# 5 Day Old Newborn



## twocolor (Mar 17, 2011)

This is sweet baby Korbin! He was 5 days old, and slept through the whole session!
My set up includes:
Heater baby left, heater baby right, heating pad baby bottom, mother's heartbeat sounds on CD baby rear . . . oh, and some lights and a camera!!!!!!

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## willis_927 (Mar 17, 2011)

Nice shots. The first one is very cute.


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## thierry (Mar 17, 2011)

#3 i  like


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## bennielou (Mar 18, 2011)

thanks twocolor!  I'm doing my first baby shoot tomorrow (6 day old) and the heater and heartbeat idea is wonderful!


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## twocolor (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks guys!!

Bennielou . . . I downloaded the heartbeat sounds from amazon.  It was $4 for 75 minutes of sound.  I burned it twice in a row to a CD and have an hour and a  half of shooting time!!!  Good luck on your first baby shoot.  How old is baby?  Under 2 weeks, and they'll do almost anything for you . . . as long as they stay asleep!


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## bennielou (Mar 18, 2011)

Hi Twocolor,

Thanks for  the wonderful tips.  I've been super nervous about it!  It seems that all my clients are having babies right now, and I've gotten several bookings for newborn shoots, but it looks so impossibly hard!  You did a fantastic job with these photos.
Yes, the baby is 6 days old.  The next shoot I have is in a few weeks with a 3 week old.  And then I have another one next month where the mommy wants a shoot within the first week.

I've purchased lots of props (bowls, giant teacups, other things like that....blankets, hats, and that kind of thing, but I wasn't sure how you get those little guys soooooo pliable and comfy!  Your post really helped.  I'd love to hear more tips and tricks!  Hopefully newborn photography will be an expansion of our business.  I just have to make the photos great.  No pressure....LOL!

Thanks again, and I "liked" your post.
Many Hugs!


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## silentanathema (Mar 18, 2011)

#3 is one of my favorit baby shots i think i have ever seen,  every time i look at it i can't help but smile.


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## rosiemartin (Mar 24, 2011)

wow they are amazing shots


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## bennielou (Mar 24, 2011)

Ok, having just attempted one of these, I have to say..........THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE TIPS!  They helped a ton.  I still don't know how you get them into these cute positions.  I also need to make a raid at Esty!


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## Dajuan (Mar 25, 2011)

"mother's heartbeat sounds on CD baby rear"  what a great idea.  Do your baby clients actually sleep the entire time (~150 minutes)?


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## ColoringSilence (Mar 28, 2011)

Adorable!  btw, I love that twisted yarn on the bassinet or whatever that is the baby is in.


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## twocolor (Mar 30, 2011)

Dajuan said:


> "mother's heartbeat sounds on CD baby rear" what a great idea. Do your baby clients actually sleep the entire time (~150 minutes)?


 
yes . . . IF they are brought in before they hit two weeks old.  After that they are hit and miss!


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## twocolor (Mar 30, 2011)

ColoringSilence said:


> Adorable! btw, I love that twisted yarn on the bassinet or whatever that is the baby is in.




Thank you!!  It's a yarn blanket in a large wicker basket!  Etsy is the place to shop for things like that!!!


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## mishele (Mar 30, 2011)

Very cute..........I like the last one the least. It's mostly because I don't see the face in anyway. As a mother.. I 'm saying, I would more likely buy something that has a face in it then that picture.
Keep shooting!!!


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## twocolor (Mar 30, 2011)

mishele said:


> Very cute..........I like the last one the least. It's mostly because I don't see the face in anyway. As a mother.. I 'm saying, I would more likely buy something that has a face in it then that picture.
> Keep shooting!!!


 
I agree, BUT, I too am a mother, and I always want to remember their hair, their eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet etc,  So during a session, I try to hit all of these!


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## mc1979 (Apr 1, 2011)

Love all the photos, I especially like the last one! It caught me right away, and yes even though you don't see the baby's face, this is a great perspective. As a mother myself, I loved every looking at every little detail of my baby, all those tiny wrinkles and little rolls of fat, ahh too precious.. I love this pose, and it's one I haven't seen before!

