Lessons

Lesson Info

Live Shoot: Swaddle Newborn for Crib Shot

Alright, so this is what I do. I get set up, okay? I put the swaddle down on my lap, the excess hanging out over here, and a little bit right here, okay? And, I'm gonna put that there so it's not on the ground right now. Awe, he's so sweet. Awe, you're okay! Okay, so, this is a little bit of a rule of thumb. When you're dealing with babies in onesies, oh such bright lights, I'm sorry, when you're dealing with babies in onesies, I always recommend that we put babies in onesies if you're gonna be doing any kind of shot, like in the studio, or elsewhere, to have a button down, so you don't have to take anything over their head. Okay, 'cause that's a lot better, a lot easier, to get them off. 'Cause babies do not like to be changed, okay? Alright, so we're gonna go ahead and take this off. I know, it's bright lights, oh you're so sweet. Okay, he's gonna get mad, don't worry, we're not hurting him. It's gonna be cold, just a minute, little man. (baby crying) I know. Babies hate getting ...

their clothes changed, just like babies hate getting their diapers changed, okay. She's not a new mom, so she knows. She can tell, she's very concerned (giggling). Okay, so when we're wrapping, he has the blondest hair! When we're wrapping, the reason I like to sit down on the stool, okay, is I like to lean forward to keep their little feet up here. Do you guys see where this is? We want their little feet down here. We don't want to give them a chance to kick out of it, okay? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna start, can you guys see that the camera is we're good? Okay, I just wanna make sure the camera's placed correctly. We're good, okay. First thing we're gonna do is you're gonna take this outer arm, okay, you're gonna pull it down. Anybody see the miracle blankets before? This is kind of a miracle blanket wrap. You're gonna keep your excess stuff right here, and you're gonna really get that arm down. Right now we're just concentrating on arms, okay? And tuck it under his tooshie. (shushing) When babies don't have their arms flailing all over the place, they're just much easier to calm. Okay, do you guys see this arm tucked down in here? I tucked it under his bum, okay? And then I'm gonna take the next arm right here, but it right down here by his tooshie. I'm not worried about his legs right now, because right now his legs are here and I've got them under control. They're not going anywhere, I cannot swaddle if I don't have them on my lap because their legs are like blah! Oh, we need a burp cloth, please! Oh, you know what, can I just use this? Oh, spit up going on. So, this is actually a good learning experience. After babies have eaten, I try to not swaddle them right away, which is why he just decided he needed a snack, because it's show day, so why not? Go with the flow. I don't like to pull their legs up like that, that hard, he didn't have a full meal, so we're okay. They tend to kind of puke if you shove their stomachs up, so just let their tummies settle before you do anything crazy with them, he's fine, he didn't even notice. (cooing baby) I know, he's a noisy one (giggling). Okay, that arm's down here again. Can you guys see this, over there? Stand up in the back if you need to. That arm is down, I'm taking this and I'm just concentrating on his arms right now. I'm not worrying about his legs, okay? I know, you're so noisy. Okay, getting those arms down, wearing a straight jacket. Yeah, he's awake too! Oh, are you looking outside? Do you wanna say hi to everybody in a minute? We can do that! Okay, his arms are down, you guys see this? Legs are still up. I'm gonna do one more round of arms because we know, newborn babies are a lot stronger than they look! So, we need to really get him in here. Now, when I do these swaddles, I'll either leave them in the white, or I'll change them and put them in a prettier swaddle on the top depending on the baby, depending on if it's a boy or a girl, you know. Okay, we've got two swaddles down, two swaddled layers down. Now, it's time to start doing the feet. Feet are coming up here. He's a little bit longer, is he longer? He's kinda big, we might need two swaddles. Okay, so this, can you guys see this fabric down here? I have a little bit of fabric, okay, at the bottom left over, I'm gonna pull it up, okay? 'Cause I want that fabric tucked in 'cause we're turning him into a little potato, okay? And then we're gonna take this, I'm gonna make the first round around his legs, okay? Real tight, to get it real tight, you lean forward like this, okay? Um, the other swaddle over there, (mumbling) can you grab that one over there? He's long, so I'm gonna do two swaddles on him. Okay, thank you! Okay, so what I'm doing now, is I'm concentrating on his feet. Thank you, my dear. You're welcome. This is the pretty one, but that's fine. We'll use that one too. Oh here it is, nevermind. Okay, longer babies, I might use two pieces. What I'm doing right now if you guys can see, is I'm actually wrapping his feet, okay, and I'm leaning forward and every time I lean forward, I wrap. Okay, you wrap when you're leaning forward. Otherwise, his little tootsies are gonna come out, okay? I'm gonna do one more layer just for good measure. Because I want it to look pretty, and his little feet are just, he's long, he's really long. And some babies are just longer. Alright, so this one you can do looser. Do you wanna see him first though? I mean, he's like a potato. (laughter) But he's happy, but this is the whole point of this, is showing how happy he is, okay? There's puke all over my pants (giggling), little stinker. This is why we bring extra clothes, okay. Okay, we're gonna