Mother & Baby shots.

Jelster

Jelster

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Last year a friend of mine had a quiet wedding and asked if I would take some photos. Not a problem for me, there was less than 20 people and he is a very good friend going back a number of years.

He & his wife now have a little one and he has asked if II could take some of the little fella & his wife. I haven't shot people (other than his wedding) in ages, but I still have my studio lights although my backdrop is now in storage. I can't find my softboxes, but I do have a couple of large shoot through umbrellas.

My question, will this be OK for the baby, or do I need to invest in a new softbox to get the best results?

Any hints for shooting babies, never really done it before and my son is now 30, so it was a long time ago when I needed too!!
 
juggler said:
Um... it depends on the style you're going for.
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I can't help but think that the softboxes will produce softer light than the brollies, and with a little 'un, the softer the light the better?
 
Jelster said:
I can't help but think that the softboxes will produce softer light than the brollies, and with a little 'un, the softer the light the better?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily true in either case. Softness is a function of modifier size & distance - and babies don't need actually soft light.

If you did want really soft light you could simple bounce the light from the brolly off a larger white surface.
 
Jelster said:
Last year a friend of mine had a quiet wedding and asked if I would take some photos. Not a problem for me, there was less than 20 people and he is a very good friend going back a number of years.

He & his wife now have a little one and he has asked if II could take some of the little fella & his wife. I haven't shot people (other than his wedding) in ages, but I still have my studio lights although my backdrop is now in storage. I can't find my softboxes, but I do have a couple of large shoot through umbrellas.

My question, will this be OK for the baby, or do I need to invest in a new softbox to get the best results?

Any hints for shooting babies, never really done it before and my son is now 30, so it was a long time ago when I needed too!!
Click to expand...

Perfectly fine, flash doesn't hurt baby's eyes any more than our own - even bare. A shoot through brolly should be just fine, you can always shoot-through + bounce to soften it more. Just keep it diffused or bounced and babies tend not to be even bothered by it
 
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They usually joke that umbrellas are for ‘cruise ship photographers’. I’d say go for a softbox, preferably one with a double-defuser, one on the outside and another half way down the softbox so the light is effectively travelling through two. This gives an even softer light.

Only tip is get the softbox as close as humanly possible (a few inches out of frame) to the said baby as the closer it is (I’m sure you know) to the subject the softer the light will be and babies will always look nicer under softer light.

Softbox does not have to be too big as babies are small, a 2-foot square one should do, and that will be cheaper.
 
Jelster said:
I can't help but think that the softboxes will produce softer light than the brollies, and with a little 'un, the softer the light the better?
Click to expand...

Definitely, brollies will be too harsh for shooting baby. Yes, they are softer than bare flash, but still too hard for delicate portraiture such as this. And yes, softer the better for baby photos. Nothing worse than a 'harsh' looking baby and shooting through a brolly will be too harsh.
 
Cagey75 said:
Perfectly fine, flash doesn't hurt baby's eyes any more than our own - even bare. A shoot through brolly should be just fine, you can always shoot-through + bounce to soften it more. Just keep it diffused or bounced and babies tend not to be even bothered by it
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CreativeWriter said:
Definitely, brollies will be too harsh for shooting baby. Yes, they are softer than bare flash, but still too hard for delicate portraiture such as this. And yes, softer the better for baby photos. Nothing worse than a 'harsh' looking baby and shooting through a brolly will be too harsh.
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:thinking:
 
Jelster said:
:thinking:
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Where's the confusion? I'm saying it's not harmful, he's saying it might be too harsh, as in the resulting light. Bit of a difference. IMO shooting through a brolly is just fine, this is why we have power controls on flash units - Also all brollies are different, really depends on the one you got. Have you done tests? try a teddy bear or doll. I've done used shoot through brollies for newborns, worked for me no bother.
 
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The 2 problems with shoot thru brollies:
1 more chance of a hotspot - though a decent brolly and some thought focussing your light can mitigate this and some cheap softboxes suffer the same too.
2 (and it makes no difference for your intended use) is the lack of control, some of the light bounces back out of the brolly and then off whatever it finds, then back to your subject.

But if I was doing a shoot for a favour and all I had handy was brollies - I'd use the brollies.

You missed the actual conflicting advice above btw ;)

The nature of light is more about the size of your source, the distance and the angle - anyone telling you different doesn't know what they're talking about.

And no you won't hurt the baby with flash.
 
It would have been better asked in the lighting section where more knowledgeable folk [like Phil] can offer proper advice without confusing the issue certainly.
 
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