Off topic – Newborn Session

The last post was about my first attempt doing a pregnancy session. Capturing the joy of expecting parents. As it turned out, it was not a week too soon, because the baby eventually decided to arrive a good three weeks ahead of schedule. Here are the images from the newborn session with a baby girl not even a week old…

Just like the pregnancy session, capturing the little girl and her parents was set up as a home shooting in the couple’s living room. As before, I got some inspirations from Instagram that I copied into a mood board and brought along, together with some accessories from which the parents could select.

I brought the same gear as for the pregnancy session a couple weeks earlier. Keeping it simple, I was using my trusted workhorse Olympus OM-D E-M1X with the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 zoom. The second camera was again the Leica M (Type 240) with the Summicron 50mm F/2 to create these special portrait shots with the legendary Leica look, as this camera and lens combo renders like no other.

I find that with these two camera-lens combos I can handle all situations in a home shooting environment without having to worry too much about my gear or which lenses to take. I can operate them blindly and I know what I can and can’t do. I seamlessly swap the cameras during the shoot, so it is easy for photographer and subjects to stay in the flow.

Also, both the Olympus zoom as well as the Leica Summicron are both fast lenses, with apertures of F/4 and F/2 respectively. Using available light and avoiding flash was paramount in this situation. Not only is natural light much more flattering, a newborn that is half asleep doesn’t enjoy strobes being flashed her way, so shooting wide open at higher ISO (between 400 and 1600) was the better way to go.

Before starting the session the little one was well fed. Also we made sure the living room was well heated. As it was crispy cold outside, I brought an additional electrical heater that served us well. At the start of the shooting, the little one was pretty much asleep. That made it quite easy to wrap her in the blanket.

Like in the pregnancy session a couple weeks earlier, we made well use of the large living room windows as the principle source of soft, natural light. This worked well for both the family pictures as well as for some detailed shots that are also very important. Also to capture the size difference between the tiny human being and the parents, which is never greater as in this very first days they spend together.

Sharing the results via the back screen of the camera is very important, so everyone is seeing we are getting beautiful results, which puts the whole crew at ease.

The little one was pretty much at ease the whole session. It helps do to the shooting very soon after the family returning home with the newborn. The babies sleep most of the time and can be handled pretty easy. But it is important to understand that the baby is the boss 😉 If the little one is not happy with what we are trying to capture on the sensor, then it is better to stop immediately and move on to something else to keep the star of the season at ease.

Also, when using freshly acquired props, it is important that everything is clean, properly washed and that blankets, furs and any other accessories are not loosing any excess material. Basically I was very happy with the stuff I brought, and it was well used.

After retuning home, I downloaded the images from the shooting onto the computer and looked for some initial highlights. After a quick editing I did send the parents some initial images via WhatsApp the night of the session, with the rest of the images delivered during the week. All post production was done in Lightroom Classic.

That was the litte two-part series around pregnancy and newborn photography. It was definitely fun for me and I’m quite happy with the results.

Have a great weekend!

Marcus

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