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JessyKaiser
January 26, 2019
I used to do this for a living, as a hospital newborn baby photographer. What a magnificent capture!
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Behind The Lens
Location
This portrait was taken in my home studio in Central Kentucky. My studio (Rhonda Cunningham Photography), is located in the upstairs of my home. While it is a residential studio, it is quite spacious at 1400 square feet. I've toyed with the idea of a commercial space, but truly love shooting in my home!Time
I typically start all newborn sessions around 10am. Babies tend to be less fussy early in the morning! With twins, the session lasted quite a bit longer than a typical session. Between feedings and getting the sweet babes to sleep plus multiple setups, we were shooting for 4 hours!!Lighting
For this particular image, I used an Paul Buff Einstein with a Westcott 7' parabolic umbrella. I typically light newborns from the head down. However, because of the position the twins were in, I didn't want one of them getting lighted up the nose so I set the umbrella as low to the ground as possible, and set it at an angle.Equipment
Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-70 2.8, Paul Buff Einstein, Westcott Parabolic Umbrella Diffuser.Inspiration
I love shooting newborns and anytime I can get twins into the studio it is a plus! Double the sweetness, right??!! I hadn't planned shooting this for a black and white image. However, after seeing it in color I knew it would be perfect in black and white. The layer, textures, and colors the babies were wrapped in set the short up for a perfect black and white conversion.Editing
There is always a lot of post processing for newborns. Especially their skin. I used frequency separation to even out their skin tone. I do prefer a bit of a moodier edit when I work with my dark wood drop so I burned the shadows in the lower right corner just a bit.In my camera bag
I always carry my Canon 5D Mark III. I tend to use the same lenses; all Canon - 50 1.4, 24-70 2.8, and 100 Macro. That's it!Feedback
First of all, anytime you work with infants, safety is number 1 priority. It's important to take newborn posing classes or try to get into an in person workshop. I like to keep the temperature in the room very warm (80-85 degrees). Once baby arrives, immediately feed and then wrap! Once wrapped, babies tend to sleep well and posing is much easier! Most of all, patience. Newborn sessions can take anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on how often baby needs to feed and be changed. I never planned on shooting newborns, but it has become my favorite!!