Secrets To Photographing The 3 Month Old Baby

The Baby's First Year
Let's look at what you need to do for a great looking three month poses and portraits. In our studio we create many babies first year programs and I follow a system for creating certain poses at each specific age.

We do give our clients the option of bringing in their babies at either 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, or newborn, 4, 8 and 12 months.

The Babies First Year program is a very popular item and an easy one to market. They are a great way to grow your baby and child business, and they create offshoot portrait opportunities and up-sells such as canvas gallery wraps, frames, DVD slide shows, photo purses and other cool items.

At three months, there are some limitations to the poses and expressions, and I explain to the parents what I plan on doing and hope to achieve. If we don't get what we hoped for, I tell them that the 6 month session will be amazing. At that age the babies are sitting up and smiling.

 

Breaking It Down
At three months, I basically have three essential poses. The first picture is one of my favorite poses. The baby is propped up on the edge of a small sofa, and my wife Tina is holding the baby steady. Mom is right to my left, beside the main light, and chatting, playing, singing to the baby. I will often grab a cute little hat, or use the one the mom brought in, and create a few extra poses with that.

 

To add another twist and another cool angle to this pose I will swing the main light around and almost 90 degrees to the baby, tilt the camera, get the mom way over, and grab a few profile poses. All these variations off one pose. Cool!

The next pose I roll into is baby on its back, looking into mom's eyes. I use a bean bag and drape either black or white fabric over it like in photo 4. The main light is opposite to me, skirting across the baby and creating shadow towards the camera. I use a reflector as fill light. This creates a great angle, almost a profile, and shows the detail in the baby's face beautifully and really brings out their eyes. Moms love this pose!


Finishing The Session
Before I roll into the last poses, I like to capture a few "grab shots". Meaning, whatever and however the baby is with the parent or parents. In photo 5, the mom was holding the baby like that, so I asked her to step into my main light and grabbed a few quick ones. In the baby with parents, the baby is supported by the parents shoulders and arms. Great angle! And of course some shots of mom, dad, or both kissing the baby.

The final pose is easy, and baby's love this! Naked, on their backs, wrapped in a blanket. (watch for loose objects in your pockets) You will get the baby cooing and smiling, grabbing their toes. This is a great opportunity for some detail shots as well. If there is a sibling around, or twins, I will get them to lay right beside the baby for a variation on this pose.

Here's a video for you to watch explaining and showing me in action while photographing the three month old.We photograph hundred of babies in our studio every year. They are a steady and reliable source of profits. The Baby's First Year wall program helped us become the "go-to" studio in our area, not to mention all the off shoot opportunities.

 

NOTE: We are off on our motorcycles again this July. This time to the East Coast and Newfounland

 

You can track our adventures online. Rob here and James here

yours in photography,
Robert Provencher

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