Newborn Photography - Tips For Natural Light Photography Of Your Newborn
The baby is finally here, and everyone wants pictures! But every time you try to take pictures, your beautiful baby looks like a little wrinkly old person instead of that exquisite being you see before you. Well, here are some tips to capture your newborn for the best results.
- Film or digital? It actually does not matter. But if you are using film, try to get some black & white film that is rated at least 400 ISO, preferably 800 ISO. Newborns often have skin coloring issues for several weeks and black and white removes that aspect, and besides that will always be a classic look. If you are using a digital camera, you can turn the image black & white on the computer, or online if you are using an online printing service.
- Turn off the Flash! Use window light for the best natural soft light to show off your baby. Find a window that has an abundance of good light, not direct sun light streaming in, but good indirect sunlight. Morning light is usually very good if your windows are facing the right way to take advantage of that, and newborns are often calmer in the morning.
- Simple is always better, so remove visual clutter. Use a white sheet or solid colored blankets under the baby so that the look is simple, classic and totally focused on the baby.
- Skin is best for newborns. Photographing newborns without clothing yields a timeless classic look. You can keep diapers on if you choose, but try to cover them with fabric or a diaper cover.
- With your camera ready, making sure the babies face and body is turned toward the light from the window, start taking pictures from different angles. Try to fill the frame with the baby and the solid colored blanket or sheet, avoiding additional clutter or items that may get into your background.
- Take pictures from all different angles. Talk to the baby to try to get them to look into the camera for some of the images, but do not focus on trying to get the baby to smile. Just sing and coo and work on getting different expressions and features of your newborn.
- Sleeping babies make great subjects. If the baby falls, no problem just continue shooting. Sometimes when they are sleeping it is the best time to get pictures of the feet and hands which tend to move non-stop when they are awake.
- Take more pictures than you think you need, you never know which ones you will like. Make sure to get come full body, some half body and some close ups of face, hands, feet and other cute, memorable body parts - like the fuzzy wrinkly shoulders, funny hair lines, ears, legs, bottom, etc.
- Develop your pictures at the lab or on your computer, and make sure to look through them with an artistic eye. Find the images that really look like the baby to you - the images that capture their features in the way that you want to remember, and use those ones for a birth announcement.
