Maternity Photos

If you have been reading my blog you know my sister is pregnant with twins.  She asked me recently to take some maternity photos for her...gulp.  I love my camera and I love snapping photos, and yes I have taken portraits of my boys for Christmas cards...but maternity photos?  I, of course, agreed and...you know it...GOOGLED!  :)  I went to my trusty standby and googled the best ways to take maternity photos.  I looked at angles, pictures I liked and thought about how to recreate them.  When I first got my Digital SLR I took a photography class thinking it was an intro to using a SLR, when it was actually more like how to set up your own studio.  So I had a few of my own ideas of what I could do to set up a makeshift studio.

I had black sheets I bought on sale at Target a couple of years ago.  I went to Lowes and bought PVC pipes with a large flat piece that I used for the bottom.  I basically made two self standing poles.  I bought a few clips and clipped the sheet to the poles.  Great idea right?  Wellll....I bought the wrong size adaptor for one of the poles.  Oops!  So we clipped the sheet to her curtain rod instead.  Since she is on bedrest, the shoot had to be quick and mostly sitting down.  We did a couple of standing up shots, but not many.  We did the shoot in the early afternoon when the sun was streaming in her window.  Natural light does wonders!  And I had bought a work light at Lowes with a silver surround.  I used it to uplight her a bit.

Here are my favorite shots.

Happy Mama and Dada

No baby belly, but such a beautiful sister!

Love that sweet baby bump!

Ok, so the heart might be cheesy, but I love the angle and focus of this shot.

This shot was Beth's idea.  I think the wedding rings above the babies is such a cool symbol.

Sometimes the best shots are the ones when the model isn't even paying attention!

This is my favorite shot.  Beth laughing at her goofy husband.

I like it even better in black and white with her sock color shining through.  My silly sister that NEVER wears a normal pair of socks.  I so wanted to show that in her photos.  For me, this photo captures her personality.

I used Photoshop Elements for everyone of these photos.  Sometimes using the automatic presets and sometimes using more involved editing.  My favorite tool was a FREE photoshop action I downloaded from Noel's Paper Passion and Pixel Mania blog.  I also used her tutorial to brighten Beth's eyes in several of these shots.  I love photoshop, but I love it even more when someone gives me a tool to make it even easier!  I can't wait to scrapbook some of these shots!