Newborn Photography | Safe Posing – composite image

Ever wonder how newborns can pose and balance so well on a prop?

When I first started as a professional newborn photographer in Ottawa, I had no idea that so much technique went into posing the tiny little subjects.  I often get asked by parents to pose their baby with a special prop, whether it be a musical instrument, a work hat or helmet or some other meaningful item that will help to personalize the session.  If you have had a baby, or have been around babies, you will know that babies have quite the startle reflex which means that while they may sleep soundly at one moment, they can wake abruptly the next which can be quite dangerous if they are not well protected when left alone.  For this reason we need to ensure that baby’s safety is of utmost importance when they visit the studio.  In the series of images below, I have demonstrated how to pose a baby on a prop so that it appears as though she is balancing on her own, however she has mommy’s and/or daddy’s hands on her at all times.

In the first four images which are SOOC (straight out of camera) we demonstrate each step to take after I have posed the baby to create the final image.

In the very first image I took a photo of just the guitar so that I could be sure to have a clean backdrop free of parents and other object.  For the other three images we have mom and/or dad supporting baby and the guitar so that she did not fall off and also so that the guitar stayed in place.

By doing the the series of images where the parents are supporting baby, I am able to merge the 3-4 images into one using Photoshop by adding one image on top of the other and masking out the parents and other unwanted objects.  This technique is called a composite, which is much easier than trying to clone out or paint out the parents and other objects after the fact.  With lots of practice, this is a fairly straight forward pose to achieve with very minimal post-process work.