Anyone who has dealt with babies, they would know that the new born babies are the most amazing models to be captures. We, Klicpic – A team of professional photographers and professional baby handler, capture the beauty moments and details of the new born babies in the hospitals.
Our goal is to have beautiful soft lighting, with soft form defining shadows. We don’t want harsh lighting or strong edged shadows along with avoiding completely flat light without any shadows.
Here we will be discussing about the lighting which is mostly followed during a hospital photoshoot for a new born baby.
What do we use?
– Light: Our photographers do carry flash which has multiple power controlling settings. Few carries diffuser as well which diffuses the flash light to an extent however it keeps the surrounding bright. The flash needs to be on low power so that the picture can be taken at an open aperture without making the image over-exposed. The flash is fixed on the camera hot-shoe and the angle which is mostly preferred for clicking the images are either at 45° or 90o with the head of the baby facing towards the camera.
The light should fall over their face and throw soft shadows which makes the picture look appealing. You can see an example below:
– Camera: Our team uses highly professional DSLR cameras for the photoshoot which results in the best quality of the pictures.
– Lens: Wide angle lens and prime lens are used for the photoshoot. Wide angle lens opens up wide and gives a beautiful background focusing the baby perfectly and prime lens is to get beautiful expression of the babies.
Basic camera setting followed:
- Aperture is mostly kept at f/5.6.
- Shutter speed is maintained at 1/60 to 1/100 as per the location lighting and syncing with the flash light.
- Flash should be manually set at a correct power setup.
- ISO is maintained at minimum 100 and maximum 400, as per the light settings.
- White balance should also be set with custom WB.
There are chances that during the photoshoot, some pictures will be over-exposed and some under exposed. We will share some of the tips on how to control them.
Under exposed pictures: The pictures where the lighting is very little and results to dark photo. To correct under exposed lighting –
- Add more light to the scene: A flash can be used or any other lighting source to cover up the low light during a photoshoot.
- Change your f/stop: Open up one stop (or more if needed) to capture more light. For instance, change, the exposure from f/8 to f/5.6 keeping the same shutter speed.
- Slow down your shutter speed: As the new born baby shoot is for the sleeping babies and as they do not move much, a shutter speed from 1/80 of a second to 1/30 cane be used keeping the f stop at 5.6.
Over exposed pictures: The pictures where more light is recorded with highlights with no details. To correct over exposed lighting –
- Do not put direct light on the subject: Too much of direct light on the object creates harsh light, hence using of a reflector or moving to a little shadow or using a cloth to block the direct light can be useful.
- Lower the power of the flash: The flash do have power setting mode, hence, if you see that the light emitted is very high, the power of the flash can be decreased so that a correct amount of light is emitted towards the subject.
- Changing of fstop: Close the fstop in the settings like changing the settings from f8 to f11, which controls the amount of light.
- Increase shutter stop: Increasing of shutter speed results in the low amount of light which help in controlling the over exposed light during a photoshoot.