're just starting out I would highly hey gus um eatery um because it'll really help you understand your light just gonna turn her head a little bit so I can do way more under her over no I think it's can't just wanted her head tilted baby while you're just eliza okay that's facing forward simple is that she's a little bit low you're right if she's a little bit low on the left that's okay do you see how our elbow on the rights on her left side is a little low we should pop that up let's go ahead and do it so they see what the difference is so she's just taking a towel and popping it up slightly so we can see it a little better and see that we'll start to the difference in the image it's the details so look at that one that you see there and then with the new image with the elbow popped up it's loading here to second it gives you you could see a little bit more you said it was him saying it's not his talk I should probably do it even more honestly um but it's still a very very sellable image okay so you can also shoot this someone from above so I have the recommend just doing it for lots different angles close meeting far you can see I've done three four pose is now on the beam high posts on the beanbag we're so not even done yet so let's go ahead and move on tio not tonight tonight is next so we'll do it on this list backdrop um should we bring in a new baby we've got twenty minutes he's sleeping let's go and bring in new baby so he gets he gets some images would be awesome okay she's like no it's so fun to get you I don't know that's all thank you thank you for bringing her in is huge appreciate it you'll get some of the images from that so um okay so we'll do ninety night with our little boynton you blame julie can we ask you something yes please just during this transition a lot of people in the chat rooms were asking to see the mechanics of what's going on underneath that blanket oh yes I can tell you so here layers guy we gotta move everything a little bit for night tonight so so basically what happened wass usually that's what happens when I go from I went from tissue up to forward facing is that what we did yeah so fishy up was basically actually this was over here I think tiffany set it up so I'll just set it up the way I would fishy up is kind of in this position with variations depending on where she needs to be propped up ok so but for the most part her but is a little bit higher than her head okay then when we switched over I pulled this out pulled this over and then took these and built upward from here to create the lift under her chest to bring her forward like that that makes sense you can see why won't work without an assistant because while she was bringing the baby forward and keeping her calm and together and swaddled without letting those arms and legs flying out I could move the buildup underneath and create the bubble in the front for a baby to be up and over okay so transitioning is one of the most complicated things and newborn photography but the classic the classic system of how we do it is we will go side lying which is that second post we actually did we don't we normally go sideline first because it's the easiest with the rap oh my gosh look at that cute little kid uh eso you little sibling gotta love it and then we'll move into either taco then we'll go into tushy up then we'll go into forward faith thing scarf or bull shot and then nighty night so I'm doing things out of order just slightly and it's it's when you have a great baby like that you could really do whatever you want so that's kind of why I want to switch babies and see what happens