Lessons

Lesson Info

Advanced Posing for Newborns

this lesson we're going to focus on some more advanced posing I'm gonna take you through a couple of setups for images that look complicated but aren't necessarily complicated so I'm going to show you how to achieve those really easily first we're gonna work on a couple of images that I wouldn't recommend for every baby because not every baby is going to go into every pose and that's something that we need to really focus on and remember that when we are working with the little people they are little people they prefer to move a certain way and they preferred a bend a certain way some liketo actually back some like to curve and and tuck their legs up underneath them so it's reading them so if at any point during this segment that we're trying to put a baby into a pose and they're not comfortable I'm going to pull back and just go with something a little bit easier because they comfort and the safety is always going to be my priority um when I am working with babies on more complicated ...

setups um I like to use my beanbag for support so some people look at these images and assumed that those babies actually being held up in the air and I've I couldn't quite understand why someone would want to put a baby up in here and have them unsupportive so being able to create a set up like this and show you how to do it easily effectively and with the use of your posing bag and also making the comfort of the parents easy as well because I mean could you imagine trying to get a baby perfectly posed in that position with the deads and keeping their hands still that whole time like not only with the baby become uncomfortable and feeling supported at times but the dead's arms would start to shake and start to tremble which the baby's going to feel a swell so doing it all in the bag and making them feel as comfortable as possible is really important as well so that's how I would do it it's really quite easy way can all that either have them sitting on the floor or honor apple box or a stepladder or I'm in serious a step box or something like that whatever they're comfortable with so yeah and then I just get them the lower they are the easier it is to come and shoot above them as well so I like teo to keep it really simple and uncomplicated and then something like this this is kind of a combination off the bum up pose and the side pose so not every baby is going to tuck their legs up like that and keep their toes together so it's just a matter of feeling them and finding out where they're comfortable and then this one definitely not oppose recommended for every baby so reading them and seeing where they're comfortable and making sure that you are supporting them the whole time I have clients that come in and request this and it's not something it's not opposed that you know I go to in my sessions and I tend to only do it when I'm requested for it but obviously there is some babies that are born breech who just naturally lift their legs up underneath him you can try and put them in that bum opposed but they're just going to keep trying to bring their legs forward because that's natural for them so reading them and seeing what they're comfortable for is what I'm going to do it definitely throughout this session as well this is probably the only pose some like to call it taco pose I don't really name a lot of my poses because I actually find it really hard to relate that to a tuck that that's that's another conversation but this is the only pose that I would start with cloth nappies underneath my blankets I would create that shelf before I put the baby down the rest of my poses the beanbags very flat oppose the baby then I used my coffin appears to support so we'll start off with this particular pose in a minute and I'll show you how I create that support underneath the blankets and in the last one something I love to do and I'm a little bit of spare time at the end of the session it's gone really well or even if I've got a baby that's really unsettled if it's got a little bit of wind or a billy payne having them upright and wrapped really makes them feel secure and the babies in this pose there being held the whole time they're not sitting there on their own and to get them beautifully smooth like that on the edges that's the most if that's done in photo shop so it is you know pretty good in camera but I just used the liquefying the walk tall just to make them look more grounded and more supported throughout that pose and then we clone out the hands and the arms as well and then posing twins that's obviously you know something that I get asked a lot about you know how do you get them perfectly together and molded so having patients number one with any multiples but I was extremely lucky to have twins of my own so I got to practice a lot on them and some think like this getting them to curl up they love being next to each other they used teo having something close to them even when they're fraternal twins and they're in completely different sex it's so confined in there that they used to that movement of another baby right next to them so yes something like this is supposed that I would do it fairly often when I am photographing twins because it's easy to see both of them and make them look eunice um as well and then obviously posing babies with their mothers and the fathers you can do this with both mom and dad you know it's completely up to them if that's something that they like or if it supposed that you wanted to do or try for a particular session I would definitely not recommend this for a large baby because obviously it wouldn't fit in mom's hands this particular little little girl was only about I think she's any about six pounds so she was tiny which was why we wanted to pose her and show that size in the mom's hands how little she really wass but that's basically the same concept as that taco pose you know having them in this position with their legs tucked up