Great work!


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## andynrach (Apr 1, 2011)

I love all of these!!  Seriously, way better then I could do!  I like the fringe blanket.  I've seen it before and I think it reflects quite a bit of light, doesn't it?  It looked very blingy and distracting in the other photo I've seen, your use of it looks wonderful and complimentary.  If I really HAD to come up with something, some of the skin smoothing looks a little too smooth...almost plasticy or doll-like. That is only if you FORCE me to really scrutinize to find something.  What was your lighting set up if you don't mind my asking?  Looks like nice window light?


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## twocolor (Apr 1, 2011)

andynrach said:


> I love all of these!! Seriously, way better then I could do! I like the fringe blanket. I've seen it before and I think it reflects quite a bit of light, doesn't it? It looked very blingy and distracting in the other photo I've seen, your use of it looks wonderful and complimentary. If I really HAD to come up with something, some of the skin smoothing looks a little too smooth...almost plasticy or doll-like. That is only if you FORCE me to really scrutinize to find something. What was your lighting set up if you don't mind my asking? Looks like nice window light?



Thanks!  I use portraiture on baby skin at a 60% opacity.  I suppose I could still bring it down a bit!  As far as lighting goes, strobe with softbox directly above camera, strobe with softbox to the right of baby 1-2 stops brighter than the other.  f2.4 1/90


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## c.cloudwalker (Apr 1, 2011)

Let me say that I am not in love with babies. To me they are just wrinkly little things that can't argue about anything 

Now that that is out of the way, I like your approach. Yes I think the last shot, with no face, is very nice. For an album that is. It doesn't do anything for me on its own. Then again I'm an album kind of guy. As an ex PJ I find/realize/know that 1 picture is worth a 1000 words is total BS. So I like series/sets. They tend to tell a much better story and that is why I am invaded with photo albums, lol.

#1  The baseboard on the left bothers me greatly. And I would have liked/preferred to see the whole baby in focus. His left hand seems OOF and that's too bad.

#2  Lose the diaper.

#3  Wonderful expression on his face, the whole baby seems sharp and, nothing annoying in the background.

#4  Hate this one. Something about the PP, I think, is weird. 


Overall I think you have a very nice and interesting vision. You just need to work out some details. Some of which I may add are just or may just be a matter of taste.


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## andynrach (Apr 1, 2011)

Thank you so much! I would NEVER have guessed these were strobes.  I need to get a second softbox, that light is beautiful!


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## kundalini (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for not showing that black nub of an umbilical cord.  Other than that, it's not a genre that particularly interests me, but your lighting and compositions are nicely done.  Thanks for sharing.


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## noomen (Apr 9, 2011)

nice shots...love ur baby pictures..what mode u use?is it manual?


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## wlbphoto (Apr 15, 2011)

i like  good shots


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## SabrinaO (Apr 19, 2011)

LOVE the lighting! Heres my critique. Theres wayyy too much going on in #3. My eye is drawn to that mess of yarn instead of the baby. This shot would of improved being in landscape mode. Try to keep portraits simple. Theres too many colors(mis matched), patterns, textures and things going on in those shots. Do you have any pull back shots?


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## twocolor (Apr 19, 2011)

SabrinaO said:


> LOVE the lighting! Heres my critique. Theres wayyy too much going on in #3. My eye is drawn to that mess of yarn instead of the baby. This shot would of improved being in landscape mode. Try to keep portraits simple. Theres too many colors(mis matched), patterns, textures and things going on in those shots. Do you have any pull back shots?


 
There  is alot going on in this shot.  The blue/brown blanket was wrapped around the baby long enough to warm him up again and lull him back into a deeper sleep.  Then he pulled that little smile and I happened to be in a position to capture it.   Sometimes you grab the shot because you get the perfect expression.  It may not be the most perfect technical shot, but the mother LOVES that we got one of those cute newborn smiles captured on camera!


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