Hi all. I have been given the honour of photographing and documenting a friend of mine's labour and birth coming up in April. We have discussed what kind of images she would like (tasteful) and she has asked no flashes be allowed. In births, there is often really low lighting. What settings will help me to compensate for this low lighting? I am just wondering what I need to consider technically. Still feel like I'm very new to this, and really can't afford to muck up this shoot!!
Get a very wide aperture. That is your number one priority I'd say. Something f2.8 or less. Ideally something like f1.8/1.4. If you don't have one, I'd consider getting or renting one. Also a tripod, this could mitigate not having a wide aperture, but only when there is very little movement involved, which is probably beyond your control here.
No flashes is understandable, but how about an extra light or two? Is it the lighting or the flash that she is opposed to? If your going to struggle to an extent that it degrades the photographs I'd have this discussion with her/them and take some example shots to show.
Finally iso... Keep it low where possible, but personally I just keep an eye on it and "get the shot" you can worry about noise reduction after you've got it.
Also since it will probably be a constant lighting setup, you could consider full manual mode if you''re confident, otherwise stick with Av mode.
I think that's all I've got. Hope it helps, best of luck.
@tomo87 Thank you so much! I have a 1.8 and a tripod so no issues there. I'm not sure if I will use the tripod, as it is clumsy and I will need to be completely out of the way. But I'll take it along with me anyway, and practice with it between now and then.
I will discuss the extra light with them. It's a hospital birth, so there should be some daylight coming in - unless the action is happening in the middle of the night, in which case it tends to be quite dim lighting (for newborn eyes).
I am probably going to stick with AV. I am so nervous about just getting the shots. With ISO, I will have some time to play around with it on the day. Would it be blasphemous to use Auto ISO??
I did my friend's birthing last year. I used my 50mm f/1.4 ... I think I mostly used it at f/1.4 and my ISO on average was around 400. What I did was took a few shots that I knew I wasn't going to keep to test the light. There's time for that before getting the money shot. Enjoy, it was so awesome to be there.
@ozziehoffy Great tips thank you. Mind if I ask a few questions? When baby is arriving, what shutter speed did you use? Did you shoot in manual? I was thinking of shooting in AV for most of it and switching to TV during baby arriving. But just really curious as to what others have done.
@amyamoeba Ummmmm unlikely. But hopefully I'll have a few hours in the room to get the settings right, as long as we time it well and I get there in time. I hope!!
I'm going to get a new battery and take a couple of extra cards just in case. Any other bits of equipment you can think of?
I wouldn't worry too much about the ISO going up a bit. Not sure exactly which camera you're using, but anything less than 1000 should be useable, but just be careful with really high ISO e.g 6400. When I'm feeling lazy and shooting under streetlights (not sure how this relates to hospitals) the yellows become more saturated... My pot holes shot from a few days ago exhibits this. Main advice would be experiment lots between now and then, in poor dim light, so that you're aware of what ISO you can get upto before you're losing image quality significantly... It varies per camera and depends what kind of results you want to achieve...
Also play with metering modes, and compensating on your camera, on standard metering, I find my camera often overexposes (for my personal liking) on darker scenes and uses a higher iso than is necessary. I tend to use high speed continuous shooting, with exposure bracketing for important shots so that I usually get a range of 3 exposures to review... There are probably better ways, but that's the way I like to do it!
@ayrinthelife I shot in AV. Now that I understand about spot metering though, that would've helped with "the moment". As there was a BIG spotlight type light and it reflects something shocking off the white sheets. I was using ISO 320 (and just checked SS was 1/80)... If I knew more about spot metering then I could've adjusted and shot more to a slightly darker area rather than "the area"... if that makes sense.
@ayrinthelife Oh and yes... don't worry too much about the ISO... most birth photographers say that some grain adds to it.. it's a journalistic type of shooting. Most of your shots will end up BW too.
I have done a few photos in the labour ward, mostly to give to the parents. I work in maternity, and always have my camera a work. This one, the ISO was really high, but immalmost certain I would have been shooting on full auto . http://365project.org/onie/365/2012-12-18
The first thing you need to check is the hospitals policy in regard to photography. I doubt very much that you would be permitted to take a tripod into the room, they are cumbersome and will get in the way, our policy states they are not to be used. You also need to be mindful of the staff present in the room who may not want to be part of your photography. make sure your friend has let her doctor know that she will have a photographer in the room.