underneath them I just used mom's hands teo to support her in that same position and then that's like the bomb up pose we've got her posed in that same pose but mom's hands are what's supporting her and the back of the baby is on mom's chest so that back thigh is sitting just above her breast line and it's supported in there and then you've got her her chin just resting at the back of her shoulder there and on her head keeping her securely in place I wouldn't do that again with a large baby so you know thiss some poses that you can do with big babies and some poses that you can't and something like this that's a little bit more complicated and takes a little bit more time to sit up I wouldn't recommend it so I'm saying that let's get this beautiful little baby down here and photograph her I'll grab a couple more of my cold snap is to start with so I want to support I want to create a shelf for her to come up higher when the opposed in that taco pose sometimes you khun they look flat but it's only because the camera has been rotated they should be more upright so their head is upright like this and they feet tucked up underneath um so we're going to create that shelf for the top half of the body to come up and be elevated and then we can have their little bottom half down a little bit lower and first out I'll just take this some quickly can I get lacey can I get someone to come out here and just clamp down those sides for me just to pull it time so I'm not spending any more time doing I think I need one more clamps she's so sleepy so I've gone with a feeling natural color here and I'm going to use a bit of cheese cost to pop around here to make her look nice and nice and cozy here we go please wind it'll be a nice contrast so I'm just kind of slide my hand in underneath her head and if you just lean him back into my hand perfect no that's perfect it's nice and warm over here thank you that's great I'm just trying to get that nice smooth backdrop so it can limit the amount of time I have to spend fixing any wrinkles or anything in koda shop she's got so much blonde hair is gorgeous so just while she's relaxing here in my hands I'm just gonna slip this nappy off so we can't see it throughout rap she tend to curl up she nice curly baby yeah never could stretch at the moment I'm just gonna push this nappy through wait so when you're doing a setup like this having that well in the middle is gonna be a really great help and then going all the way to the bottom of our blankets we can start to build up our shelf across here our light source is obviously over here and with the taco pose I liketo have them down nice and tight so if I was up here like this then I would have the light source over there but because we're down like that were coming into that light which is which is what we want we want to light her face and same same set up is when you are putting them into the high into the bum oppose we wanna have one arm at the back out as the support I'm just going to bring her up and forward into my hands strange superimpose you see a little fatal already tucked up there and very similar to how we want them to bay pose making sure their feet are crossed over so that they're nice and comfortable in this is really important and when we put her bottom down her feet direct her bottom and her feet are going to be sort of facing in this direction and then we're going to fold her over them so we can see them if you fold her directly over her feet her entire body is going to be on them and we won't see them all so I'll show you how papa down so we've got the feet crossed over just like that might stand up actually so her legs in a bottom facing that way now I can pull the sound down sets her back support arm in this hand up like that so I'm not just laying her down I'm still holding on to her and keeping her above her leg so she's nice and comfortable and I'm letting her relax because if any point while I'm doing this and she she is showing the signs of discomfort I can stop without actually hurting her because some babies won't go into this pose and we do not want her to be uncomfortable at any time she's just having a good old stretch I don't think she's gonna like that I'm not gonna make her shaken cia she goes to sleep when I pull up wrists but she's a bit of back archer on the taco pose is not something I would do with someone that preferred to watch their back that's what I'm gonna do is pop it down on the side and see should go into our other post which is a combination ofthe decide in the bum oppose I'm just going to bring a little lakes back out the back before I put it down just biding awash stretching letting her relax so the top half is pretty much in a pose that I wanted to be in and we just kind of bringing transition how long these through and curl up a bit if I tried to force her into any of these positions and you can see her reacting to my touch each time she kind of does like a bit of a push sure or ah like a stretch if I tried to continue to force her she's gonna wake up so I'm just moving really slowly because I don't want her to wake up we're going to bring the little legs through took them up lacey could you please pass me that term great blocks just their place now that we've got her sort of simian our parties we just need to refine it just a little bit thank you very much I hear this one this has just got on my little girl's sort of hats and bits and pieces I'm just going to pop a little headband on pants or anything like that I just don't like them to look like they're completely naked in here actually this one doesn't have my headbands and at lycee I'm so sorry so I've put the cloth nappy there just to stop her legs from coming out again and keeping keeping them in there pose so now we're just gonna fix the little hand up and it's kind of down here like this so we want to bring it up and have it resting on top of her off the top of the hand where it's nice and flat one of them's cut on my head bands