Indoor maternity photoshoot. I have no equipment other than my camera.

[JeannieK]

How can I make the most of my camera for a maternity shoot I am doing this week (actually going to be doing 2 shoots for 2 different people). I'd like to do it inside my boyfriends house since his lounge is very large and bright with natural light coming through the windows. What advice could you give for setting up a studio with lighting etc. I was thinking of buying a white sheet to hang on the wall and extend over the floor for a background. I have some nice props to use to add to the photos. I'm more worried about the lighting I need. Thanks guys. I'm so grateful for a site like this. I'm using a canon 400D 18-55mm

[zona5101]

You'll probably want a reflector of some sort, white posterboard or some such thing to bounce some of the window light back into the shadow side. Basically the window light is your main light and the reflector your fill. You vary the amount of fill by moving the reflector colser or farther away.
White sheet backdrop is fine but it will most probably come out grey because it needs to be lit independently and brighter than the main light. So that's not a problem, grey is a nice background color, just giving you a heads up on that. You may want to shoot the background as is (the rest of the room) declutter a bit, watch for objects that appear to come out of your subjects head. Then in post you can add a little blur if necessary to deemphasis the objects in the background.

Good luck have fun.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by JeannieK

How can I make the most of my camera for a maternity shoot I am doing this week (actually going to be doing 2 shoots for 2 different people). I'd like to do it inside my boyfriends house since his lounge is very large and bright with natural light coming through the windows. What advice could you give for setting up a studio with lighting etc. I was thinking of buying a white sheet to hang on the wall and extend over the floor for a background. I have some nice props to use to add to the photos. I'm more worried about the lighting I need. Thanks guys. I'm so grateful for a site like this. I'm using a canon 400D 18-55mm

French doors work better than a window because they allow lots of light into the room and when included in the image make for a nice background. a LARGE silver reflector opposite the camera will lighten up the shadows.

Benji