Maternity Photos

Before your baby is even born you want to take pictures of that beautiful bump. Doing maternity photos yourself isn’t that hard but you have to take the time to put some effort into editing them. You can use a tripod but you don’t have to, you can just set the camera on a table or dresser. Your camera will have to have a timer function though.

When I did this for myself I had to stay indoors. There was no way that I was going to attempt this at a park and look like a complete crazy taking maternity photos of myself. So for a backdrop I hung a black sheet.  Another trick for interesting Maternity photos is taking silhouettes by having the light source behind you.

Take lots of photos, even if they turn out awful, some editing might make them savable!

Don’t spend tons of money on a fancy-shmancy editing software, I just use picnik.com or photoshop.com. You have to register and you with picnik you have the option for subscribing for more tools but the basic free stuff is all you really need.

When dealing with stretch marks turning  a photo black and white helps, but if thats still not enough there are touch-up tools on the editing sites that you can try.

The most important thing about DIY maternity photos is in the editing otherwise you probably wont end up with anything worthwhile. So spend lots of time familiarizing yourself with whatever editing software or website you choose. Play around get creative.

Keep the original photo in case you come up with an idea later on. Also the more you edit it the poorer and poorer the quality will become so keep that in mind. It might still look ok on the computer but when you try to get and enlargement printed you will have a problem.

Beginners Lighting

Photography is all about lighting. If you look up the root words in photography the greek meaning is something along the lines of “drawing with light”
I’d say being aware of your light source, is the top priority for me in every picture I take. It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, if its top of the line or an old film point and shoot, they all require lighting to create the picture.

 

 

 

 

Whatever the available lighting is, whether its sunshine or a table lamp or candle light you are going to want to make that work for you to capture the true mood of the scene. A flash is sometimes necissary but I try to avoid it at all costs.

For beginners I will suggets getting started with basic outside in daylight shoots, or inside next to a large window. Harsh direct sunlight can wash people out and create dark shadows. Over cast is perfect lighting for a beginner.

This is usually the kind of lighting you will have your infant in anyways since most parents do their best to protect their babys skin from direct sunlight.

So perfect it’s the best lighting for you and your baby!

Thats not always going to be available. Right now its october and there are not a lot of opportunities for me to take my baby outside for photos.

Indoor lighting can be quite warm feeling. It is darker than outdoor light so be warned that your pictures will blur more easily. Setting a higher ISO (or having higher ISO film) will help deal with this but also reduces the crispness of the photo by creating what is called “noise” on the photo. Keep your ISO as low as possible and choose a time when you baby or child is calm and relativley still.

I am not going into lowlight photos right now, to do it properly you require a tripod and and a remote shutter release. It’s not super difficult but it’s also not something you would want to jump into right away. Besides most of the photos that you will be taking of your children will be during the day, so get started on that.

Getting Started

I want this blog to basically be a place where I can dump all my knowledge and helpful tips on how to take picture of your children. It’s for moms and dads, and other relatives who like me want to document their little ones childhood. But before I go in to the how’s I am going to write about the why’s.

I am a mom of three kids, they are currently 6, 2 and 6 months old. I also go to school and usually get asked to do photography for friends and family on the side. My husband and I are trying to buy our first home and life is hectic. This is just to give you an idea of who I am so that my reasons for photography make more sense.

I have many reasons for wanting to take nice photos of my children. It seems the more I do it, the more reasons I have to continue. The reason that I was drawn to it in the first place is that even before I had children I was drawn to photography and had a nack for anything visually artistic and creative.

When you become a parent you suddenly have an adorable subject for your photography that you always have access to. So if you are like me and you love pictures and you love your kids, its just a natural fit.

As I had more children though and my life got busier, I realised that taking pictures was becoming more than that. I am often busy and stressed out. Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on their childhood. Taking the time to do photos of them encourages me to take the family out and do fun stuff together. It also give me the chance to enjoy their childhood later on as well so I don’t end up looking back with nothing but a feeling of regret. 

Also as a large family we are always on a budget. I want to have keepsakes but can’t afford to hire a professional photographer to capture our memories. Doing it myself not only saves from that expense but photos make great for gifts (on a budget). Or you could do photos for someone else as a gift to them.  If you get really good other people might approach you and offer to pay YOU to take their photo.

So basically it’s something I enjoy, it creates keepsakes, and it helps me stay emotionally balanced, encourages my family to spend time together, and save me money!

AWESOME reasons to get started photographing your children hey?