in it might be still so she's drifting off into a little sleep there yes please thank you e we got a bit of a regular at the moment that's all right she's just finding her comfy spot for bringing a hand back down we'll bring this one up here just to make sure she's nice and comfortable scoop a little head up place her arm once we've got that front hand secured underneath her face then we can start to really um position those legs I'm just gonna open his fingers up take the weight of her head off the bag there we go oh no fan of being moved to she was she's sleeping q just once those days del that's okay hold the fear she might go back to sleep if he holds the future go back to sleep so we'll try one more time with his hands so we've got that hand positioned under there into her face and when we start teo pull up up up cloth nappies will be we'll get that into place but we'll bring these legs up and we'll take a picture of this and then we might bring you on and we'll do a nice hand shut on the bag on a black backdrop people I was gonna tuck this wrap all the way in behind so they can't see it but we still got it at the front as a little bit of detail we're gonna bring in a little bit higher we're going to position her and shape without cost nappies underneath but from the front where we're gonna be shooting you won't be able to see that at the back but it is creating a little bit of support behind her as well so I'm just gonna move my cost nappies from under here position a bit better to keep those feet there for a moment and then using my hands underneath her shins and I thought here it's a flat hand I'm just going to bring her around a little bit more toe where she's comfortable she's bringing their feet back in towards the bottom and now we're going to start to really call her up I'm gonna tide and not her both just loop it over once and then we can tuck it behind her head so that actually the weight of her head is gonna hold it in place we're not gonna fiddle with it too much okay I've got one hand underneath her head in here I'm going to start to fold the cloth nappies have already got there up into the position where we want to see her little face so taking the white off her head off the bag with one hand and then using the other two adjust the nappies she really pulled that hand down in there be great if we could see it and she's drifting off into that slave bring that knee up off the bag I could give it just a little bit of a lift under there so I'm going to do before I left her anymore no I just can't do it for me I can pull a handout when they have their wrist in like this it's very hard to see any of their fingers and you'll feel a lot of their wrist so we really want their risk to come down and up like this so it's pointed out instead of in sh sh sh sh sh actually dead can you come and sit here we're gonna sidetrack her with a little bit of patting on the bottom or the back while I fix her hands and then you can also keep if you put one hand on here like that with a base of her feet and then just kind of pat gently at the back of my just sidetrack her a little bit so she's not so aware of me trying to be sneaky with her hands here hey I can see the movement every time I touch a hand looks extra does doesn't she for a little thing there we go so that wrist is now pointing out we're gonna push that some through make sure all of the fingers and nice and flat I've got that hand and perfect position now wait go so the difference of saying hand is supposed to not saying hand this is a really big okay so I'm grabbing all my blankets with one hand and positioning them with the others you can relax so when they're little cheek is squished up like this we're going to give him a little bit of a lift and just pull that cheek through so it looks nice and round I'm gonna put one thumb here on the far side and just give her chicken little pulling my arm in the way for you to see do you want to come in nice and close all right was not ready to take a shot something that looks quite simple is that it takes quite a while to sort of get them into that position and we have um a little one that's a little bit more sensitive to touch then they say the last one that we're working with when we're posing with props ideally it'd be great if we could get this elbow sort of down in flat but she likes to have it up todd and that's fine and you can see some of these fingers so instead of trying to hard them would do anything with him we can just bring them through and wrap them around that elbow I'm in that wrist my body parts right making sure all of that it's nice and smooth so I'm gonna get a safe shot and then I'll come in and and do it quick refine and then we'll move on to the next one was that a little smile then I missed it oh no chickie you look so cute a little adjustment just moving her army relaxing it pushing that resistance that the hand is coming out straighten those fingers first don't get bent up underneath yeah really pulling that in isn't she so I'm just gonna come and stand in front of this camera sorry skin into a little adjustment it should make a huge difference like okay we might move on to the next hand because I don't think we're going to get her there and I do know that she's gonna love being in dead tans we might get one only because I'm stubborn I'm just coming in behind there just to create a little bit of support so she doesn't push it head backwards brainless fingers together oh look at that thanks for everything is nice and smears in tech tane is that beautiful no don't you uh ah e not going to give up all right kenna we were talking before about you know getting to that point where you know wendy stop like I could sit here and keep going and we might not ever get that shot so I want to move on to the next one which I know she's going to be nice and comfortable and she just doesn't want me to move your hands and that's okay because you know not everything goes according to plan I'm gonna have