Baby photography

[nickt]

My nephew has just had a baby, or rather his wife has, and I plan on taking some photos of him. Any advice about how the baby should be held by the parents or how he should be placed will be helpful. Does it matter how old the baby is? He is 5 days old. Is this too young to put him in different poses(!) I obviously don't want to upset him.
Thanks
Nick

[Alfonso_Frisk]

In my experience of family shots you just cant "pose" baby shots with a child so young.
Just sit with the camera poised and shoot off loads of random stuff you will get a few keepers.
plus make the most of natural light from windows and doors.
RR
Alf

[nickt]

Thanks Alf,
I was wondering whether to use fill in flash or just the existing natural light. I might look at the Anne Geddes site for some inspiration.
Nick

[Alfonso_Frisk]

Also have a look at Karen Addisons site
http://www.karen-addison.com/

Karen is a member here and long time DCM.
RR
Alf

[Sarasocke]

I'm no expert, but I would use any kind of flash at all. With babies/small children and animals, if there's not enough natural light then I find somewhere else to take the pictures.

Looking forward to seeing the results

Edit : should have been "wouldn't" not "would". 

[Jonathan]

In my experience of family shots you just cant "pose" baby shots with a child so young.

Actually at this age you can pretty much do what you want with them.  Ligaments etc are very very flexible for about the first 10 - 12 days so you can get them into more positions than with older children.  However, most parents don't know this and the number of kids you get to break in your career is remarkably low so be a little careful.

If all else fails then put them to sleep (remarkably easy if you don't care whether they sleep the next night or not) and pose away.  With wide awake babies lots of "poses" are better described as "controlled falling".

For kind of obvious reasons, few of my baby pics make it onto the web but there are a few model released ones here.  If you want to see cutting edge baby photography then forget Anne Geddes (PLEASE!!!) and Google up Kelley Ryden (she's on Flickr).

BTW young kids love flash.  I've spent all day shooting kids from about 4 weeks up to 4 years using 4 studio flash.  There have been no good studies into flash affecting babies eyes but most reliable sources say there is no risk whatsoever.  Probably 25% of my baby work involves flash.

[nickt]

Thanks for that Jonathan. There's some great images on your site and Kelley Ryden's.

Nick