Do you dare to bare your bulge? Ever since those infamous photos of Demi Moore, half-naked propping up her rather large baby bump and embracing her soon-to-be motherhood, photographing moms-to-be has become increasingly popular.
For me personally, it’s something I love to do, as very often when we chat with moms-to-be in the studio, we find that they often feel, rather than “blooming beautifully,” disheveled and uncomfortable. If we can create images that reflect the beauty and intimacy of this time with mom and her baby, then we’ve done our job well.
So how do you go about recording this special moment forever without producing something that Mom doesn’t want to look back on later and think about how big it was? First of all, lighting is key to everything. In the studio, we like to use a variety of lighting techniques, but my favorite for “beat” images is probably low-key lighting against a dark background. By “low key” lighting I mean the lighting is fairly dim, not bright, and often set in such a way that it illuminates only the area of the subject that I want to be the center of attention. The bare flesh also adds to the effect in this type of portrait, but if mom is a little nervous or embarrassed about this, she doesn’t have to be completely naked like in Demi’s photos, but it could just be the bulge showing with the women’s top rolled up. up but cropped out of the image.
Sometimes, however, we use “high key” lighting (ie bright lights and a white background) along with strong colors to emphasize the mothers’ sense of fun and “joie de vivre.” All photography is subjective and it is important to remember that, especially in photography, one size does not fit all; in other words, we match lighting and backgrounds to the subject, sometimes using a combination of different lighting techniques.
Go topless, and that’s just daddy! The intimacy between mom, dad and the belly is heightened even more if you can make dad go topless! Positioning Dad on his knees and cradling or kissing her tummy is also good because this shows us how he looks at her wife in awe as he sees her carrying the most precious gift he could ever give her. The lights in his study should be positioned to highlight the bulge, and if he’s lucky, dad can kiss the baby he already loves on mom’s tummy. The moments captured can be very personal and intimate, in which the viewer can read many things.
Speaking personally, as the photographer who often knows the couple well, as they likely started out as one of our wedding couples, these photographs show me not only that Dad loves Mom for the size and shape she is, but also that he is loving his unborn baby.
Don’t be afraid to crop Don’t be afraid to crop your images in an unusual way. One of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken was made special because of the “letterbox” crop we’ve applied to it; without cropping this image so tightly, some of the image’s impact would have been lost. This photo was taken on a “high key” or white background, using a totally different lighting setup for a completely different look. This is a picture showing daddy kissing mommy and her unborn baby and mommy kissing daddy. The emphasis of this image and why it is so moving, in my opinion, is the love that is clearly within the family unit. What we are witnessing here by looking at this image is a love story: mom loves dad, who loves both mom and baby.
One of the lessons here is that computers can’t make a bad image good, but they can make a good image great. By implementing widescreen cropping on the image, you have completely changed how the image looks and what it says to the viewer. When we first took the photo, we knew exactly what crop to put on it next, but I guess the message here is don’t be afraid to experiment with your photos: try different crops and see what it does to you. the images. Often, if you crop right at the focus of the image, you’ll see a different image form in front of your eyes, but true photography skill is seeing that image before you crop it, or better yet, cropping it in-camera first. place.
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