The initial concept that I had in mind was "baby photographer" for Matti's eight-month. He was able to sit unassisted when he was six months and last month, he was able to sit for a few minutes. So I thought, he will be able to sit for a long time when he turns eight and he can hold on to some weighted stuff while sitting and that includes a toy camera.
Baby Photographer Theme Postponed...
More than three weeks ago, I ordered two lego camera toys and a video camera with a tripod, still a toy from Shopee. The seller is from China so I have to order it few weeks before so to make sure I'll receive it before the 24th, which's our shoot day.
However, I received a message that the item is not available at hand and so we will have to preorder it first. I missed reading the message earlier so I just found this out a week after. I realized that this item won't be here on time but we still held on to the hope that the item will arrive.
Fast forward three days before the 24th, there was still no update from the seller. I checked my order again and found it has been canceled by Shopee itself. I contacted support and said they canceled it as the seller wasn't able to ship the order on time. Refund is already on its way to our bank account.
With this, I decided to postpone this theme for his 9th month instead, so watch out for that.
Alternative Theme...
And so since we can't push through with the photography theme, I decided to make this a simple shoot instead but the catch is we have to do it outdoors.
My husband who went out to bike a few weeks ago said he found a spot that is perfect for Matti's shoot this month. I trusted him about that.
Coincidentally, my brother and mother were in Tagbilaran City the other day and they bought a cake from Estrella bakeshop. I used to order a cake from Sticky Buns but this month, I decided not to because I am already over their cake, I want something new.
As for his outfit, I just looked for whatever is available in the closet, I found a blue short pant which was a gift from a friend in Cebu, the top I ordered from another friend was a perfect fit for the bottom and I remembered my sister in law gave Matti a hat when he was still a month old. I thought it would be a good time, he might be able to wear that and so we looked for it and let Matti wear it which fitted perfectly!
I think the entire universe had agreed for us to have this simple DIY photoshoot as everything that we needed was given to us without any hassle.
Simple Summer DIY Baby Photoshoot
Before James' daily meeting at four in the afternoon, we headed to our location. It rained that morning but we were thankful that the rain brought us good afternoon weather, the sun was just hiding in the clouds, the grasses and the tree leaves were green.
For taking photographs outdoors, it is best to take shots when the sun is not too bright. And as I love using natural light because I don't have to bring other equipment with me during the shoot.
With the mountains as the background, we set up our picnic mat, some cloth to cover the mat, Matti's bear mat above it, the cake with a paper cake stand, some items from our room that might help, and then Matti, we let him sit on the maternity pillow.
Matti's mood was also good that afternoon, he woke up from his afternoon nap around fifteen minutes before we headed to the location so it was quite easy for us to let him laugh and play with his hairbrush. I just realized he was holding on to that brush after a few shots. We brought his teether too so I gave that to him instead.
We also tag along with my mother who helped us look after Matti while I am behind the camera. She is the most supportive grandmother ever!
It's a wrap!
Would you believe that our shoot went for only 15 minutes? We went out from our house at 4:15 PM, we arrived at our location, I looked for a spot where we can set up and prepared everything such as getting the accessories from the car to the ground, set up the cake stand, and place all of them in the mat for 10 minutes. I started taking photos and stopped at 4:40 PM. Then I have to again bring everything back to the car. We were already on our way home at Php 4:54 PM.
My husband's daily meeting starts at Php 4:50 PM and he was able to catch up with his team when we arrived home. It was a less than an hour shoot and I edited these photos today morning.
Camera Settings and Postprocessing...
Since it was still bright during our pictorial session, I used the lowest ISO setting in my camera. I set the shutter speed at 1/1600 and my aperture at f/1.4 while using my 35mm Sigma lens. When I switched to the Sony 85mm, my aperture was at f/1.8.
By the way, the camera used here was a Sony A73 which we have for almost two years now.
For postprocessing, I used Adobe Lightroom and tweaked a few sections like the contrast, for baby photos, I always lower down the contrast. The highlights, on the other hand, I brought back some sky details.
As for shadows, I lift it up so the image would have a brighter feel as well as the blacks.
The greens hue, saturation, and luminance were definitely altered and I added a little sharpening.
In editing in Lightroom, I usually select the images first before editing. I also edit one photo and just apply all the changes to all the rated images. I then go through each photo and would crop it if necessary. I would also update some of the exposure settings accordingly.
Posting on Social Media...
I don't like taking so much time with editing images so I would export them right away. This habit is not always good because there will be times when the edited images don't look good anymore to me after a few hours. But, for this shoot, since it is just for social media, I just went ahead and exported them.
I uploaded the images on social media such as Facebook and Hive. I also thought of sharing the process with you.
That's it for today!