In my experience, Dim lighting in the labour room is a rarity and purely a mothers choice, I personally have the lights on at night as I like to see what I'm doing! Bright lights dont do any harm to babies eyes, the operating room for c/sections is very bright with lights. Day time we have big windows and natural light coming in.
Being involved in a birth is a wonderful experience, so be prepared to get teary eyed!!
would u not better video it, and take photos from the video, when you don't miss much. the thing is taking photos u may be in the way, if not set up the setting in the room and then just shoot, it maybe hit or miss but once you set your setting u need to do much after maybe as u shooting the light may change just keep a eye on it. won't change that much, take a couple shot first and see how it look good luck
I have zero experience of anything like this, but what i'd say is that with a woman giving birth, there may be a whole lot of movement going on, a tripod may be worthless as slow shutter speeds will not give you the sharp images you're going to need. I'd say (and its nobody's favourite thing to do) whack your ISO right up, auto ISO may give you too slow a shutter speed! Its better to have a noisy image than a blurred one! Photoshop can fix noise, it cannot fix blurs, however!
Oh yeah, and what @tomo87 said about the aperture too, f1.8 is your best bet. If you don't have a 50mm f1.8 then my advice is BUY ONE! Its one of the cheapest lenses out there, and the one lens that will make you think "why did I not buy this before?!?!"
@ayrinthelife Hi Rachael, I have just done a search for "birth" since I am interested in birth photography (by interested, I mean actively starting a business!!) … I would love to know how this all went for you and whether you've ever shot another?
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No flashes is understandable, but how about an extra light or two? Is it the lighting or the flash that she is opposed to? If your going to struggle to an extent that it degrades the photographs I'd have this discussion with her/them and take some example shots to show.
Finally iso... Keep it low where possible, but personally I just keep an eye on it and "get the shot" you can worry about noise reduction after you've got it.
Also since it will probably be a constant lighting setup, you could consider full manual mode if you''re confident, otherwise stick with Av mode.
I think that's all I've got. Hope it helps, best of luck.
I will discuss the extra light with them. It's a hospital birth, so there should be some daylight coming in - unless the action is happening in the middle of the night, in which case it tends to be quite dim lighting (for newborn eyes).
I am probably going to stick with AV. I am so nervous about just getting the shots. With ISO, I will have some time to play around with it on the day. Would it be blasphemous to use Auto ISO??
I bid thee good luck!
@ozziehoffy Great tips thank you. Mind if I ask a few questions? When baby is arriving, what shutter speed did you use? Did you shoot in manual? I was thinking of shooting in AV for most of it and switching to TV during baby arriving. But just really curious as to what others have done.
@amyamoeba Ummmmm unlikely. But hopefully I'll have a few hours in the room to get the settings right, as long as we time it well and I get there in time. I hope!!
I'm going to get a new battery and take a couple of extra cards just in case. Any other bits of equipment you can think of?
Also play with metering modes, and compensating on your camera, on standard metering, I find my camera often overexposes (for my personal liking) on darker scenes and uses a higher iso than is necessary. I tend to use high speed continuous shooting, with exposure bracketing for important shots so that I usually get a range of 3 exposures to review... There are probably better ways, but that's the way I like to do it!
The first thing you need to check is the hospitals policy in regard to photography. I doubt very much that you would be permitted to take a tripod into the room, they are cumbersome and will get in the way, our policy states they are not to be used. You also need to be mindful of the staff present in the room who may not want to be part of your photography. make sure your friend has let her doctor know that she will have a photographer in the room.
In my experience, Dim lighting in the labour room is a rarity and purely a mothers choice, I personally have the lights on at night as I like to see what I'm doing! Bright lights dont do any harm to babies eyes, the operating room for c/sections is very bright with lights. Day time we have big windows and natural light coming in.
Being involved in a birth is a wonderful experience, so be prepared to get teary eyed!!
Good luck, what a great opportunity for you :)