A rare maternity shot from my collection of work, one of the few times I'm ok with making someone cry.
A rare maternity shot from my collection of work, one of the few times I'm ok with making someone cry.
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Contender in the Photography Awards
Winter 23 Award
Summer Views Award
Contender in the Visual Poetry Project
Flawless Summer Award
Picture Perfect Award
Aperture Award
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Behind The Lens
Location
With the magic of a fuzzy blanket, we turned an exit to the patio into a Renaissance style painting. No studio, just a quick shoot in the corner of her house!Time
We shot this indoors, so time of day only mattered from the perspective that we needed to control the light coming inside through the sliding glass door, covered up with nothing more than a thick blanket. The rest of the lighting is strobe / ambient.Lighting
The lighting was tricky. I wasn't in a studio, with full control of my lighting, so we had to get creative. Behind her, a dark gray fuzzy blanket is covering a sliding glass door, blocking out full sunlight. To her left, a strobe with a 2x3 softbox, pointed away from her to use the far end of the room as a secondary diffuser, gave us this lovely soft lighting that evokes a feeling a classic oil painting.Equipment
Shot with a Canon 5DSr and 70-200mm 2.8L, hand held. Lighting was a single Alien Bee B800, mounting a 2x3 Paul C Buff softbox.Inspiration
I don't get to do many maternity shoots, and I offered to shoot a session for a friend, celebrating her first child. She's such a lovely person, I was ecstatic to capture her in this way, such an amazing memory for both of us.Editing
Post process is minor retouching, and a push of the black point / contrast.In my camera bag
I typically carry a 5DSr with 70-200mm, 24-70mm, my third lens pouch being a swap for 14mm when shooting architecture, or 100mm macro if I'm out in nature/hiking. I can shoot anything all day with those combinations.Feedback
Experiment with ways to achieve soft lighting, with or without strobes. You can do it inexpensively just by manipulating the size of your light source, creativity comes from constraints! Sheer fabric to diffuse a window light source is one way to do it, bouncing your light source off a wall or ceiling is another. You don't need expensive gear to make something like this work!