more opportunities throughout the course to really work on some of those poses as well with you so it's not like we're gonna miss out no I'm just gonna unpick this I'm gonna actually give her two dead in a second for a cuddle while I put this black backdrop down so this is the pose that I was talking about where we have the baby position in dead's hands that looks like they're actually up high but they're not so it doesn't have to be a specific type of material to do this this is just a piece of black fabric um some of the fabrics that I like to use you have like a little bit of a stretch in them so you can clamp them and get rid of all the wrinkles but when you're doing an image that's completely black in the background you you can't see all those wrinkles anyway because we're going to really dark and those blacks right down in post so I'm gonna lift her up into your hands if you sit back on it it's her little blanket there we'll just put that across heras well take your head off if you just bring it back into your lap I'll pass her over to you so this is your second second baby but the age difference and what does your other little one think about having a new baby so she loves her but she doesn't like sharing mama that does not surprise me yeah but she wants to hold her and concert all really now if I set dead up here is that gonna be okay for the cameras do you think if I set up over it's gonna be okay great so what I'm going to do then where we gonna position position dead we want him to be nice and comfortable have flexible if you move really close to the beanbag if your legs how far can you get them apart really or would you prefer to sit on the floor like this with one leg bent and one like out see that's how I like it but finding where the dead's comfortable I wouldn't just kind of go oh hey we're going to do this shots on the beanbag can you like sit here and spread your legs as far as you can for you know a good amount of time because they're going to get uncomfortable and we don't want them to be uncomfortable at any point so I'm just gonna push the beings on this side down so that when he pulls his elbows in here we've actually got a bit of a slope so therefore the baby's going to wrist in his hands like it would naturally but it's also got the support off the bag and it's a great way for him to be able to keep his elbows together like this and then bring your wrists together and keep your hands up here and then I can position her in hands and then he can just curl his fingers around where I put them on we can also use some coffe nappies underneath as well just to kind of help hold the head and things like that in position you want to make sure that there is comfortable is possible though the whole time I'm gonna come and grab grab her from you so you can come and get comfy any thing out of the way and just be careful when you're coming around of those those blankets are she's nice and slow there you do this a lot her other leg just caught up there they were so if you bring your sleeves up a cz well as high as you can and slip your watch off that's alright okay and coming where you're comfortable and just bring your elbows together for me that's it we're testing testing is flexible I am going to put the head at that end so it's facing up towards the light not at this end you went where james that probably wouldn't be so bad okay so if you keep your risks together all do the holding an opposing really really important that you explain that to the parents especially when you're doing something like this because they do get quite helpful and now if you relax your hands as much as you can do you use a dummy it or what you call them supplies oh I don't have one I only use them if you use them I'm just gonna gently kind of ten had had knives towards the ceiling did she did she feed before she came out here but she probably forty foot work that out okay so what I'm gonna do is just give put my hand under here I'm just gonna gently rock here I'm gonna bring her hands away from your face so if your hands and nice and soft and not not stiff I'm gonna rock her and she might just go off to sleep I always get my own way wide awake babies are great to photograph when you want to oppose their hands and feet I think you think so so fascinating how much patients you have but also just a reminder to all of us out there that setting expectations with the families and knowing how much time you might need especially for the more advanced type suppose is right you know I love that you just said sitting those expectations because sometimes I think we said expectations for ourselves too high in decision when we keep it simple it becomes simple he doesn't have to be complicated you know we're trying to do something here that I don't often do in my sessions but just to show you how it's done safely so and it doesn't always go according to plan and occasionally you get parents that come in and they have you know a million photos to show you what I want this this and this and start to get a bit stressed out you're like oh my god got out that baby sleeps and and things like that but if we do go into a session and we set our expectations really really high you know we're just going to get frustrated with ourselves and and and disappointed and I think I hear it so often without the photographers that you know in their early stages you know they're trying to do so much and they're comparing themselves to other photographers online and when they work doesn't turn out exactly the way they wanted to because their expectations are so high they feel really flat and they tend to think oh you know I'm not cut out for this so I'm not good enough or what have you but you know to realize that we all start somewhere is really important I often look back at some of my first images and and I see the baby post terribly and hands and feet everywhere and you can relax a little bit if you're uncomfortable and I think I thought at the time