Advice for Maternity shots?

[Corey Thompson]

I have an opportunity to do a maternity shoot this weekend for my friend's wife. I've never done something like this before and want to be sure the shoot is a (relative) success considering I have very little experience shooting portraits of people.

Here is a little more background info. A friend of mine noticed me posting weekly self portraits on facebook for a 52 week portrait project I'm doing in attempt to learn more about lighting. He asked me if I'd like the opportunity to practice photographing people by doing a maternity shoot for his wife, who I believe is due this September. They mentioned they like the idea of doing outdoor environmental type shots but if I want to do indoor shots that have a studio feel then that's okay to include as well.

Is there any advice or any tips you could offer me? What time of day should I try shooting? What type of shots should I try to get? Are there any popular maternity shots/poses that people tend to like a lot? What equipment should I use? The lenses I have are 10-22mm, 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4, and 85mm f/1.8 (i can't stand my 17-85mm kit lens and would prefer not to use it). For lighting equipment I have a Canon 430 ex II, shoot through umbrella, beauty dish, honl 1/8 grid, rogue flashbender snoot, radio popper jrx triggers, and a 5-in-1 reflector.

Any advice you may have to offer is much appreciated. BTW, I'm not getting paid for this. The shoot is purely an experimental opportunity for me to gain some experience photographing people and to help out a friend at the same time. My friend is well aware of my experience level and is ok with that.

[NathanFranke]

You've got plenty of equipment--make sure you know how to use it and you should be fine. You definitely have all your bases covered there.

As for posing, location, etc--do an image search on google for "maternity photography". The best way to get ideas is to look at other people's work.

[Corey Thompson]

I'm really comfortable with the camera and shooting in full manual. I'm not so comfortable with the lighting equipment just yet. With that said, I should probably try capturing natural light photos for now and if theres time then I can experiment with some off camera lighting shots.

Good suggestion about looking at other peoples work to get ideas. I'll have to do that. Thanks for the reply.

[PixSixSix]

I just did a maternity shoot for one of my best friends the other day, only the second "photo shoot" I've ever done. I prefer to take pictures of things that don't speak or move

I printed off the first couple pages of my "maternity photos" google image search for inspiration and brought it with me, my friend circled the ones she wanted to try. Yes, the shots are superbly cliched but who cares? She's happy with them.

I bought the baby blocks at Toys R Us for $20

We did a few outside shots with her and her husband in the morning (it was overcast luckily so the lighting was nice and even)

Then we did "studio" shots in her teeny kitchen (I had about 4 ft of room between her and I) using a shower curtain and blanket duct taped to the kitchen cupboards, two open windows on either side and a 250 watt "work lamp" for lighting. You're probably already a lot more prepared in that department than I am.

Post processing has basically been making the background black (of which I've done a poor job and have to redo before I send her the pictures) and cloning out some yellow pieces of grass in the outdoor shots. I'll have to take down the exposure on her white shirt on the outdoor shots as they're pretty hard on the eyes right now. On her request I made sure her stretch marks weren't visible but she hardly has any so that wasn't hard.

Chantel and Jeff - a set on Flickr

Used my 35mm 1.8 lens
Indoor shots exif
ISO 400
F4.0
Exposure 1/13
Though I probably should have sped the exposure up a bit since some of them are blurry. Meh. Learning experience for me.

The biggest issue I noticed is that her shirt would often go right from boob to belly - making her look like a little snow man. I had to keep making sure the shirt was snugly tucked in under her boobs to give her the nice curves instead looking all roly-poly.

[Corey Thompson]

Thank you for the feedback. Good suggestion on bringing sample images to the shoot. I'll have to do that so that my nervousness doesn't cause a brain freeze I don't mind doing cliche shots as long as that's what they want. Since I haven't really defined a style yet with portraits and they know I'm just starting off, there isn't as much pressure produce photos that have a specific look and feel to them.

Curious about the baby blocks, do you buy each individual letter separately or do they come in a set for the complete alphabet? Like for example you have blocks that spell "baby". Did you have to buy two sets of complete alphabet blocks to get two letter "B" blocks or are they all sold individually? (Can you tell I don't have kids yet? LOL)

Can you go into a bit more detail about the shower curtain and blanket setup? What was the shower curtain and blanket used for? I looked at your shots, looks like a white blanket was used to wrap the subject in?

Well it looks like they want to me to shoot photos at the beach this sunday. I'm a bit nervous as to how that will turn out. I'm not feeling too creative with beach photos at the moment. I'll need to whip out the google searching.

