DIY newborn photoshoot - part 2

So since my last post (DIY newborn photoshoot) I found our portable heater and so thought I may as well try the whole naked-baby-photoshoot while Iz was still little.

So here are some shots. What do you think? Is a naked baby a lot more cute than a dressed one or not? I do like the way that she is awake in some of these pics. I'd love to hear what you think in the comments section :)

 

And yes, for those of you who are wondering... there was wee and poop everywhere :(

DIY newborn photo shoot

I'll start off saying I am not a professional photographer at all, I'm just an amateur who enjoys taking pictures, especially of my babies :)

When Doof was born I spent the first few weeks in a hazy fog of endless feeds, no sleep and general first-time-mum-trying-to-make-sense-of-it-all. Sure I took lots of pictures but 99% were on my iPhone - nice but nothing special.

Photos from Doof's first week - lovely memories but not exactly technically great!

Since then we got a DSLR and so this time round I decided to try and take some better quality photos...

There is loads of information available online - I read this blog which had some really useful tips (but was a bit more serious/involved than I was planning to be):

HERE is the first in a 5 part series 

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Equipment and timings:

-         selection of 'backdrops' (dark blue towels, white embroidered bedspread, patterned giant muslins)

-         blankets & muslins

-         hats and cuddly animals that Is had been given as presents

-         beanbag

-         chairs (to hang backdrops off)

Not exactly high tech equipment!

I used a DSLR camera with a 50mm lens (so I mainly played around with the depth of focus). Most of the pictures I took in the evening - definitely not the best time if day light-wise but definitely the best if you have an active toddler running around the rest of the time!! So because of this I used a flash but with a diffuser so the light wasn't too bleaching.

The advantage of taking the pictures myself was (cost aside obviously!) I took the photos over several days - just doing 10-15 minutes of prep and shooting a day, dependent on when she was at her most sleepy.

Shots:

So below are some examples of shots I took, with various props, backdrops and coverings. 

Positions

The main poses Is did were on her tummy and side-lying. She didn't really want to do any others and I wanted natural looking pictures and definitely didn't want to force her into any positions she didn't want to be in. 

Prone and side-lying positions on a variety of backgrounds/drops

Angles

Think about shooting from different angles. I just experimented and tried lots of different views. Some looked good, others not so much. That's the joy of a digital camera - you can just delete the shots you don't like!

She was in the same position but I just moved around her

The top and bottom pics were taken without moving her position, whereas the middle one was taken after I repositioned post-feed

Props

You don't need to go crazy buying props etc. I just had a rummage around and used things we already had at home. two of the hats were knitted by a friend (one for Doof and one for Is) and the other came from Baby Gap. The two cuddly animals had been given to Is as presents so I thought it would be nice to include them in some pictures. 

Modelling Baby Gap hat

Her new monkey is about the same size as her!

Cuddling her rabbit - a bit more classy than Doof's collection of muslins!

Focus

Play around with different areas of focus. It's really easy on a DSLR to change the focus depth so just have fun seeing what looks good.

In the top pic the focus is on her hands, whereas in the bottom one it is on her face

Details

Make sure to get some detail shots too. Their hands and feet don't stay this tiny for long! And these shots can look beautiful in black and white so try converting some.

Clothing vs nakedness

Even though all the professionals like babies to be naked I didn't strip Is off for several reasons:

- our house isn't warm enough and I couldn't find the portable heater

- it took away the spontaneity of taking the photos as if she fell asleep after a feed, she would definitely have woken up if I faffed around trying to undress her

- poop and wee would have been guaranteed to end up everywhere

But the bottom line is I don't think babies need to be naked to get cute photos. Sure, put them in an outfit you like, but I think naked pictures can look a bit forced whereas clothed ones look a bit more natural.

Extra special things

Think about anything very precious you have which you might want to include. Is' granny died a few weeks before she was born and so sadly never got to meet her. So I included one of her bracelets in some shots and was really pleased with the result.

"Different" shots

 

And lastly, not every photo needs to be of a peaceful sleeping baby. I took this one just as she woke up (just before I stopped shooting and fed her!). I think it is quite sweet :)

She only cried for a second but I managed to capture it!

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So there it is - Is' first photo shoot :) although the pics definitely aren't professional-standard I'm really pleased with how they turned out. The only shame is it's impossible to have yourself in the pictures too.

I'd love to hear any other tips people have or if you try doing this at home yourself :)

EDIT:
We did do a naked photoshoot in the end too - you can see the photos here :)

Sensory bags

As I'm currently overdue with baby number 2 I've been looking for slightly more sedate activities to do with Doofy. So this week we've made a few sensory bags - easy to make and very non-messy (as long as they don't burst…!!).

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1. Gel bag

Gel bag ingredients and final result

 

 What we used:

2 tubes of hair gel (meant to get clear gel but bought blue by mistake - it didn't matter though)

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

Selection of different shaped buttons, sequins and glitter 

Details from inside bag

This is the first one Doof played with and he was quite fascinated by it. He patted it, squished it and scrumpled it up into a ball. I then showed him some of the different objects inside and he loved trying to find new things - we were both very excited when he managed to find the star button that was hidden in a particularly deep pocket of gel!

Doof enjoying his first play with the bag

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2. Foam bag

Foam bag ingredients and final result

What we used:

Shaving foam

Red and blue food colouring

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

Small silver baubles (used in cooking) 

Initial squidging of the foam - before it turned to grey mush!

This was the least successful bag. I filled it with foam and then made 2 small pockets of food colouring – the thought was that Doof could then squidge them all together and create coloured foam inside the bag. However I think my mistake was adding the silver baubles as when Doof played with it (it was the next day so maybe that was another problem?) the foam instantly turned to a greyish mush and the quite quickly lost its original “bounciness” that had made it feel so nice when first made. So if I make this one again I will definitely leave out the baubles and might also try it with a single colour first. Or maybe make coloured shaving foam outside the bag and then add it to the bag after…

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3. Paint bag

Paint bag ingredients and final product

What we used:

Different coloured paints

1 large ziploc bag

Duct tape

I only had 3 colours to hand when I made this bag (all our cool neon ones were in Doof’s room and he was asleep so I wasn’t chancing waking him!) so it’s not the most exciting colourwise but Doof still enjoyed squishing the colours together and they made quite a nice orangey/green after mixing. I also added a few of the silver baubles to add a bit more texture to the bag.

Doof especially enjoyed stamping on the paint bag!

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How each bag looked after it had been played with - you can see the middle foam one was definitely the least successful!

So there you go - three non-messy bags which toddlers can enjoy playing with time and time again (although the mixing will obviously happen mostly during the first play). Doof’s favourite is definitely the hair gel one – I think because it is the most “full” and so feels very soft and squidgy, like a gel cushion. It also feels really cool which is great in this weather!

Have you made any sensory bags with your kids? Or I’d love to hear any other ideas we could try?