Baby Portraits

[Jayson]

I think you did pretty well. You have got some good expressions. I don't take baby portraits often but when I do, I use my 50mm f1.4 or my 24-70mm, but I use a 7D. I would agree with Mark that you should crop those in portrait to get everything in the picture. I usually have a little more picture and crop to what is needed with babies. You never know about the print sizes. For lighting, I would actually use your flash on manual so you get consistent output with the white background. I shoot at f/4 or f/5.6 and usually have my key on something like 1/4th power through the soft box right on the edge of the mattress. The other light set up a couple feet behind me on 1/4th power through umbrella. I raise the soft box so it is about 6ft high and put the umbrella all the way to the ceiling which is about 9ft. That gives a good ratio I've found and if they happen to move their head just right so there are two catchlights, I erase one in photoshop. Props are fun to use with little ones also. Get a basket, a hat (santa hat), hooded shirt, blanket, something like that to either play with or play in. It brings out smiles. Bubbles are good too (keep a rag handy to wipe up mess). I took all of my baby portraits for the kiddos on a couch that pulled out into a bed. That way I could be at their eye level and not worry about them rolling off. I would agree with the others that the ribs of the umbrella won't be noticed by most people and you can always edit the catch light if you really want to. I found this modifier on Amazon and it has held up pretty well for the last couple weeks. Its like the Apollo orb but much cheaper made and priced.

If you don't like your background, you can alway go buy a simple white sheet or get some white fleece from hobby lobby or a craft store. I bought 4 yards of the white fleece 6 years ago and still use it for my white backgrounds today. Its warm for the kiddo to lay on too. I read somewhere that sometimes to keep little ones interested and sitting patiently, you can put a little piece of scotch tape loosely around their index finger. It worked for mine to keep them sitting where I wanted. You get some interesting expressions too. For posing, I would look online at pintrest or something like that. Keep in mind that for little ones, you can put them in any spot and they will roll, move, or scoot to somewhere else almost immediately. Roll with it and snap away. Take lots of pictures. You never know when they are going to give you the best expression. I always take so many more pictures when photographing little ones for that reason.

Sorry for the ramblings, but hope there is something in there that might help.

Jayson