[Michael_nine22.com]

I would shoot with your 50mm its will prob be your sharpest glass, anything wide angle (10-22) will distort her too much I would think.

on the beach use your reflector to fill the light in(got an assistant?), shoot around the "golden hour" the hour or so before the sun sets if you can, the light is softer and warmer..

A lot of the beech maternity shots I've seen includes the "surf" so have her lay down near the water and post there.

Shower curtain/sheet/ sheer fabric would be used good for a "wrap" I am assuming its a shower curtain not the liner which is usually more plastic-y

Why I wouldn't use umbrella, well at least in Oregon the beach is always windy. I would stay away from the strobes as well until you get a good picture. Since you are not confident. I say this as this is how many pros work, get the good pictures with the way you know how, and then if time allows you can "experiment"

[TheMoons678]

Now if they are taking you to the beach this is just a couples portrait emphasizing the baby bump, right? (Hope so, I've never been a fan of the mom wrapped in a sheet, but its whatever they want...)

Its nice to have a bunch of sample poses saved on your iphone/ipod touch/ipad/etc... that you can refer to periodically during the shoot if you feel a brain fart on how to compose them.

[PixSixSix]

Originally Posted by Corey Thompson

Curious about the baby blocks, do you buy each individual letter separately or do they come in a set for the complete alphabet? Like for example you have blocks that spell "baby". Did you have to buy two sets of complete alphabet blocks to get two letter "B" blocks or are they all sold individually? (Can you tell I don't have kids yet? LOL)

Can you go into a bit more detail about the shower curtain and blanket setup? What was the shower curtain and blanket used for? I looked at your shots, looks like a white blanket was used to wrap the subject in?

I got the baby blocks from Toys R Us
40 Blocks - Letters & Numbers - Juratoys - Toys"R"Us
There were 40 in the box and multiple letters on each block so it worked well. The other option was a box of 20 from Walmart but I probably would have had to buy two boxes to make up all the letters in that case. Alphabet blocks = surprisingly difficult to find.


The shower curtain/blanket set up was used for the background So I taped a black shower curtain from the kitchen cupboards and laid the black blanket on the ground.

The subject was wrapped in a white bed sheet for some of her shots

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of your shoot, I hope you post them on your flickr page

[Corey Thompson]

Originally Posted by Michael_nine22.com

I would shoot with your 50mm its will prob be your sharpest glass, anything wide angle (10-22) will distort her too much I would think.

on the beach use your reflector to fill the light in(got an assistant?), shoot around the "golden hour" the hour or so before the sun sets if you can, the light is softer and warmer..

I took your advice and used the 50mm lens. I swapped on my 35mm prime for a couple of shots but I wasn't liking the composition I was getting with the shots and swapped the 50mm lens back on.

I started off first by shooting photos of only her and had her husband hold the reflector, which he didn't mind doing at all. I quickly noticed discomfort on her face from being cold and from having all eyes on her, so I ditched the reflector and had him join her for couples shots. She opened right up to this and things started going much better.

Originally Posted by TheMoons678

Now if they are taking you to the beach this is just a couples portrait emphasizing the baby bump, right? (Hope so, I've never been a fan of the mom wrapped in a sheet, but its whatever they want...)

Its nice to have a bunch of sample poses saved on your iphone/ipod touch/ipad/etc... that you can refer to periodically during the shoot if you feel a brain fart on how to compose them.

I loaded a bunch of photos to my phone as suggested. This helped out a lot.

She didn't feel comfortable exposing her tummy and it was cold out too. I was able to get some really cute couples shots of them. Overall the shoot was a success considering it was my first time. I'll post a few of the shots in the share your shot section later this week.

[Corey Thompson]

Originally Posted by PixSixSix

I got the baby blocks from Toys R Us
40 Blocks - Letters & Numbers - Juratoys - Toys"R"Us
There were 40 in the box and multiple letters on each block so it worked well. The other option was a box of 20 from Walmart but I probably would have had to buy two boxes to make up all the letters in that case. Alphabet blocks = surprisingly difficult to find.


The shower curtain/blanket set up was used for the background So I taped a black shower curtain from the kitchen cupboards and laid the black blanket on the ground.

The subject was wrapped in a white bed sheet for some of her shots

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of your shoot, I hope you post them on your flickr page

Thanks for your help. I wasn't able to find baby blocks in time but I'm going to keep looking so that I can have a set for next time. I'll definitely post up some shots in the next day or two.