Learning Center
Newborns

One of my very favorite portrait sessions is when I photograph newborn babies. I love to capture the newness and innocence of a very young infant. I have photographed babies as young as five days old. I like to photograph them asleep with their parents. The younger the baby is, the easier it is to get them to sleep. Obviously, I don’t want to wake the baby. So, I photograph in the studio using only the modeling lights from my strobes. If you fire the flash it startles and wakes the baby. In order to do this you need very fast lenses. That’s why I prefer to use the Tamron SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di lens on my Canon 5-D. The lens is so lightweight (very easy to hand hold) and with the built in macro I can get the close up images I want. In these images I had the ISO set at 1000. I don’t mind if the image picks up a little noise. I convert the images to B&W (using our custom Photoshop action) with added grain and softness so my finished images have a “high-grain film” look to them.

What I am looking to capture is the parents with their new baby. I want to show the love and tenderness that the parents have for the baby. I also want to incorporate the parent’s hands in the images showing the scale of how tiny the newborn is. We call that “Photographing Baby’s Tiny Treasures, capturing all the kissable parts of babies.” I have even created a DVD (contact studio@angelacarson.com for information) showing how I do this type of photography. You have to be patient to do this style of photography. It often takes a while to get the baby to sleep and the whole session could take up to 2 hours. However, it is so worth it. The parents will treasure your portraits forever, as they will soon realize how fast their new baby will grow and change.