Photographer Secrets Revealed - How to Get a Newborn Shot with Black Background

Ever wonder how photographers get babies into crazy cute poses when they can't even hold up their heads?

In this post I'm going to show how I got this shot.

If you've had a newborn or seen a newborn, you know that there's no way you could stick a baby on a football and expect them to stay like that. The ball moves, the baby is like a rag doll...it doesn't work (and don't attempt it!). 

Getting this shot was pretty simple actually.  You'll need the following:

* A camera
* A newborn
* A football
* An assistant (don't try it by yourself!)
* A black piece of fabric (I just used 3-4 yards of black mirco suede from Joannes).
* A very large window/sliding glass door
* Photoshop or Elements

Have your assistant sit cross-legged next to the sliding glass door. Drape the black cloth over their legs and hands. Have them squeeze the football between their knees/legs. Have them carefully hold the newborn, one hand on the stomach, one hand always supporting the head. Place the baby on the ball and position the arms how you want them.  Make sure that the black cloth is not covering anything you want to see (part of the football, the baby's shoulders etc.) Make sure you see at least a little black all the way around the baby (in other words make sure you don't see your assistance's skin right next to the baby's head etc., that there is at least some black between the two). Here is the shot I actually got.

Take your photo into Photoshop or Elements. 

Grab your clone stamp tool.

Now hold down "alt" and click in a black area. Let go of alt and click on an area that is bright, so in this case I'd click on the white carpet or my assistant's white arms. Repeat these steps until all of the lightest areas are black (or at least pretty dark). To make your clone stamp tool circle smaller or larger push the bracket keys.

[  makes the brush smaller
]  makes the brush bigger.

Here's what mine looks like after cloning out the light areas.

 Now grab your burn tool. Make sure the Range is set to "shadows" and resolution is "100%". 

Zoom into your photo (ctrl+). Make your brush size small when you go around the edges of the baby and football and bigger when you are burning out larger sections of the background. Again use the bracket keys to make your brush size smaller or bigger [ ].

Here's what your photo should look like after you've burned out the background.

Now you can do whatever you want to your photo. I just used a free action called "B&W Beauty" by Pioneer Woman.

That's all there is to it! Pretty easy. If you're not familiar at all with Photoshop you could just use the burn tool and keep burning until everything eventually turns black. The clone stamp tool makes things go a little faster. 

One of the reasons why I love shooting with a black background is because it's so fast and easy to Photoshop afterwards, and when you have 4 kids demanding your time, fast and easy is the way to go!

To see more of my photography visit bonniesorensenphotography.com.