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Newborn Shoot: Nest
we have a baby girl, her name is Olivia and we're gonna get started choosing some props. What I wanna do is use a really good variety of props. We've got three babies. I'm going to attempt to try to get through to setups with each baby and I'm gonna do like a fairly easy one that's easy to put them in, easy to get them out. Very basic set up and then I'll move on to something where they're sitting maybe upright or or on top of with them. Okay, I'm going to start with a nest type situation with Olivia first and I wo uh huh. I always am I going to work on our dark wood background but I would always line my props with my cloth nappies. That's why I have so many of them because they're nice and firm. Um I'm not going to bring Olivia over until I've got the props set up, nice and nice and ready for her, she's asleep so I'll do this pretty quick. Okay, she wakes up so I'm just gonna fold them and bring them in and line the outside of the nest. And that way it's not the baby is not gonna be t...
ouching the actual nest itself once I've lined it with my cloth nappies and made it nice and and soft and secure in there. I'm gonna line up with um with a nice little net wrap and blanket as well. This is where you can bring in all your textures with with your fabrics and things like that. Great to style these little setups with hats and headbands and things like that. So the bottom of this particular basket slash nest is quite firm. So I'm gonna put two cloth nappies in there to make it really soft so she's comfortable at all times. This is a great size for a baby once, once we've got her in here in here and in position will be able to hide any of the cloth nappies that are visible, but it's good to have them up so that if her arms and legs go flying out, they're not going to touch the surface and it's not going to scratch her. So this is just a a soft piece of fabric with a torn edge and a similar color that I'm going to put in there. What else have we got? Here we go. Another really soft knit. This one is also from a brand new baby. Her nets are so delicate and so soft and those colors just look amazing in there. And by putting it down on the bottom like that, I can pull the edges around her legs to keep them in place. And if it was, if it was a boy baby, I'd be able to use that to cover any bits that we don't necessarily want to see. So I'm ready to bring Olivia over and I might get Miranda to come and give me a hand if that's all right, even though she's gonna be laying on her back in this particular prop when I get up to take the photo, I want Miranda's hand they're just keeping her nice and secure while I'm taking the shot and she can lift it when I take the shot and come back down. Just so in the process of me getting up to take the image and getting my camera settings and everything right. She's not gonna move and I have to go back and start all over again. Okay so I'm just gonna carefully unwrap her. All right come and sit down. What I would do is because I'm gonna be shooting down just for this while we're setting up. You can sit wherever. But when I'm working on a backdrop with a prop always get the parents to sit with their back to the war and their legs out towards me and that way they're not in my actual image but their arm is long enough to reach over and be supportive on the baby. Oh look at the speech. So in any particular setup or any shot that we're doing um any of the little detail shots that you can get of their tiny little features. They're great additional shots tour any set up. So I'm sorry I'm just trying to get this snappy undone. Oh okay. Yeah we will talk definitely about camera settings and everything but I'm pretty much working at 2.8. I want to get as wide as I can with this to keep it really soft anytime I would Um shut my aperture down is when I'm shooting parents and siblings, but when I'm focusing just on one baby, I want to, I want to keep keep the focus nice and soft and, and as wide open as possible. So I'm just gonna place her in there. She's opening her eyes, she's not crying. This is a good yeah, she's gonna go back to sleep here. Yeah. So I'm just going to position her, put her legs legs together. She's even got a band aid on from her needle prick in her heel. I think this is going to be our youngest baby Over the whole three days. So, and look where she's just placed her hand herself. That's so cute. So now I've got her in here. What I'm gonna do is use the cloth nappies underneath to help position her support her into a nice comfortable post so that we can see all of her and to keep her in place so that she doesn't have any of that startle reflex by not being supported. So the same as what I would do on the beanbag is now just adjust my cough nappies underneath, she says. So I'm just folding these down in to support her. Sorry, awesome. No, I'm not lifting her at all. I'm just pushing the cloth nappies in and around her to keep her nice and in position. I may just come underneath her and lift her head up just a little bit to support it. But I'm pretty much just tucking everything in and around her when I'm working with props. I don't like to work with babies that are awake. But something like this where they're on their back, they can't hurt themselves, they can't fly their head around or anything like that. I'm more than happy for them to be awake if they're settled but if she became unsettled at any point I would I would bring her out again. Sure. Mhm. So some very okay wow. Two um This particular prop is not going to tip. The question was um am I ever worried about the proper tipping or moving? But this is a very heavy prop and it's got a very flat bottom so it's not gonna go anywhere and your hand is gonna be right there, that's why you're here. Yeah. So I have Miranda here helping me but in my studio at home I would have a parent sitting on the floor next to me. Whoever was capable most of the time it's dead because they love to get in and help. Okay she's just drifting back to sleep there. I'm not going to do too much more with this particular set up because I think she's just so cute laying in here on her back and you'll see the shot in a second. When I do Expose for this. I am going to shoot wide open at 2.8. So that just means my aperture inside my camera is wide open means I can have a fastest a faster shutter speed. But I'm gonna have to come in because her skin is much lighter than the background. I'm gonna have to come in and expose for his skin tones. Because my camera, it's meta is going to take in all of the information in the shot and it's going to try and tell me to expose for my darker background. But I want to get perfect skin tones. So I'm gonna come in, I'm going to focus on her, adjust my settings to her skin and then I'm gonna come out and compose my shop. She she she she she she she So because I'm not in my normal environment with my window down here on the floor and I've got the light up there, it's really, really soft. It's a little bit darker than what I would not be used to. But I've increased my eye so it's up to 1250 but that's that's okay for this, this particular camera, it's not going to cause too much problem for me. Okay now what I'm gonna do is while Miranda's hand is on here, I'm going to come in and get my exposure on her skin tone which means I'm gonna come in nice and close and I'm going to fill my screen because I don't need to focus. But I'm going to fill my screen on with her and the light source, I'm not blocking the light because it's still coming in. More light is going to come in now that I stand up, so I'm gonna bring it back probably about a third of a stop and I'm gonna come in directly above her, take a shot and I'm pretty happy with that exposure. So now I'm just going to get myself ready and when Miranda is ready to lift her hand, we can take our shop. Whoops. She is a pretty, pretty strong startle reflex. So every time around lift her hand, she's just kicking her legs back. So by using my 70, my 24-70 lens, I'm able to zoom right out. I'm at 28 mm and I'm shooting directly above her. Oh yeah. Oh, move your hand for a second. Just put your hand back in there for me. Actually no, just let it go here.
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Newborn Photography