I had actually nailed those poses like I thought I was doing really well until I saw other people's work and like oh they're photos look so good you know so refined so finished so I was determined to actually do it but I did get impatient at times I did feel frustrated and I did sort of think wow I'm really not cut out for this but I kept trying and I was persistent and I had patients and you know with every baby is different as we are so when you get them into the studio and you're trying to do a particular set up it's not always going to code plan and that's why I tend to work with those those go to poses in the safety off keeping it simple so that every time I get a client and I'm gonna give her back to you for a top up because I think that's what the issue here is it will keep her nappy off just in case she drifts off to sleep so that it doesn't leave any marks and if you want to jump up dead probably dying tio it's gonna bring her forward there for a minute that lanky well public over backs it doesn't get cold hey right there stretching out all right she has got and nappy underneath her bottom so she's not gonna make a mess in there izzy slate just about just down yeah come on in come and have say for a minute kelly I just want to say thank you so much for talking about that that vulnerability part of it because I know that completely resonates with me and I don't know about all of you in here in terms of shoots that didn't go as I put these heavy expectations on myself is this I should know how to do all these things when I didn't yet you have learned them yet so so thank you for for addressing that you welcome like I mean I've been there I did that and it's it can be really deflating times but yeah and that's what I think people forget is that they they don't know unless we share information you know we can't expect our industry to improve as a whole as well but yeah went going back teo what's posted online and on on social media on people's websites and blog's it's their best work no one's going to post a terrible photo on their facebook page and that's one image from their session you know those twenty images from my shoot when I post one not all twenty look that incredible I'm only going to post the ones that ah wow because that's how I advertised for my business so that's a whole nother ball game that we can talk about in the marketing segment this course we're going to do the hand went again we just tried over heave it we were a little bit of weight cooking for food just started stirring around again so he has the most adorable cheeks okay let me take him how much did he weigh eight pounds to be told so I'm just gonna unwrap him gently here oh you hate that sound so how flexible e dad I don't know many guys that are really flexible like it's probably a pretty silly question really I'm sorry so what I'm gonna do is get you to come and sit over here in my bag if that's all right mr jude it's time for you to go to sleep if you come on this way and if you can sit as closest that close to the bag as possible as comfortably as you can so sometimes talking one leg out and putting the other leg um facing the bag so kind of like that but facing it you know I'll be honest okay come down I don't ever get deads tio to neil because they eventually then needs going to really hurt so yeah if you can come and then if you can lean and put your elbows together there for me that's how we're gonna do that one but if you'd prefer to sit on a box we can do that as well let me slide out of the way way way also have your phone with the white noise if you think that might be helpful yeah I just haven't sort of been putting it on so it's easy tio tio hear us talk but let's try that and see if that just creates a little bit of sound it is a cake great thank you so yet in a normal session I have like a heartbeat monitor playing as well as white noise and I've got a nice beautiful constant sound going on I can still have a conversation with my clients around that noise but I don't want anyone to not be able to hear because it's too loud as well in here and sometimes I can't hear so kelly would you reschedule do you have to end up rescheduling people if you can't get anything yeah no no no a session I can always get my images but it's just working with that baby and they all have their awake period they're gonna have awake time they're going teo want to feed they're gonna want to go to the bathroom all of those things during the decision so it's just a matter of reading them and you know I think like in an environment like this way schedule we have like time frames and things like that were really trying to push through things but and do particular set ups where is like in a normal environment I would perhaps wrap this little guy and put him in a basket or put him in a in a crate where he's nice and comfortable and confined and he's happy so I would actually photograph him awake and have you know some of those nice eye contact shots so I'm always going to get something but you know for the purpose of what we're doing right now and trying to do some some specific set ups to show you how they done we really need him to be a bit bit sleepy yeah I've got his legs tucked up here and I'm just rocking him gently back and forth and I've got my hands on his elbows and shoulders as well no it's fine to like facing them towards the light and so many of these techniques have mentioned like in my first class as well just rocking them off to sleep and taking the time to do it you start to feel their little bodies relax and all their arms and legs like what we've seen is that you generally try to get the baby to sleep yourself versus handing it back to the parents is that correct yes definitely because if he sort of do still doing a few little mouth opens he's recently been fed has he yeah so if he's looking for more food and he's not hungry he's recently been fitted and he should be ok then I'm going to continue to try and settle him