I am so excited to be featuring Candy from SugaShoc Photography and to have her show you how she does a composite pose. She specializes in creating custom maternity, newborn, children, family, and high school senior portraits. Her studio is located in Doylestown, PA, in Bucks County. She does amazing work and her style is light and airy. She does love neutral colors but she also loves to play with little pops of color. Please visit and follow her Google+ page for more awesomeness. You can also follow her Facebook page to get her photos in your newsfeed.
Another thing she loves to do is Newborn Photography Videos. Her SugaShoc Photography Youtube Channel has some of her newborn photography videos on it and she is hoping to get some editing videos up in the next few months so be sure to subscribe t her channel.
If you are a fellow Pinterest fan, please follow her Pinterest board to see her favorite pins for different ideas and interests. And of course let’s not forget Twitter. Tweet her on her Twitter account. She loves to tweet.
Here are my links you can insert for the hyperlink text above:
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sugashoc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sugashoc
So now, let’s find out how she sets up and does her newborn composite shots.
I have been asked many times how I get newborn babies into certain positions and it is always very difficult to answer. It takes a lot of patience and understanding of newborns to be able to mold them and curl them into certain positions. My newborn sessions usually last about 3-4 hours and I don’t ever rush a session so as to allow for plenty of time for feeding, and soothing.
One of the reasons why custom newborn photography is so expensive is because photographers have to train and learn about how to pose newborns. Not every newborn likes every pose. Some just sleep better than others. One sign of being a good newborn photographer, is the ability to spot that and to move on.
One of the most difficult and time consuming edits is the newborn composite image. Aside from the newborn skin, you also have to take two images and combine it into one.
Composites are crucial in newborn photography to achieve a certain look. It is not always essential, however, it can look beautiful. Please do not attempt this if you are not a professional newborn photographer and only try this if your newborn is in a deep sleep.
When you do this, you will be merging 2 images of the same shot together so get an assistant, mom, or dad to help you out and show them what you are planning on doing before you get behind the camera.
In this case, I first set up the scene by placing the guitar, that the parents brought, up against something heavy and I also added non slip padding to the bottom of the guitar so that it was very steady. Next, I placed baby on top of the guitar and waited for him to settle. Once he was comfortable and settled, I showed mom that I was going to take a shot first with her holding baby on the left side of the guitar. Then, I told her that she was going to move to the right side of the guitar while keeping hands on baby the whole time and I was going to take my second shot. Since baby was so sleepy, he didn’t move an inch and this only took 3-5 seconds to take. We practiced and when she was comfortable, I took my spot and got ready for the shot.
This is the first shot:
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This is the second shot:
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And this is the resulting shot:
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This only took about 5 seconds to take, and mom’s hands were on baby the entire time. No guitars were harmed in any way.
Remember when you choose a newborn photographer, that safety should always be the photographer’s number one concern. Composites are a safe and fun way to get creative and I hope we see more of these in our industry.
Big Bump blanket from Knits by Dawn
Hyperlink: http://www.knitsbydawn.com/
Sincerely,
