Motherhood brings me a new interest… photography! I love love love taking pictures of Nick, especially during the first few months of his life (it’s harder to take his pics nowadays since he always tries to grab the camera from me). I have to admit that I was not really big on taking pictures and I didn’t even own a camera until a week before Nick was born.
To my own surprise, I was really really proud of my early snaps. I guess my expectation was pretty low because I was just using a low-end digital pocket camera (it never came across my mind that skills and equipments are secondary when you have a mega cute object like Baby Nick. Ha ha ha!). However, I’ve been noticing more and more “flaws” on my shots lately. I mean, no one really comments on my photo taking techniques when they see my work, but I feel something is missing (aha! I even claim photography as a productive hobby now! – you should really see my husband’s face when I refer to the pics as “my work.”).
So, anyway, I went back and reviewed my snapshots, went online to lots of baby photographers’ websites and came up with a few good tips and tricks and ideas for better results.
First and foremost, planning is everything and these are the things that you may have to think about ahead of time:
- Lighting. Natural light a.k.a. sunlight is best according to one photographer. Another photographer thinkst that the best time to take pics are in the morning before 10AM and in the late afternoon around 4-5 PM on a sunny day. I totally agree with this because the best pics I’ve taken are taken during sunny mornings and/or late afternoons under lots of sunlight.
- Background. Don’t forget to remove the mess: bottles, burp clothes, piles of laundry, etc… Place your baby on a clean blanket… for a contrasting look, you can dress your baby in solid bright colors and put him/her on a white blanket and vice versa. You can even create your own “backdrop” by taping a cloth to the wall. Something that I am planning to try next week (let’s pray my son will cooperate)… using batik as a backdrop and have my son in diaper only.
- Clothings. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the styles and colors. You’ll never know until you see it in prints (or computer screen – if you use a digital camera like me). For example, one photographer specifically says NO NAVY because it just looks bad. You know what, my son looks gorgeous in navy! However, I can’t say the same thing when it comes to yellow. Then again, I didn’t notice this until I saw the pics.
- Experiment with the “photojournalistic” style. Shots some pictures when your son/daughter is busy playing/eating biscuit/swimming while keeping in mind the lighting, background, and clothings.
Last but not least, HAVE FUN!