because I've got nothing that he needs her as if I was to hand him back to mom he's gonna want to go back to that company place that favorite place which is feeding because not only is he feeding but he's got the sound of the smell of his mom and it's warm and it's just it's what they love they fall in love with that I haven't wrapped him up too tight my arms there because I don't want himto wake when I go to unwrap him and put him down she but if the baby's really unsettled and not feeding or anything like that with their parents in the hospital that's what midwives do they actually go and take the baby away from the mom to calm them down if they crying that much because and sometimes in those first few days babies maybe hungry and mom's milk hasn't completely come in yet or it's crying for some particular reason ah lot of the times they'll take the baby away just to settle it down because they don't have anything that that baby wants these busy hands anymore questions show away from me so if they after you've done all you're safe shots and you got image that you need but parents really want their specific short and it's not that the babies and comfortable he just don't want to go to sleep would you continue trying for how long until you say that's that a really good question actually because say for example we had gone through al session and they had come with an image off the taco pose or something else that was just a little bit more time consuming and complicated to sit up I would always explain to my parents that if we have enough time at the end of the session will definitely work on that pose and if we if the baby at any point is uncomfortable or eyes getting upset or unsettled then we'll stop and I won't force them into that because you know explaining to the parents when they want something that you know isn't necessarily required in a shoot like like I said you know you gotta keep it simple but if they're looking for you looking for if they're wanting a specific image and I'm I'm not happy with forcing the baby into a particular pose I'm going to tell them that at any point the baby becomes unsettled or uncomfortable we're going to stop and move onto something else or we're in the session there and letting them know that the baby's comfort and safety is paramount you know that it's usually very very fine with them I have never had a parent argue with me know I definitely want that set up because like I said I've said a couple of times you know they see the images and they fall in love with um but they don't know how they created and some are more complicated than others and some require you know a little bit more bored posing or just a baby that locks it likes to live a certain way he's not going to sleep trying to feed on my shoulder okay so I know most of the post is we've been trying to get through um baby really needs to be pretty sleepy and settled the last pose that you showed in the keynote the potato sack pose since babies really wrapped up and kind of supported threw out start to finish is that one that can be shot within awake baby definitely and I always start wrapping within awake baby but I did do that set up in my first creative life class and it was part of the bonus material so that's downloadable on how to do that and it's the same it's the same way that I do it for every time just with different fibers and fabrics but yes because they're wrapped and then nice and secure they usually tend tend to drift off to sleep anyway so yeah it would be definitely something I could do but I'm sorry mr busy if we don't if we don't think he was gonna fall asleep we're thinking about bringing in crystal and little baby no just just the way my baby way crystal on just and just show us go through the motions of what you would do if she were you were a way you can help our no stay there all use you're here if you don't mind holding my baby you can come back to your mommy for a minute you know it's so funny because when I was up meeting all of these beautiful models on all of them fast asleep and that's fine because you know I know I don't like to tell my parents to keep their baby's awake pride decision or anything like that because you know sometimes people have to travel a long way to come for a session so the baby's going to sleep in the car anyway so you can't keep them awake in the car unless they don't like being in the car and very few babies don't like being in a car but I don't think krystal needs white noise ah my case I bring your elbows up onto the bag together and dig them down in that's it so you're nice and comfortable and what I want you to do is turn your us together like this perfect and crystal just needs some bling another thing my mom made so if I'm going to put the baby down into dead's hands I would start with a position like this the same way I was holding jude so that I can transition them from me onto the bag easily and the trick is to not having their head up so high that looks unbelievable so if the baby is you know you're imagining that the baby's held up right like that if the head is up above the hand it's gonna look like it's not supported so to try and make it look as realistic as possible we want to keep everything within those hands unfortunately krystal's hit does not turn like a normal baby's head but we'll talk through that process and I'll be just a gentle as I would be with a normal baby so I'm going to keep that hand my hand underneath both legs to keep the legs tucked in and the hands crossed over and we're just going to gently slide crystal in and just bring your hands out flats and not keeping them underneath but yes like that so like when they go like that you can't see the hands so we could keep them out like that so they're cupping that way and just explaining that sorry I'm speaking one of my students and I am you but when you are in your studio with your clients explaining and showing them and having a demonstration dole sometimes for the parents is a