There are few photography subjects as precious as babies, which is why so many people offer baby photography services. But if you’ve spent any time photographing babies, you know that baby photo shoots can be full of surprises - some good and some bad.
To prepare yourself to become a better baby photographer, consider these simple and easy tips that will improve your photos and help you sell more images to your clients.
Work the Angles
When photographing babies, especially newborns, it’s critical that you work from various angles and distances to capture the best views of the baby. Newborns often have bumps, scratches, and misshaped heads, so you’ll need to work your magic to find the best perspective. Getting down low on their level is a great angle, and gives people an eye-level view into the baby’s little world. Getting in close is another great option, and allows you to create a more intimate portrait of the little one.
But perhaps the best angle is found when the baby is being held. This opens up many opportunities, from getting down to the baby’s eye level to peeking over mom or dad’s shoulder to everything else in between. You can maneuver around to get a shot of the baby in mom or dad’s arms, step back for a nice portrait of the baby with his or her parent, or zoom in for a close-up of the baby as well. The possibilities are endless!
Keep on Shooting
If you wait five minutes, a baby’s mood and temperament can change. When taking portraits of babies, just put your camera in continuous shooting mode and click away! The crying and screaming that you’re confronted with to start may very well segue into a calm, peaceful, sleeping bundle of joy, and somewhere in the transition from one to the other could be “the shot.” Make sure you’ve got good lighting, dial in an ISO of 100 or 200, open up the aperture, and fire off images as quickly as you can.
Let the Little One Be Your Inspiration
While it’s certainly good practice to have a shot list in mind before heading out to your photo shoot, there is something to be said for letting your little portrait model be your source of inspiration. Every baby is a bit different, from its personality to its physical features, and those things can lead you into photographic territory you may not have considered before arriving on location. In fact, the very best images you take might just be the ones that were completely unplanned and that happened organically. If possible, give the baby some room to move - to stretch, breathe, and yawn. Amidst that movement, you may find that one characteristic - a smile, a birthmark, or the eyes - that takes the image from being good to being incredible.
Sleep Time is the Perfect Time to Go Macro
If you’re working with a baby that’s fallen asleep, it is a perfect time to pull out your macro lens and get some really up-close shots of the baby. Being asleep means the little one will be much less fidgety and you’ll be able to capture close-ups without worry that the baby’s movements will interfere with the sensitive focus of your macro lens. Little fingers and toes, a nose or lips, and curls of hair are the kind of detail shots that can add a whole other dimension to a client’s baby album.
Sell More Baby Photos
Of course, learning ways to improve your photos is just half the battle - you also need to devise methods by which you can encourage your clients to buy more of the photos you take.
A great way to boost your sales is to simply make it more convenient for your customers to order and re-order prints. Plymouth Cards offers a number of products to help you achieve this end. For example, you can send prints to clients inside the card sleeves offered by Plymouth Cards. The card sleeves allow your customers to easily see your name, address, contact information, and other details, along with a call to action, like “Call me today to order more prints” printed on the back of the card. So when mom and dad get the new prints of their baby, all they have to do is flip the card sleeve over to see how to reach you when they want to order more prints or to schedule future photo shoots as their baby grows.
Not only does this make it more convenient for your clients to place orders, but it also gives them an easy way to spread the word about you to their friends and family. These attractive card sleeves make the perfect accompaniment to the prints that mom and dad send to family and friends. So every time your clients send a print of their baby to a loved one, that person will, in turn, have access to your contact information. That means grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and family friends can order prints of the baby from you with ease. You can’t beat putting an actual, physical print in the hands of clients and their family and friends to encourage more business!
Conclusion
Baby photography is an excellent opportunity to help others create beautiful memories of one of the happiest moments of their lives. But baby photography is no easy task! By working the angles, shooting continuously, allowing the baby to inspire you, and selecting the right time to go macro, the results you get will be much improved. And, once you have improved photos, there isn’t a better way to generate more business than to send out high-quality prints and card sleeves with your contact information right on the back!