My Baby Girl
AB800, Shoot-Through Umbrella.
AB800, Shoot-Through Umbrella.
Read less
Read less
Sep, 2013Views
1294
Likes
Awards
Featured
Featured
Contest Finalist in Your Life Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Superior Skill
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Jaw Dropping
Genius
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at my home in our small sitting room. With the help of my wife, a space heater, and an iPhone white noise app I was able to get our newborns photos completed... Whew!Time
I remember my daugher Kenna was about 14 days old at the time and the rule of thumb for baby photography is get them taken in the first 8 days for the really sleepy posed style photos so I was really pushing it. I really wanted this pose and I was a little stressed to get these done as my wife was in the hospital extra long due to complications from the c-section. Once I had the baby home and everything in place I setup and took the day off of work and literally spent the majority of the day feeding her, rocking her to sleep, taking a few shots and then repeating. What I really love about this photo is her red painted fingernails, this was not planned, my wife just happened to paint them the night before while she was watching TV so it was a happy accident and seems to be everyones favorite part of the photo.Lighting
The lighting I was going for was more of the natural window light look to get creamy skin tones but it was later in the evening at this point and the sun was no longer out. I setup my Alien Bee 800 and turned it down to around 1/8th power or less and put my shoot through umbrella on it.Equipment
This was shot with a Canon 7D, "Nifty-Fifty" 50mm f/1.8, Pocket Wizards, Alien Bee 800, and a shoot-through umbrella. Also used was blanket draped over a piece of wood I clamped between two of my light stands to get the fading background.Inspiration
I had seen other similar shots on the web and really liked the squishy cheeks look. At the time I had never taken a newborn photo so it was all new for me and since it was my daughter I was able to take my time and experiment. What I didn't know as well was that to get this type of photo you needed to shoot multiple ways and then composite them in post. After doing some research the days before on how to shoot this type of shot and with the help of my wife was able to get the photo I had in mind.Editing
Yes, I did a composite of two photos. One of the baby partially posed which gave me the lower half of her body and some of the blanket above and around her head to work with. The second photo was taken with my wife holding her head in place. From there I used PhotoShop to remove my wifes hands and took a lot of the wrinkles out of the blanket. Other processing was just minor adjustments on skin tone and sharpness.In my camera bag
I have a LowePro sling backpack with my Canon 5D Mark III, "nifty-fifty" 50mm f/1.8, 24-105mm f/4L IS w/ lens hood, 85mm f/1.8, an old 50mm FD f/1.8 lens that I reverse mount for macro, pocket wizards, extra batteries, filters, etc...Feedback
Take your time, use EXTRA caution by having someone help you because you DO NOT want to harm the baby. Do your research and have some fun.