great way for them to visualize a particular powers because one of our complicated sit ups where the mom was holding the baby like that trying to describe that pose to a parent has never seen it before is really hard but having a dull to demonstrate with is actually quite easy coming in like this and so she's on his side and we want the back leg closest to the bag to be underneath so we can see the toes coming through the leg here and then that way we can bring this leg down and it's going to sit sit sort of like that and then hands can come up and hold on to the toes and what I do is I get the dead's to sit with their hands fairly flat to start with and when I'm ready to take the photos that's when we start to curl up a little bit to get that beautiful girl in there so before I would do that I would turn the baby's head up towards the ceiling so bringing the nose up so that when I'm up here shooting I can actually see the face not a side profile and I always want to see the baby's face unless of course they're they're really pulling against you and you can't so working with them and what they're comfortable with so having the hands positioned on them I can now what I want you to do is bring you ahead fingers in and kill her up in a can start to see she's so stephanie she's less flexible than here um but to keep them in this particular pose you know we can come in underneath the beanbag without cloth nappies we can give the head a little bit of a rise there and we can also give the bomb a little bit of a race just to make them that a little bit more curly so I don't want to stand directly over the dead but I want to come in as close as I possibly can and I'm gonna shoot animal horizontal way the landscape and how light is come down a little bit say that would be the angle I'm sure if my head is gonna come up in a second but it would that would be the angle in which I would shoot this from and if we could get um you know if we had a baby in here then pushing this cost happy here yeah up underneath would help hold the face around this way bringing that nose up towards the ceiling if if you come from back here to shoot and you're and you're like this with your camera angle you're fine you can stay there you just tell the dead right I'm coming in behind you I'm actually going to stand above you and if you just stayed there without moving you can get the shot so it's coming in getting those different camera angles but you have to be aware that you know if you're coming from down here it's going to look like you're shooting up if you're coming from the side it's gonna look like you shooting from the bum and a swell so coming in as close as you can to the parent and just letting them know you're behind them and all of that kind of stuff and talking them through that process I've done this set up a couple of times with the baby posed on its on its tummy so it looks like it's in that bum up pose which looks really great just flatten your hands back down again for me you okay there just tell me if you're uncomfortable so I would have the baby positioned in my hands like I would putting it down into that obama pose hard kisser here it doesn't and then crossing her feet over underneath and bringing them in this way and it's the same principle as bringing the knee and the elbow together I'm not going to try and make her look half decent in this because she's not going to do it but just to show you that you know that's how I would do it but creating that flat shelf and the fact that we've got you know this nice slope means that when the hands air out like this the baby can kind of slide down into that area and you can you can really sort of um really push it and if you can't get a decent slope then you would just put more props up this way to kind of push the baby into dead's hands to make it look like it's actually sitting up they like them but you can hop up now thank you kind of got no babies now because they've all gone for a feed but that's the case you just got to see me work with a couple of babies during the advance posing segment unfortunately they weren't a sleepy as I would have liked them to bay but in a normal session I would have worked through that and gone on to something a little bit more simpler but to show you what I would do with the baby that was a little bit more relaxed not passing nice and content I have included some extra videos for you the cocoon and the taco this is another one of my favorite poses some people like to call it the taco pose so I basically settled this little fellow into that position in my hands so it's easier to put them down it's also the only pose that I we'll have the props in there to start with cause I need to have a little bit of a shelf created there to put him down it's just having a bit of a stretch there was rocking into that position now the reason I knew that he wanted to go into this position was because he was quite comfortable having his legs up while I was holding him some babies like to arch your back some babies like to curve the back they're all a little bit different so just tucking his bottom in underneath him now just to bring his legs in around a little bit more don't him to feel like he's falling any point so it's important to make them feel secure so I'm just putting a little trap in indonesia his baltimore it's going to push him up just a little bit use this rap again have disturbing him too much and just tuck in and around him still want to see his little toes and feet bunch of that over there and tuck it in behind him and then it will also prevent him from feeling like he's going to fall back with the any point taken startle this'll look I loves his tummy so we'll get him all set up into position and then we'll take that dummy give him a little bit more of a lift hand check yes I helps to make his entire face visible in this photo fix those things up I can't get all think it's just the thing is that visible and then we're not disturbing them too much