Exercise : Your own workflow - One

This exercise co-incided with me taking some photos for a friend, of her new baby.

I know from previous experience with my nephew that the time available to photograph a baby is very, very, limited.  It has to fit in around feeds and nappy changing.  You want them sleepy but once you start puling them around, they wake.  If you take too long you are back to the next feed.

I had pre planned some shots that I had examples of, and I know that I need to condense this shoot into a short space of time.

Work Flow


Charge batteries for camera
Get New batteries for flash as haven't changed them in ages.
Also need to get some back up batteries - just in case.

Props : Beanbag, blankets, hats.

Camera - flash - memory cards and a spare.

Planned shots - Clothed
                         Nappy only
                         Nappy off
                         all of the above with and without hats.

Take shots
come home and download onto the computer.
Save unedited photos to disc
Move to Lightroom
Edit images then export back to iphoto - back up to external memory
Resave all edited images to DVD
Burn DVD for client.


Firstly the baby was sleepy and so we started with a few clothed shots, with and without hats, he was very good and relaxed.

Then we progressed to nappy off and took a few, but not as many as I had planned.  The ratio of clothed to naked should have been reversed.
I suppose I pushed my luck as the baby was being good.  What I learned is to get the pictures that you want straight away. Then any others will be a bonus.  Keeping the nappy on as long as possible.

Its also important to get your shots in this instance - as new mothers don't really want a return visit.

I ended up with 47 Images, some could be deleted straight away, I used my Macro lens and it obviously picks up too much information - dry skin etc - which I haven't yet learn to correct - but need to.

Also although I did like these shots and kept them in my selection, some of the pictures the baby had his mouth covered, which looked fine at the time, but now looking at them I wish I had the mouth showing.
I had numerous feet shots, from a wriggling baby, out of these one was the shot in focus and how I wanted it.

The naked shots I was able to condense down, as the baby was beginning to wake and move around. Unfortunately he was opening one eye which wasn't great for photos, and quite annoying.

In Lightroom, I adjusted the brightness. Cropped all to 5 x 7 and made the various alterations to each shot, some changed to black and white, before transferring back.  I saved the photos to a disc for myself.

I reduced the pictures to 25 to put on a disc for the client and printed off a dozen.

I have included a couple of pictures from the 47 , although I dont like to put someones new baby on the internet without their permission.