Lessons

Lesson Info

Newborn Shoot: Posing With Parents

we have our first couple here with their little baby and she is sound asleep. So we're gonna get started pretty quickly. Um I have actually spoken to mom and dad in the break to find out what they're comfortable with doing and what they're not comfortable with doing. So they've pretty much given me free range, so you're in for a treat. Um We've got an hour and a half. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and get a shot of mum on her own with the baby. A shot of dad on his own with the baby. A shot of the parents together with the baby. And if we've got a little bit of time, we might actually try and do a nice hand shot of dad's hands holding the baby. Nice close, close up one with a black background, which will look really, really good. So I've going to show you that in my studio. You've seen how small it is and what I do for space and the backdrops that I actually use. Um I have a great wall that's painted in a really neutral stone color, so it's it's perfect as a backdrop for a lig...

ht shot. Um for a dark shot, I use a piece of black fabric and it's just a stretchy piece of fabric that I raise my backdrop stand and I clamped to the sides. So I'm gonna use that today. Um And I also want to use a nice light colored background and because I don't have my beautiful wall and we've got some pictures hanging on the walls here. I'm just going to use one of my lighter colored wraps. I'm sorry, throws and that will be just a nice firm even background that'll be blurry in the background anyway, but it will be a great color to work with. So I'm gonna set my backdrop up first with the black and then when we do the shot of them together, I'll put the lighter color on there. So apparently yesterday quite a few people went to drag an image too, find out where to get this backdrop stand, which is great. But my piece of fabric is just from a fabric store and um it's stretchy so it can be clamped. And if you're having to travel to people's homes, this is a really great option. Um because you know, you don't, you can't always have a seamless role and um, to lug around with you and they do get damaged quite quite easily. And and this is a really economical way to have a backdrop and if it gets soiled or anything like that, you can just throw it in the washing machine. So this backdrop stand actually goes up quite high. So, and I think dad's quite tall, aren't you? I'm told it's good actually being taught because when I sort of have to lift this up in my studio, I always put it to a height that's just above above me. And that way I'm gonna be safe and I've got enough background around around everyone. This particular stand also comes with two extra bars so you can make it double the width as well. If you had to do a large family shoot with it or something like that. But I've had to clamp pieces of fabric to people's window frames and doorways and anything to try and get a backdrop for the shop. Our light direction is this way. So I'm going to bring our parents in front of the backdrop stand here so that they're in the light and it's the light is also going to bounce him behind and if I need to I'll bring in a reflector as well. Okay, so I we're gonna I'm gonna shoot dad first. And the reason that I shoot the dad first is because when I do the shot of them together, it's usually when the mum is holding the baby, especially when there's a height difference because I'll get the dad in nicely around the mum and make that beautiful nice close connection between the two of them. If the dad was holding the baby and it's quite a big height difference. I would bring have the baby here and bring the mum bring the mum in that way. So they were facing each other and the baby was between them. But I love it when when, when the dad is a lot taller than the mum because you can really get in behind her and give her a great cuddle. So I'm going to do you first if you can just pass your baby to your wife, right? She's beautiful. And how much did she weigh again and £10? She's gorgeous. Okay, come on over all radio. So we're going to get dead to take his button button shirt off first. Are you comfortable with taking your shirt off? I never like when it comes to the mum and dad shots, I will never tell the dad to take his shirt off. I will always ask them. And usually they have seen images of the dad holding the baby against the skin. I don't want to show his whole body, but I really want to show that connection and that skin to skin touch and it's just all about them then not, not about a shirt in the background or anything. It's just everything is about them in the image which is beautiful. Okay, so get that one off. So let's just go over to our backdrop a little bit more careful there just come forward to me just a bit and turn towards the light and she's she's like a big baby. So I actually wouldn't put her in a position where she could potentially fall or anything like that. She needs to be supported because I can feel however she is like We were £6 babies in here yesterday and this shell. Good look at her. She's just adorable. So I just really, really want the dad to hold his baby up towards his face to show that just that bond in that connection. So what I'm gonna do, I've brought his hands up, I'm directing him, I'm touching him, I hope you don't mind. I'm actually going to put her head and her arms up in this hand and her bottom in this hand and then once she is in her hands, I'm gonna make some final sort of fine tune adjustments with hands and feet and things like that. Yeah. Oh God, isn't she divine? So I'm gonna bring her hands up again. So while I'm placing her in your hands, I want you to keep your hands roughly where I've put them, I've had the dads bring their hands forward to me and try and take their baby off them. But it's very hard once they do that they're sort of it's like they're picking them up and it's very hard to position the baby in their hands when without me placing the baby in their hands. Okay? So what I'm gonna do now is position in a little hand. So I want you to bring this palm out so it's nice and flat she's having a stretch and while she's doing that we're going to bring that hand in underneath her face a big stretch uh huh. You hear that if I actually did have a dad that was a little bit nervous doing this and wasn't as confident. I would probably describe his hands and I'd start bouncing with him to settle the baby back down but I didn't need to do anything. I'm just holding her hands in place while the dad Tricia said asleep. Which is beautiful. So I am actually going to take the weight of the top half of her and I want you to slide your hand back towards you just so your fingers out in front of her face pull back. Perfect. And now what I'm gonna do is bring that hand around underneath mine. Perfect. And just give you a little rock. There we go. We'll get her settled and then we'll gradually just tuck her legs back up into dad's hands okay? It's crossing her legs. Okay? Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. So the only thing I want to do now is bring this hand in underneath dad's fingers so keep gently rocking. See she's pulling against my hand so she's not in a deep sleep there and just when I left her head flatten your fingers out and I'll slide her hand in underneath. Perfect. Every good event. Uh Yeah I'm not yeah just gently bring her towards you. Do you feel secure enough? You feel good? Okay? It's really important that the dad feels comfortable holding their baby if if you've got them in a position and they're uncomfortable it's it's not safe for the baby and it's not good for for the dead. He's gonna he's gonna feel really unsure of himself. Okay? So again just breathe in, relax your shoulders and look down at little any. Can you just take a step that way for me? Thank you. Only because my backdrop is not that wide being a black backdrop. I can actually create more black in in an image. So I'm not too concerned about my composition here. I'm just really focused on nailing that connection between the dad and the and the baby. Mhm. Yeah. Now can you bring her face gently up towards yours and just yeah look at me beautiful. Okay. Radio. And just bring her face up gently towards hers. Yeah. Yeah. How beautiful is that? Alright so now we're gonna bring mom in and get a beautiful photo of her and then we might actually have to bypass the white blanket I think because we're going at a time but we're gonna shoot them together on the black. Okay, so when I'm positioning the baby into mom's hands, I will keep like she's asleep. So I'm gonna leave any there for a minute while I show show mom how I want her to have her hands. And I wouldn't have the mum hold the baby looking down like that unless it was a more intimate type of photo that we're going for. But we're going for a portrait where you can see both of their faces and you can still get get the baby nice and close to get that connection as well. So what I'm gonna do is we have our light to my left. So we want this hand the hand that's closest to the light to come up and rest on mom's collarbone. And I'm gonna put Annie's little face up in here. So it's gonna be facing the light, which is going to be beautiful. And then this hand it's going to hold on his bottom. So when I place her in your hands, I'm gonna put her head here and her bottom here and I'm just gonna bring your hair back. Is that all right? Okay. Bring that hand nice and high up onto your collarbone. Yeah. And see if we can trick her and keep down. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry? Yes. Can I get a wet wipe or a tissue or something? Oh great. Thank you. So I don't want to wake her up but her bottom is a little bit wet under there and I don't want mom's hand to slip. So I'm just gonna do a little bit of dabbing here, trying not to wake her up. These are all important when you're holding a baby because you don't want to feel like she's slipping and being a heavy baby. You know, we want mom to feel secure as well and and he will sense if she's not. Does your watch come off easy or does it slip over? Okay? Because we don't have time and I know that if I pull mom's hand out and he may just wake up and unsettle. I'm going to leave the watch on but I would normally take that off. Okay? So what I want to do is bring Annie's head up a little bit higher and I'm going to help mom. That's it. So she's beautifully and close up in here. Uh huh. Mhm. These mm Yeah, in my hands, just while she's settling into that position, just stopping her arms and legs from flying out. That's all I'm doing. I'm not holding her there just there as a guide so that she feels secure. My mom rocks had asleep. The only thing I'm gonna do to change this before I take a picture is just move mom's thumb back in line with her fingers so it's not covering her ear and then the rest is up to you. Okay? Alright, grab my camera. Yeah, So what I'm gonna do mom to turn a little bit towards the light, just keep gently swaying. That's it because she's not sound asleep, turn a little bit more back towards me. Okay? And what I want you to do is just bring her pull her in nice and tight to you, that's it. Okay? I'm gonna get an exposure shot. Mhm Yeah, so I could possibly bringing a reflector here, but it's not too bad, not so bad that I'm absolutely desperate for one. Okay, so when you're ready, just get comfortable. That's it, pull her in nice and close, take a deep breath in, you can stop swaying and breathe out and just relax. That is beautiful. I'm gonna come up in nice and close to get that beautiful angle. Just turn into any just a little bit more. Okay and just lift your chin forward just a little bit more towards me and look up at me and rest into any beautiful Yeah. Now I'm going to ask you to try as hard as you can to imagine you're in a a little bit more ever a quiet setting without lots of people watching you and I want you to turn into her and just smell her because there is nothing better to um other than the smell of her own baby. Yeah. Yeah that is beautiful and that's how I would do that. So I have an image of the mum looking at the camera. I have an image of the mum looking down at the camera, I have her smelling. I've got some great options there. I also got some images of the dad smelling, kissing, touching his baby with his face and also looking at the camera. So I got a really good variety there without having to do too much except for make sure that ANne was comfortable in their arms