What happens when family visits a professional photographer? An impromptu photo session!

A few weeks ago my nephew along with his wife and babies came to visit my home in Massachusetts. Since babies don’t stay small forever I wanted to take some professional photos for them. Since we decided to do this the day they had to head out – we didn’t have much time. So instead of setting up a full studio setup…

…and since Eva is tiny – I used a similar setup that I use when I shoot flowers outdoors:

The idea is to have a white light source behind the subject. For flowers I use 3 lights (but with Eva I used 2). Check out the final result:

While you’re at it check out some behind the scenes video of how I made a similar shot:

So in this case the first step was to setup the back light. When working with lights it’s important to setup one at a time so you know what each light is doing.

I had a large softbox in the back set at 1/8th power. Once I was happy I added the second light also setup at 1/8th power:

Then I turned on both lights and added a white blanky on the table.

Another tip I’d like to share with you guys is always have everything ready (camera settings, etc) so people are not waiting around. Once you have everything locked in – start shooting your subject!