This is one of my favourite photos ever. It captures the moment when Jessica met baby Sophie for the very first time. Unfortunately as the room was fairly dim and Jessica is quite a wrigglebottom, she is a bit blurred in the shot. I love the photo in spite of this though.
Using black and white photography for birth photos is ideal. It minimises the impact of the goriness that is inevitable following the birth of a baby. The vernix covering Sophie’s head is much less noticeable and no-one needs to see the red tinge to the water! Most of my health professional friends would be perfectly comfortable with seeing this shot in vivid technicolou However, I suspect the more squeamish amongst my friends would not be!
This week is about sharing tips and tricks for black and white photography. I’m not a brilliant photographer by any stretch of the imagination but here are some of the tips I’ve picked up from friends who are.
1. Use RAW format when taking photos
Using RAW format gives you much more scope for editing and enhancing your photos afterwards. If you shoot in JPG, the photo is compressed and much less information is stored with the image. This gives you fewer options for adjusting it if needed afterwards. I tend to save files as both on my camera as JPGs are easier to open and view quickly on my laptop if I am away somewhere (my photo editing software is on my main computer at home).
2. Shoot in colour
You can always convert to black and white afterwards.
3. Learn what the settings do on your camera
Play around as much as possible and learn what all those manual settings do rather than just sticking to the automatic settings. Have to confess I’m still very much a novice here. I’ve got my head around shutter speed quite nicely now but still getting to grips with playing with the aperture settings and depth of field.
4. Get as many of the settings right as possible when taking the photo
Yes you can edit many things afterwards but it is much easier if you don’t have to!
5. Find photo editing software that works for you
I use Aperture as I find it very easy to change things with this. I can quickly batch edit photos if the same things need adjusting on each and then tweak each photo individually if needed.
Thanks for sharing such a magical photograph, the B&W helps the emotion to shine through.
Popping over from the B&W Photo Project.
Thank you, it was a very magical moment 🙂
Oh wow what a wonderful moment for you all, what a great capture. Great tips too. Funnily enough I’ve just done a post on how to create better B&W photographs – I must master it myself. Thank you for sharing such a lovely photo and joining in #bwphotoproject
Thank you – lovely to join in with the #bwphotoproject – loved your tips too, much more specific than mine and lots of things I’d never considered so thank you for sharing those too.
A beautiful picture and it looks perfect in black and white! You all look so happy 🙂 #bwphotoproject
Thank you – it was a very happy moment 🙂
wow what a totally amazing shot to capture and all the more beautiful in black in white
Thank you 🙂
gorgeous- what a special photo.
Thank you 🙂
Aww this is GORGEOUS!!
You’re right about black and white photography with births..we went B&W with my second child and the shots were awesome. x
Thank you so much – black and white definitely makes birth photos look more amazing 🙂
What an amazing moment to get on camera. Totally beautiful. #bwphotographyproject
Thank you 🙂
Gorgeous, gorgeous photo, and you’re about black and white… I might have to revisit the few photos I have after the kids were born, I might look less drained! Great tips too, off to check out Aperture 🙂 #bwphotoproject
Thank you – my birth photos definitely look better in black and white! 🙂
That is such a beautiful photo, and a truly magical moment to have captured x
Thank you – it was a very special moment 🙂
So beautiful…really tranquil in black and white
Thank you – it was a wonderful, serene moment – everything I had hoped it would be 🙂