Photographing Baby

[Wratty]

Hi all,
I have had the joy of becoming a father for the first time and as i guess anyone who enjoys photography want to take some fantastic photos of our new found bundle of joy.
In saying this I am stuggling with doing this. I have a Nikon d90 with a 18-105 and i am really struggling with lighting. i only have the inbuilt flash and im not very good at using it to its full effect and am struggling to understand the flashes shutter speeds.
Does anyone have any simple tips for basic lighting to help achieve stunning baby images?

Any help is much appreciated

[private]

Welcome to DPS!

Do you have any natural light coming in any of the windows. Its your friend. As far as help with the pop-up flash, you can diffuse with a tissue paper, just hold it in front of the flash.

What mode are you shooting in?

[Wratty]

I will try the tissue thing and i might have to mover her closer to a window.

As for shoting mode, i always try to shoot in manual mode. i dont see the point in owning a DSLR if only using it on AUTO.

thanks for your ideas

[MattG]

Another suggestion is to set the flash exposure down a stop or two, letting the ambient light provide the main (key) lighting and only using the onboard flash as a fill. I'm not sure how you do this on your camera, but its a simple option via dial on my Pentax when selecting the flash mode.

[Goldcrown4]

Window light definitely; try setting the camera to auto aperature, get close, and hope the baby is sleeping.