do one more layer, and then I'm gonna show you how to do this crib shot. Another thing I want to say is with siblings, I always swaddle them like this. Because, with siblings, what happens? The baby will cry, or they're flailing their arms around, and then the siblings get concerned, and then they run out of the picture. So, if you are shooting a sibling with a newborn, swaddle the newborn. Okay, you will have a lot more success with your session. Alright, so we're doing the same thing, right now what I'm doing is I'm just trying to make it look a little bit prettier, so I'm wrapping the bottom up a little bit, okay? Anybody have any questions while we're wrapping? This is as technical as we get. (giggling) Alright, here he is, Mr. Potato. He's so cute, you guys! I'll tuck this in, and then I do have a prettier one, which we might throw on top, but we might just put this on him for now. There we go. Meet potato. Awe (giggling). Can you tell how big he is though? He's solid, but he's in here, and he's happy, right? For now, so let's do the crib shot, alright? Since I have my 35mm on, I'm just gonna go ahead and leave it on. Oh, he needs to burp. If you guys feel a gas bubble in there, just go ahead and take your time and do this, I don't want to fly him right back down. Oh hi, you are looking right at me! He's so cute! You look like your momma! Yeah, you do! Alright, we're gonna lie him in the crib. Now, I want to show you the light here. I would never lie his head over here. Who knows why? The windows are here, right here. We never want to put his feet by the window. Okay, you never, whenever you're photographing anything, any human, you don't want to up-light their nose. That butterfly lighting, you know? So, I wanted to get that other stool. Alright, he is adorable right now, and we are gonna go for it. I'm gonna put this here, I did bring a couple hats. This one and a gray one, so we might put some hats on him. This is cute, little thing. So I brought this oatmeal covered wrap. So, what I like to do with the newborn shoots, is we do them simple, and then I might throw a prettier wrap and then match something, you know, match a hat with it. Okay, for now we're just gonna do simple because it's kind of my thing. You guys see how chill he is in here right now because we wrapped him, alright? We tried to do the non-wrapping, but he was not having it. (camera clicking) He is actually looking at me right now. Wonder if I have a dead zone. Let's see if it works over here. (camera clicking) (baby sneezing) You hear him? Mmm-hmmm. He's going to the bathroom. (laughing) See if he'll look at me. (camera clicking) Okay, I wanted to get him, there he goes. Okay, so he's looking, so I wanted to go ahead and grab that. Alright, and we're gonna go up in the crib. Isn't he cute? That light's coming in and out. Oh! He has the hiccups. I'm not used to cords here, alright. Oh, hiccups. And that's because he just ate and we swaddled him. We just shoved all the air up into his little system. But he's okay, he's hanging in, okay. Alright little man, you wanna look up? Hey, what's going on? Hi, he likes the light! Woo wee, okay, there we go! (laughing) There we go, okay. Could I have a spotter, please? Thank you, oops! (mumbling) Huh? I was just telling them that you came unplugged. Yeah, uh, we good? Okay, okay. [Background Voice] Can you do a test shot? Yeah, I might do a test shot. (shutter clicking) Okay, this is with the 35, you guys are gonna be able to see that you can't get up totally high enough for the crib shot. Sometimes you need to go up even further, okay. For some reason, this is posting sideways, but, we'll show you guys when we load them all. Now, do you guys see the way I'm shooting? I'm angling down, okay? I'm not shooting from his tooshie, I'm shooting from his head and shooting down. I'm never shooting up the nose, okay? He's just got this serious case of the hiccups. Alright, so now what I'm going to do, is I'm going to turn his little head over. Oh, you are just trying to go potty! I hear you, here (shushing). There you go. Lay on your back, will yah? Okay, there you go. Are you gonna turn your head back up here? Are you gonna turn your head back up here? Oh, he is so cute, hey, you are looking at me like what are you doing? (giggling) Do you hear him? Can you guys here that? (chuckling) He had too much broccoli. What who's that, that's so funny. Can you guys see what I'm doing? It's easy, right? But the key is, swaddling, okay? Oh, you just have to go potty so bad, don't you? He's pushing, you guys. We're going with the flow, okay! We're getting a yawn? (shutter clicking) Okay, another shot that I like to do, is I like to do a pull back of people peeking in on the baby, okay? So we're gonna go ahead and do that. Picture this, but the other direction, okay? Oh, it's going sideways (giggling). We'll do one more this way. I'm hoping he's gonna turn his little head up. There we go, hi! Hi (giggling)! It's all funny to everybody else, isn't it? Well, you stinker! (giggling) A lot of times I'll put wash cloths underneath, like the crib, to keep his head. Babies heads aren't flat, you know? So this is normal. And he's hiccuping, so he's abnormally... It's okay, alright, you ready? (camera clicking) You stinker, alright, there we go, right there. (laughing) He's not gonna win, now. (giggling) I've never had a baby win, it's not starting today. He's just very interested in life. (camera clicking) I thought he might yawn. Okay, one more shot. (camera clicking) Sort of. You stinker! Did it come up? (class aweing) Okay, good. Kind of, yeah. He's got a little gooby eye going on, so he's having a hard time opening his one eye. (camera clicking). And that's a funny face.