Help Baby Photos

[ipv6ready]

Hi all,
Need some help.

I have been asked to take some photos of my friends baby.

I have never ever taken a photo of a baby.

In my 10 years as a Nikon owner I TRUELY never have taken a photo of a baby.

I mainly take photos of Landscapes..........

Actually I rarely take photos of people at all!!!!

I was wondering what are simple but the best way. PS. I do not have a baby and usually do not attend functions where baby are coming as very few of people I know have babies.
The equipment I have to play with are

D100,
Coolpix 5700
SB-80DX - Stofen flash cover.
17mm Tokina ATX
24mm Nikkor
35mm Nikkor (Fungus)
105 Sigma ex
17-70mm Nikkor DX
70-200mm HSM EX Sigma

I will have a Tripod with me.
I also have almost every kind of filters from my film days.

The photos will be taken at a golf club house also invited are thirty other LAWYERS


Any help will be appreciated.

[Matt. K]

Lay the baby on a patterned sheet near a large window. Use the soft natural light at ISO400 and shoot away with your sharpest lens. A 50mm at f5.6 would be good. get close. Change positions. Go for different expressions. Keep it very simple and the camera and the baby will work their own magic. Do some with baby and mom.

[phillipb]

Is this a special event eg. baptism? If so there's probably a list of "standard" photos that you would take at such an event. Let us know if that's the case.

[kipper]

Make sure you get the DOF right. I remember shooting some of my nephew at xmas and I had the DOF too shallow so I was rendering some part of his facial features out of focus.

I think Matt said shoot near an open window, I found mornings and late afternoons on a nice sunny winters day worked well.

Something that I tried was shooting continuous, and getting the parents to talk to the baby in their baby voices. You'll get a stream of animated expressions as the baby responds to their mother/father.

Then again, as was already mentioned let us know what sort of style this will be. Eg. an event or studio/portrait style shoot etc.

[ipv6ready]

Is this a special event eg. baptism? If so there's probably a list of "standard" photos that you would take at such an event. Let us know if that's the case.

I am told that it is a general showing of the bay for the first time.
A very informal event for friends and family.

A round of golf for 16 people or so and lunch all up about 40 people.

That is all I know.

Baptism ...at the Golf Club

Yes the parents are golf nuts . handicap of 2 and 12 for the lady.

Also let me clarify my Question?

Do people do soft look for babies like Viag studios

I will do the sharp/soft light Matt suggest. Do people do soft focus shots of baby and mum? PS - I am in IT networking not a pro or even a prosumer in any sense of the word.

[kipper]

While I'm no expert at this, I did learn a few things from my experiments.

If you get mum/dad to talk to the baby, make sure you're positioned so to maintain a similar position to where they are.

Eg. over their shoulder with a longer lense such as the 85mm 1.4

[phillipb]

Baptism ...at the Golf Club

Mate, I've done baptisms that would rival a lot of weddings with over 200 guests

[ipv6ready]

Make sure you get the DOF right. I remember shooting some of my nephew at xmas and I had the DOF too shallow so I was rendering some part of his facial features out of focus.

DOF I will remember that

Thanks for suggestions so far.

Also it will be great to place some faces to names this Sat evening dinner. the only person i met before is Hlop / Mikail

Please keep coming with suggestions. As I am going to cut and paste into a A4 and take it with me.