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| 28 Oct 2006 05:23:02 am |
 Newborn portrait tips for birth announcements |
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Ok once again I've received a birth announcement from a loving family very proud of their kids. But, once again, it's not a very becoming photograph. So I'd like to focus this blog on "what not to do" with birth announcement photographs '.
To protect the innocent, I've turned the photograph into a black and white outline. Take a look at the photo below:
First off, you see I drew a line halfway through the photo. What you'll notice is that the kids faces are all predominantly below the red line except for one - which is very borderline. So what we have here is a nice picture of the tops of their heads and the back of the couch. Most importantly, when their heads are below the centerline, it looks like they are falling out the bottom of the picture.
When you frame your photograph, you want their heads to be above the centerline. The tighter you crop, the more face you have to include above the line. If you're doing a face photo, the eyes and preferrably most of the nose should be above the centerline, even if you have to crop out the top of the head.
To help you frame the photograph, you need to position the camera correctly. Adults have a tendency to take pictures of their kids while standing. That makes the camera too high. Unless your intention is to exaggerate their size one way or the other, you need to position the camera right at the top of their heads and then angle it downwards.
Another problem you can see with this image is the size of the newborn. Note the red circle in the image. That small area is the newborn. The majority of the photograph is taken up by the other kids and the background. Yet this is the newborn's birth announcement. Since a newborn can't sit up, it's hard to get great 'portraits' of the newborns unless you know some tricks. I posted about a newborn portrait tip previously.
But in this case, you also want the siblings in the picture. The best way to do this is to position the newborn's face close to the siblings. Not quite cheek to cheek since it would require a young child being able to support the newborn's head, but very close. So, rather than have a child hold the newborn, place the newborn in a basket of some sort covered in comfortable blankets (all of one solid color preferrably). Have a little more blanket
at the top where the head goes so that the newborn is angled slightly. You can also use a little bit of the blanket on the sides to make sure the newborn doesn't rollout. Then put the newborn and basket on a coffee table and have the kids behind the table. They will most likely have to kneel to get their heads low enough.
Now you can try different things. You can have a child kiss the forehead of the newborn, or hold a hand or finger, or just lightly wrap their arms around the basket . You can also try different crops and positioning the newborn's basket horizontally and vertically. Most importantly you want the sibling's heads close to the newborn's head. With their heads close together, you can now get a photo that the newborn stars in.
You can't see it from the above image, but another problem was "redeye". We discussed redeye before in a previous post. Maybe YOU can look past that and see how cute your new baby is, but most people can't. Most people hate looking at a photograph where the people have redeye. There's absolutely no reason in this day and age, especially with digital images, not to fix that.
Another problem you can't see from the above image is the harsh light of the camera flash. If you can move that flash off camera, bounce it, or put scotch tape over it to subdue it, give it a try. Sidelighting is preferrable for everyone but the most glamorous subjects. Newborns, unfortunatly usually suffer from excess folds, wrinkles and rashes. Front lighting will emphasize all those bad things.
My preference is to get the newborn's eyes wide open. Sometimes they'll respond to noises such as maracas or a mother's voice. If they are lying in a basket, gently turn their heads toward the camera. Then have mom or dad be next to the camera making some soft noises or singing. It should not be very loud and there should only be one person doing it so as not to overwhelm the newborn.
Also, keep the room at a comfortable temperature especially if the child is partially unclothed. If the baby isn't comfortable ( whether it's too cold, too hot, too hungry ), you'll have a difficult time taking good photos. |
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Category : Newborn
| Posted By : Marcy |  Comments [0] |  Trackbacks [0] |
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