At the beginning of June, a friend of mine asked me to take a few pictures of her baby, who was due later that month. Mindi's baby girl was born last week! Ever since she mentioned it, I've been planning and plotting, and I'm almost ready. A trip to the fabric store will get me set, I think. In preparation, I've been looking up some lighting information and looking at lots and lots of pictures others have taken of newborns, courtesy of Flickr. I am developing a taste, which I hope translates into a style. We'll see what happens with her cute baby, but for now, I am experimenting on my dirty, unkempt, lovely offspring. I bought a background stand with two backdrops. (The cluttered trailer and the joshua trees/dirt get old after awhile.) The stand is portable and came with a bag. It's really easy to set up.
I started with the black background because I thought it would get less dirty, and because there are a few pictures I'm drawn too that have the all black background. I used my bathroom in the "big house" because that is where we work out and it has a rug. It's the least dirty of anywhere I know. (The trailer is too small to attempt the stand.)
I used the open southwest facing window, at about 6:30pm. It was too bright. I should have closed it. It's frosted glass and would have diffused perfectly. Lesson learned. I also have a daylight rated CFL. I have since diffused that, too. I'm not interested in strobes, but I thought a supplemental light might be nice in case the available light is a little weak.
I got better with the boys- the girls background had to be burned to even out the background. With the boys' pictures, I exposed for the background, so that there was minimal post-processing required. It is so much nicer just to get it right .
Now, if I would have made sure they had clean shirts, combed hair, and no juice "mush-mashes," these pictures would almost be good! The boys found the safety glasses and thought they were SO COOL.
I might go buy a tarp and then lay out the white background, and practice with that. And when I do, I'll make sure my little models are groomed!
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