How to take your own Fresh 48 Session Pictures
With all the craziness that is happening right now a lot of expecting parents are realizing that they most likely will not be allowed to have a photographer come in during or after their babies birth. While I am sure it is not what you are hoping was going to happen during your birth plan I hope that this post can give your come confidence to take your own photos so that you don’t miss out entirely. Below I have laid out some of my biggest tips along with some examples to help guide you along the way.
1. Have a camera laying around collecting dust? Get it out and start practicing.
Your phone is great but will never beat an actual camera. My suggestion would be to put it on aperture priority mode( shown below) and then set it to the lowest number that your lens will allow ( 1.8, 2.8, ect) This will allow you to have photos with the nice blurry background and allow the camera to do the rest of the work for you.
If all you have to use if you phone, don’t fret any photos are better than none and these other tips will work just the same for you!
2. Find the light!
The most important part of taking a good picture is having good light. First step is open all the curtains and blinds in the room and turn off the overhead lights. Try to get as close as you can to the window when taking your images. This will give you nice soft shadows in your images. Make sure you light is coming from the side of the face and not going up your subjects nose. When holding the baby always make sure the top of the babies head is facing the light (window.)
In the image below you can see two important things. First most hospital beds are positioned close to the windows and make an excellent spot to take family photos and photos with mom holding baby. You can also lay the baby at the end of the bed and take some nice pictures with the window light coming in from the side. Second do not be afraid to shoot from all different angles and areas of the room. In the picture below you can see that I took the picture at about a 45 degree angle allowing me to see both parents faces and part of the babies face. You can also take the same image at the end of the bed to get another angle. You can also see that when I was taking picture of the baby I wheeled the cot right over to the window and took the images there before removing her and taking family images.
This image below is an example from when I did babies picture in the cot right beside the window. For these images I was working with a smaller window so I placed the cot so that babies head would be fully in front of the window and that all light was coming from the left side of the image. For these images it is best if the baby head is facing the window or looking straight up. While baby is laying in the cot is a good time to take images of their name card as well as any detail images you may want to take.
In the image below the window is still on the left side and shows how you should keep the top of the babies head toward the light so that the light comes down the face and creates a nice shadow under the nose. If you were to flip the baby around then the light would be coming up the chin and up the nose which is very unflattering even for cute little babies!
3.Overshoot and don’t forget the details.
The morning after you have had the baby get up and set the room up so it is ready to take pictures, then get your phone or camera out and have it handy and shoot as much as you can and as often as your can. Take close up of the hands, feet, nose, hair, belly button, the cot card, the calendar; Every little detail you can think of, take a picture of it. Husbands take picture of your wife while she is feeding, changing, cuddling, admiring, and loving on the baby. You will want all the little details and moments. No the light might always be perfect but the memory will be.
4. Take a family picture!
Don’t miss out on taking a family picture because you don’t have a photographer coming. Get your phone or camera ready and ask your nurse to take a few of you all together. I would suggest either sitting in the bed all together or standing facing the window. Ask her to take a few from different angles, The higher the better.
5. Need some more help?
Head over to my other blog post on Fresh 48 sessions for ideas on what to put your baby in and what you should wear for your photos. Click here for the link!
Need Help editing? or have additional questions? Send me a email at Tguinnip@gmail.com and I would be happy to help