Low Key baby photos with limited equipment??

toe_knee

Hi all,

My brother in law and his better half have just had a baby boy and want me to take some nice photos of him. I normally take landscape photos so potraits are not something I have ever done before.

Anyway they dont really have anything in mind but I do. I was thinking of a low key shot like this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwilding/4184193019/

My question is how would you go about doing a shot like this I have a DSLR Canon 450D with a 50mm 1.8 and a 28-135, I also have a flash (manual only). I can get my hands on an off camera sender and receiver for the flash if needs be.

Also if anyone has any other ideas that might be simple and have nice results for a newborn baby boy I am open to suggestions

toe_knee

Can anyone help??? I have until Sunday and I would like to get a bit of practice in before then.

oshead

First you need to define the characteristics of low key. Ie... The majority of the image should be very dark (if not black) tones with small amounts of very bright contrasting tones.

The easiest way to do this to get the light coming in from a different angle than the camera axis. Use a dark or black background and use a small light source on the subject. Try and get the light into a small pool using a snoot.

Good luck on Sunday.

toe_knee

Cheers, Looking for something like this shot

oshead

I think you're referring to the softness of the shadows. Use a larger light source. Ie, A softbox. If you don't have one then you can bounce the light from your flash off a large white card or bright wall.

pearljamfan

or just use natural diffused light coming from a window.