Elliot's Newborn Photos

Daniel and I took Elliot's newborn photos at the end of last week.  Daniel's interest in photography is (I would say) pretty technical.  He understands the camera's mechanics (and physics, in general) to a much greater extent than I do, and I love that he takes an interest in teaching me what he knows!  It is very helpful. 



While he positioned the speed light and umbrella and set the white balance and adjusted other settings on our camera, I got the background and Elliot ready. 



Soothing Elliot turned out to be a much more tedious and time-consuming ordeal than I had anticipated. 

 

He was fussy.  Err... maybe a little more than fussy.



We had the heater set up, and it was a nice, cozy place to be asleep (I thought), but he was having none of it. 



I think he was missing his swaddle.  I don't know. 



Whatever the case, it took forever to get him to sleep. 



But once we did, boy was he fun to photograph. 



These were taken with our 50mm lens at an aperture of 2.8 and ISO of 100.  The shutter was 1/125, and we used the speed light (reflected off a silver umbrella to the right) for fill light, since a lot of light was coming in through the windows to the left. 



I should have taken a photo of our set-up, but I didn't. 



I edited with Photoshop Elements and used CoffeeShop Blog's "Baby Powder Room 2" action (link here) to reduce redness, smooth the skin, and give the skin more glow.  



I wish I could have done more backgrounds/outfits, but Daniel and I were pretty spent after we took these, and I got one to use for our Christmas card/Birth announcement - so that's good enough for me.



I love his little smile here.