baby portrait big help needed

I

iron maiden

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iron
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hi all,

i am going to see my nephew this weekend as his mum wants me to talk some photos for her,

as its family i will not charge her so no pressure,

but i would really like to take some nice photos of her little boy,

he is seven months old,

i have a canon 7D and will be using a 18-55mm lens,
and a speedlite flash on top of my camera,

could anyone offer any advice please on settings etc,

i would be very gratful for all your help,



kind regards iron
 
as there is no pressures.......

you have time to personally experiment. have a few shots without the child first, try the cat lol.
 
i still have not got around to doing this shoot yet,
but now we are going into a studio,
never been in a studio before so i will be lost,
the owner of the studio said he will set up all lighting for me to what he thinks will be best,

i own a 7D and will be using a canon 18-55mm lens,

what would the best camera setting be for a studio,
would a really low iso be best,
how about aperture is it best to have it low like F4.0 or higher,
and shutter speed what would be the best for the studio,

thank you for any help,

iron
 
OK well if the guy is going to set up the lighting for you, then at least you only have to concentrate on your camera :-)
OK first off, you only have one lens, so you have to work with that, obviously.
I am no expert but, for portraits, you tend to use a lower F number as this produces shallow depth of field, which makes the area around the subject more blurred, making the subject the focus of the photo.
Of course, if you are taking some pics of two kids and you want more in the pic to be in focus then raise the F number. I personally would use Aperture Priority mode, as this will sort the shutter speed out for you.
Keep your ISO as low as it will go. You only need to raise that, if you have low light and no other way of increasing it OR you want to create noisy pictures.

The only other thing I will say, is use single point of focus, when doing close ups and ensure you point in on the eye....Always the eye for most portrait shots.
Again, you can still use single point of focus, for shots with more people in but I tend to change it to manual focus for that. That's a personal thing though.

More than anything, relax and enjoy it. There is no pressure when you are not being paid for it and you're doing it for someone you know. Believe you can do it and you will get some good shots. Good advice above though. Try it on something like a cat first. Sounds stupid but it will get you used to what results you get based on different settings AND it will get you used to the single focus point thing. :-)
 
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thanks very much for all your advice darren,
i will practice on the cat
 
I'm going to disagree a little with a few things, generally, in a studio you are going for a narrower aperture, f8 is common as with the background (high key or whatever) you don't need to worry about losing it by being out of focus. I would check if the studio has anything for sitting a little one on, not essential at this age as the floor is fine but a coloured blanket can bring a different dimension to the look. Also great if you are taking some shots with them laying down to make them more comfortable. Even at this age I use a baby poser in some shots to help them sit up etc. I would get some funky clothes, a couple of options to change up the look a bit.

With a 50mm lens you are going to be a little closer shooting than normal, especially for head shots so don't be afraid to move around lots. If you are shooting form straight above, think safety and put the strap around your neck..... I've never dropped a camera yet when shooting but you don't want it to be with a baby underneath.

I would suggest looking at the sites of photographers shooting babies to get ideas and take it from there.

Hope it goes well.

Mark
 
I have just been giving a canon 70-300mm lens,
would that be to big for doing this baby portrait shoot,

i am booked in for sunday 11am starting to get nervous,
its only family but never been in a studio,
 
Yes as in physical size but you would still be able to get good portraits at the lower end.
I am looking at buying a prime 85mm Nikon lens to do portraits, and you have that in that lens but I would imagine the size of the lens would hinder you doing quick shots, as you walk around the subject.
Just my thoughts. :-)
 
If the guy at the studio is setting the lighting up for you, he will probably take a light meter reading for you and tell you which aperture to use - that's what happened the first time I rented studio space (and I had very little idea of what I was doing back then!). If you don't know how to meter the light you might want to ask for a quick lesson in case you need to change the lighting during the course of your shoot. Don't be nervous - if you get help from the studio owner to get the lighting right you will get some great shots!
 
Hahaha No mate. You need to buy what suits YOU. The 85mm is what my choice is as a Nokia user.
You have canon. If you're on a budget, you'd be best to get the Nifty Fifty (50mm obviously) as that is really and a great lens for the money. Think it's about £70 or so.
Also, as it's a prime lens (fixed focal length) it does make you think more about the shot and how to compose it. :-)
 
I'd also recommend the 50mm f1.8 for portraits. In a studio though you won't use the aperture wide open so your kit lens will do the job. If you're using flash lighting you will set your camera to its sync speed (around 1/250 sec), You'll set your ISO to the lower settings of around 100-200. The aperture is then decided off the meter reading (usually between f/8-f/11. To adjust the exposure you will then simply adjust the aperture wider or narrower accordingly.

Good luck.
 
thank you so much everyone for taking the time to comment and help me,

you all have been a big help,

i will put some photos up on sunday,
just have to make the kid smile,

thanks again
 
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