get ready to take this to mia no slight adjustment just to bring his face up a little bit more the vehicle has got his chin down a little bit but still still nice invisible looks really comfortable this particular shot is what I call the cocoon shop so I'm going to wrap him nice and tight and have him sitting up right here on my backdrop and we're gonna bring the dad in and he's gonna help me support although it all the way throughout this shop and then we're gonna put the two images together it's another complicit in photo shop always nice and sleeping okay he's dressed I wouldn't normally work with a dress baby but because we're wrapping him I'm not going to bother him we're gonna keep him nice and dressed but I'm gonna bring his little fingers out we want to see those in the shot way spring is on top just so this is one of my my favorite shots but I always if I am asked to do it during a session I leave it to the end of the session because it's a little bit more time consuming and usually when you have to wrap the baby that many times to support him on wrapping them they will wake up says best elated towards the end of the session I'm just gonna use this one underneath I'm going to use three wraps in total sh and this one underneath is purely just to hold his arms and legs into place so going across his little feet over is nice and comfortable and we don't want to like wrap them so the circulation is cut off but we want to wrap them nice and tight so this supported throughout this whole image so just talking that in their brings hands up ok so that's pretty much how he'll be while we wrap him he's a he's a great these particular up speakers then long in this stretchy second pull it quite tight around them he's going to squash them and get himself into a position where he's comfortable but that's ok because we want them to be comfortable way go around I'll just continued to put his hands into place so that as we're wrapping them we're not having to fiddle too much finish sh t getting himself comfortable here theo theo theo way with compass it images it's way don't need to offer these during sessions but I think it's it's nice to be able to know how to do them if a client comes to you and requests them because they will see them on the internet and it's so important to know how to do it safely and make sure the baby's supported at all times just keep wrapping him can't final arun this's gonna look great on the crane backdrop tap dance it's good you can't seasonal outfit underneath weasel hands out by having his hands there when we sit him up his old chin can rest on top of his hands and that way he won't sink forward as well on a good baby he's just holding my thumb there so I'm gonna wait for him to to the lax these things of it here we go so having patients during this is so important because you have to go with the flow and to make sure that they stay nice and settled trying to force them into anything and rush a particular set up will only upset them and you'll be back to square one look at those hands okay we're almost done here so dad if you'd like to come and sit in over here next to my my mat what I'm going to get you to do is put your back to the wall and your legs out towards me and that way your nice and close to your baby but you're not going to be in my shop in come forward just a little bit so by having having the mom and dad participate in the session is so exciting for them because when they see the finished image they can actually go I was a part of that it's actually really go and a lot of the times you know and they come to the session it's the first time they've actually sat still since they bought their baby home from hospital so it's good to get them involved and feel like they're actually you know doing something so your hand at the back of him is going to help hold this rap in places well these raps are available from any prop shop online I got these from a company in australia called drops and props they have so many colors to choose from so I'm just going to tuck it down there underneath his old bottom you can see he's nice and firm now I'm just going to tuck in around the top of his naked that's nice and tidy political things out on time I'm a perfectionist I think all these little details make such a difference in a photo way so they are in the perfect position there for me to rest his chin on when we put him down rygel wouldn't think so I'm just going to tuck this in borneo dance hand is going to come forward here and hold him at the front you get nice and comfortable hating come pretty close okay and just putting your hand on the back of his neck were minus I'm going to slide by now and I'm gonna support the top of his head ok and now what I'm gonna do is just gonna bring his little chin forward ten thing up there on top of his hands and that way we can see all of his face and we can see his hands how cute is that look at that face so he's nice and supported right now what I'm going to do is hold unlicensed type there took that in so we can seize here so I'm going to take a photo and then what I'm going to get them to do is going to take a photo then with this hand away so you can see he's actually not moving and then I'm gonna just get to bring that one back and then bring this hand up the back to the top of his head so once I move back here to take the images it's up to you but I'm going to tell you when to do it but we're going to try and keep him is still a possible in this position now that I've done cam is going to get an exposure shot first thank you okay now if you just want to bring your hand at the front just away towards your name that's it and bring it back and now just move your hand on the back to the top of his head keeping him nice in a strong position in these things and that is it so we have a shock off the front of him we have a shot at the top of his head and then we have a shot of the back so we're gonna put those images together and finish up well done