Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi all!
I will be photographing a 6 week old tomorrow and am in need of some last minute advice...It's my first time shooting a new born and very little experience in portraiture...I'm mostly an inanimate type of photographer...my main concern is that I will only be having a speed light...on camera not remote...any advice on how I should handle this? Bounce off walls or ceiling?I'm not sure of the lighting conditions in the persons house...Nikon d80 with a sb900. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!!

From the health point of view of the infant "do not use flash", as their eyes are not fully develop yet.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I've watched countless videos of photos taken with flash of new borns...But this makes me wonder...thanks for pointing that out Simon!

For your situation I would recommend bouncing off the ceilings for any flash photography. My preference though would be to use as much natural light as possible - through a window or similar. If the light is too harsh use a thin curtain or fabric of some sort to diffuse the light.

I've done a bit of photography for my kid.

I'd make use of fast primes if you have them, and if you use a flash, bounce it off walls or umbrellas. Keep the flash power low by ramping up your ISO to the highest that you can tolerate.

Great advice so far. Bounce the flash off the walls or ceiling if you can. Watch out for coloured walls/ceilings as they could reflect an off colour cast. Carry a white card that you can attach to your flash head. Gary Fong Lightsphere if you got one works well in small areas. If you're unsure for expose when using your flash, you can always switch to "P" mode.

if you haven't left yet

don't go anything over iso 400 on the D80...imo it just can't handle it (i have 2 of them)
also, i'd set up the SB900 for even (manual pgs. d24/25)
i prefer to use spot metering (both on focus and light) and i always use A or M (the flash will carry thru whatever you desire to shoot at (ie f5.6-8 @ 1/200, unless after extreme dof)

also, shoot RAW

Everyone said bounce already

... but no one mentioned black foamie thing:
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/2009 ... mie-thing/

He also had a recent newborn session article:
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/2010 ... ient-light

Thank you soooo much folks! All tips where well apreciated and used...I just viewed the results from the shoot and I was pleased...Again thanks a billion!!!

pictures! we want to see them!

and don't forget to contribute to this thread:

http://tpmg.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14347

Let me introduce Yael! She was such a good little model!