first newborn shoot

[Kmarie7]

This was the first time I've really had a chance to photograph a newborn... Any advice on the results would be much appreciated. I am fairly new to photography in general and I have a lot to learn.

My questions for this image in particular.... how is the editing? too much? the pose? (I found posing a big challenge... how DO they get some of those shots with newborns??)

Is the color ok? I wanted it to have a slight tint but is it too much?



Camera Nikon D40
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/4.2
Focal Length 30 mm
ISO Speed 640

Thanks in advance for any help!

[SusanH1970]

Hi Kmarie, welcome to DPS! I'll give you my answers as you asked them.

1. How is the editing?
Kind of hard to tell without seeing a SOOC image to compare.

2. The pose?
The pose is sweet, but I would have preferred it without the distracting patterned receiving blanket. Other than that, you did great on posing. A LOT of newborn poses are composites (baby's head in own hands, baby hanging from a sling, etc.).

3. Color is very, very green. Baby is underexposed a bit and has quite a green color cast from the blanket. If you shot in RAW, this is a fairly easy fix.

Focus looks a tad soft but that could be just from a small image size; or from such a slow shutter speed/camera shake.

Honestly, not bad at all for a first newborn! Do you have a SOOC you wouldn't mind sharing?

[~AJ~]

Yep, my answers were pretty much the same as what Susan said.

I really like the pose - it's a lovely, simple pose. You can do this sort of a pose with just a nappy on too & it looks lovely seeing all that lovely soft newborn skin <3 You just need to have someone place a blanket over the baby until you're ready to shoot so they stay lovely and warm....

The lighting looks nice too.

Would be interested in seeing a SOOC version too if you're willing to share?

[Kmarie7]

Thanks! I too think the blanket is distracting but the mom loved the blanket and wanted it in some of the pictures. We later took it off but the pose wasn't as good in later shots. I have a bunch to work with though.

Here is the sooc -

As you can see, I had to adjust the color quite a bit and maybe went over board?

[Kmarie7]

Here I tried to fix the color but it still looks off...

[The rebel]

Have you tried sepia colering or b/w ? I think the old timey look would make it a timeless picture.

[SusanH1970]

Yeah, as you know, the WB is really off. Did you shoot in RAW? You might be able to fix it in post if you did. I brought your image into ACR (opened as a RAW file) and played around with it a little, but with it not being a true RAW file it was impossible to get the right color balance.

If you shoot JPG, look into shooting custom white balance in-camera using a grey card.

With a few adjustments, I think this would be really cute as a black and white.