A new born and some dramatic light.

A new born and some dramatic light.

My friends Hans and Patricia Combrink just had a baby and they asked if I could take some creative pictures for the birth announcement of Anna Sophia. They wanted the, what is becoming a standard, shot of the baby in the fathers hand. I have always like this pose so off I went two days after the baby was born. I arrived at their house with a black back drop and two sets of strobes with two small umbrellas and my PhotoFlex LiteDome xs Kit.  One of the two strobes was not firing and I did not have time to figure that out. So I put the one good 580 flash unit in the LiteDome and attached my Pocket Wizard.

I then had my wife hold the LiteDome and strobe as close as possible to the baby for as soft a light as I could get. Remember, there is light source and light origin. The origin might be the sun and the source could be the clouds or maybe a reflector. In this case the origin is the flash unit and the LiteDome becomes the source. The closer the source is to the object, the softer the light. This seems counter intuitive but it is true. Of course the closer you get to the object, in this case the baby, they less power you need, so I needed to dial down my flash. For these shots I use my 85 1.8. Haven’t got my hands on the 1.2 yet, but that is on my Christmas list.

After taking the first image below and feeling good about it. I decided to try some different angles that I had not seen shot with babies before. Tell me what you think? My favorite is the last one. Just click on the image if you want to see them larger.

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7 Comments

  1. Ashley Truckey

    These are great. I really like them. Great job. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Peter Pham

    All the shot looks good to me. I like them all and yes the 4th one is special angle. The 85mm 1.8 did a great job. I too will try this with my 85mm 1.8 when my baby girl in Feb.

    Reply
  3. Toni

    They are all fantastic. I really like the first one with little Anna holding her daddy’s thumb – so special, but I think my favorite is the last one.

    Reply
  4. jerry eisner

    did you also shoot the family with one small strobe or was that a separate session.
    You did a nice job on the black and whites with the one strobe and modifier. je

    Reply
  5. Samantha

    beautiful. i love the last one.

    Reply
  6. Danielle Combrink

    she is my baby sister, and very nice and cute and she can say a lot of words,She is the cutest baby on earth

    Reply

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