One of the most popular photo categories in studios and at my office is the category that I call family, which includes maternity, newborn babies, childhood, and the family as such.
During the last decade, studios Magenta allowed the return of the popular “studio” photography to replace the traditional Sears format that the previous generation had known. This modernization opened the way to many other studios and to photographers who, like me, appreciate the natural light in photography to improve the image of traditional family photography, whether we talk about maternity, newborn babies or family pictures.
Today, there are as many styles as there are photographers and it is increasingly easy, with your digital camera and a few tips, to organize a little home session.
This article aims to give you a few technical and creative advices to capture the evolution of your growing baby (and your other children too!) by grasping, every week if you want to, tiny pieces of time transposed in pixel memory.
The location
Choose a location for your session where your child will be comfortable and where distractions will be reduced to minimum. Television, iPad, toy box are all good reasons, depending on the age of your baby, not to give you all the attention you need. Choose a simple a bright location to start off. The more time passes, the easier it will be for you to deal with complex locations.
Light
For soft baby skin, I prefer natural light but diffuse. Therefore, to this end, I find that rainy days are the best to take baby pictures. Get closer to the window and presto! Avoid direct sunlight on the baby’s face as the intense shades, often misplaced, will make your baby’s feature overly hard.
Clothing
Simplicity is key. I am not a big fan of all the fashion accessories but if you are, it is time to have fun! For my part, I prefer to focus on the little face. Therefore, I choose sober and pale apparel, without patterns as well as a neutral background and some pretty toys.
The background
Take care of everything that can be seen in the background. Personally, I always ensure that bright colors will not distract the eye, that no pointy shape looks threatening, I remove tissue boxes and other undesired litter and I make sure that no frame will “cut” the head of my precious subject. It may look like a detail but, in my opinion, this detail can make the difference between a neat picture and a messy one.
The secret of the pros: don’t tell anyone!
To obtain beautiful baby skin on the pictures I take, I overexpose a notch and for diffuse light, I add a reflector. A “home-made” reflector can be a white cardboard placed opposite to the main light source. For example, if you lie baby on his belly, on your bed, facing you and if the window is on your right, place the cardboard on your left. This cardboard will reflect the natural light of the room on the dark side of your child’s face. You obtain professional lighting in no time! Make a before-after test to see the difference!
A “Gerber baby” look
To get THE picture, you must be patient! Do not try to get your child to perform, that is an adult’s anguish! Your child can give you good memories whether he is sulking or sparkling with happiness. Sometimes, tears precede great moments of calm and remember that your child, if he is forced to smile because you ask him to, will give you fake grins that you will not like either!
My thing? I wait, I wait, I watch and I let things come. And then, after a while, something happens and a contact is made. Then, I have the baby’s undivided attention and only then I pull faces and sing – I must be honest, I am a very bad singer but it always works! – to obtain the coveted smile! Click!
Do not count
Do not count the number of pictures you will take. The saying “practice makes perfect” is true for your favorite professional photographer and it is also true for you! It is normal to miss hundreds of photos before taking many good ones. Take many pictures and be your own judge.
Take a lot of pictures of your children. I have a lot of photographs from my own childhood and I can tell you that it is the best legacy you can give them: the memory of wonderful moments spent with you.
