Taking Photos of a Baby with Nikon D5000

[Bodega]

Hi

Need some help, i have been using the portrait function as well as the baby function on the camera, however i noticed that with baby pics, out of 40 pics taken 1 is good (not Great). how do i get great pics of a baby that moves with no blurs and what settings do i change??

 

[bwana]

Not sure of the Nikon specifics but get a fast 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8, open it wide up, and shoot in aperture priority mode.

 

[RanzB]

Hi

Need some help, i have been using the portrait function as well as the baby function on the camera, however i noticed that with baby pics, out of 40 pics taken 1 is good (not Great). how do i get great pics of a baby that moves with no blurs and what settings do i change??

What bwana said. Use aperture priority mode, and shoot at the lowest f-stop that you can. Also make sure the lighting is sufficient or your camera will raise the shutter speed and you'll see blur.

 

[Bodega]

Ok Guys will try it out tonight and let u know the results.. Thanks again

 

[flarkit]

Ok Guys will try it out tonight and let u know the results.. Thanks again

Night-time shots with standard indoor lighting will pretty-much ensure that you will have a blurred moving subject. If you the flash, you might capture the baby, but the background will suffer. Try and use decent additional or ambient lighting if you can

 

[undesign]

After many thousands of photos of my "always moving" daughter (mostly in Av) I these days shoot as follows:

- shutter priority
- minimum shutter speed of 1/100, or faster (depending on the ambient light of course, but it is normally not in abundance inside my house)
- Auto ISO, to maximum of 800

I find that I have more keepers this way, shutter speed being the critical factor. If I can't obtain the required shutter speed I'll use flash.

If the baby is sitting/lying still then I will still use aperture priority for controlling DoF. Unfortunately my daughter is only still when she sleeps.

 

[Bodega]

Hey Guys

Those settings made it even worse...lol...It has to do with my lighting, i do have a flash which i only got and still need to setup so will try that tonight. SiriS thats the same story i am in, she always moves, lol and my room does not have great light, but hopefully the flash would help. Def will try these settings as it does make more sense. Thanks guys for all your help though....really appreciate it.

 

[Bodega]

Just To Let You know, i have tried using Shutter Priority and that works great. It captures all moments for me as i did not want the portrait look. Thanks SiriS and to everyone else.

 

[bwana]

Hey Guys

Those settings made it even worse...lol...It has to do with my lighting, i do have a flash which i only got and still need to setup so will try that tonight. SiriS thats the same story i am in, she always moves, lol and my room does not have great light, but hopefully the flash would help. Def will try these settings as it does make more sense. Thanks guys for all your help though....really appreciate it.

What lens are you using?

 

[chau]

How about some pictures for us to have a look?

 

[Bodega]

What lens are you using?

Nikon 18-55 AF VR, but getting a Fixed Focul 50mm

 

[Bodega]

How about some pictures for us to have a look?

Hey Chau, i would love to put some pics, however these are pics of my daughter and i dont like posting that in a place where the world can see. If i get some genral pics i would def put that up

 

[Fudzy]

Use some vaseline around the edge of the lens to give it that blurry romantic look.

 

[bwana]

Nikon 18-55 AF VR, but getting a Fixed Focul 50mm

Try again when you get that 50mm, it will make the world of difference.

 

[chau]

Hey Chau, i would love to put some pics, however these are pics of my daughter and i dont like posting that in a place where the world can see. If i get some genral pics i would def put that up

It's alright. Would be nice to see where you're going wrong with the pictures but then again its most probably the shutter speed that's a bit too low

 

[Dolby]

Not sure of the Nikon specifics but get a fast 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8, open it wide up, and shoot in aperture priority mode.

As I said, I have no experience .... just learning .... so ... wouldn't opening up the apaerture as wide as possible give a shallow depth of field?

 

[bwana]

As I said, I have no experience .... just learning .... so ... wouldn't opening up the apaerture as wide as possible give a shallow depth of field?

Yes.

 

[RanzB]

As I said, I have no experience .... just learning .... so ... wouldn't opening up the apaerture as wide as possible give a shallow depth of field?

Yes, but the wider open you go, the more light you let into the sensor, which means your shutter speed time reuired drops, resulting in (hopefully) much less/no blur.

 

[undesign]

As I said, I have no experience .... just learning .... so ... wouldn't opening up the apaerture as wide as possible give a shallow depth of field?

Indoor pics of babies/kids are TOUGH! A wide open aperture creates it's own problems, but mostly you don't have a choice. I devised a new strategy lately - set the shutter speed and ISO (normally 800). Set focus points to automatic. Then I shoot from the hip. I find it easier to get "natural" shots, as my daughter is less inhibited this way - some of the perspectives come out really awesome. Of course there will be maybe 5 keepers out of 50, but hey...

 

[bwana]

Indoor pics of babies/kids are TOUGH!

I cut my teeth on my own two kids but it's not really that tough.

Using a wide open 50 is tricky but there's one rule for pleasing photos and that's to keep at least one eye (preferably the leading one) in focus.