Babies Babies and More Babies!

Up Close and Personal!

I don’t do a lot of baby portraits, but when I do, I must say that I am very lucky because the little ones seem to be just drawn to me and the camera.  This series of images is from a recent session with three different babies.  I was blessed to shoot in one of my favorite locations, a cottage that by itself, is a nice little portrait studio.  It features white walls, ceilings, and gorgeous light at almost anytime of day.  No need to setup lights.  I simply just bounce the flash and drag the shutter to get a nice soft, flat, light.  The ambient build up quite nicely and works as a great rims light if positioned correctly.  This little girl just loved the camera.  I was down at floor level, and just let her crawl towards me.  I was amazed at how close she got!  I had a 24-70 lens on a 40d body.  I know it is a goofy shot, but the awkward head size and expression sold me.  Normally, I shoot RAW.  In this situation, the lighting was so consistant and simple, I decided to shoot JPEG’s to save space on my cards.  I personally, love my images to jump with color right from the camera.  My simple way of doing this is by using the built in profiles that the camera has called “Picture Styles”.  I always leave my camera set on “landscape” as it gives me a nice combination of sharpness, and saturation, right out of camera.  I always try and go for warm, colorful skin tones, but always try to keep them somewhat in line.  I also, usually set my kelvin in camera to warm up the flash a little.  The next two images were shot using a 70-200 IS lens.  I was able to back up a little and throw the background out of focus.  To sum up all of this, when you are blessed with decent light, keep it simple and use your surroundings.  They can be walls, ceilings, or floors.