It is so important to capture your newly born baby as soon as you can as they change so rapidly in the first few weeks. You might decide to let a professional capture this precious moment for you, or indeed a family member of yourself. Which ever way you choose its important to get it right. I have listed below some key points which I hope will help you.
1. Timing - Choose a time when baby has slept and just had a feed as this is when baby will be best. For newborns it does not matter if they fall asleep as you can create some wonderful artistic shots this way.
2. Light - Look for nice bright space in your home that lets in lots of natural light, this will help you get much softer images, plus you will not need to use the flash, most cheap digital cameras now will let you turn it off.
3. Cropping - Parents love nice close up images of their new baby, to create a good composition try to keep the eyes about a third down from the top of the frame, this will crop the top of the head off but your final image will look better than trying to keep the whole head in.
4. Positioning - Find a nice big chair of sofa and lay down some of your nice white baby blankets, try to lie baby at a 45 degree angle so you might need some cushions for this. (make sure you do not block out to much light, so have the light source coming towards baby)
5. Attention - Grab a colourful toy or rattle to get baby's attention, you can use this method to help baby move its own head in to the position you like. So experiment with a few shots with baby not looking directly into the lens.
These are some very easy and basic methods that will hopefully help you capture some images for your album.
Can you help....
I am currently revamping our newborn baby photography with some exciting new ideas and desperately need little models! If you know of anybody or indeed yourself please email me , as a thank you I will provide you with a free 8"x 6" photograph worth £49 and a free session of course!
Thanks Justin