Baby picture advice!

[reidsprincess20028]

My sister is weeks away from giving birth to a precious baby boy, and I am wondering what the best lens would be to use to capture all of his cuteness! I use a canon xsi.

[Grandpaw]

I would vote for a 50mm 1.8 and use natural light. Be sure and shoot in raw and set your white balance, Jeff

[Jessieh04]

I definitely agree with Grandpaw on the prime 1.8. I recently took pictures of my friends baby (not newborn, but still young) and the 50mm prime lens never left the camera.

You can get some great shots with some fun depth of field with it. Here are a few of the shots I got:





Another thing I would recommend is a flash unit that can be rotated to bounce. That will provide soft light in the case you need to adjust shutter speed.

[Frog]

Vote 3. Or if you have it a 50 f/1.4

[freygr]

I have to some what agree. But the kit zoom lens 18-70mm has worked for me. For low light and were flash is a "no no" the 50mm 1.4 is my choice.

[katt]

close-up, don't forget details
try and get interaction shots with mom and dad/family photos, show the difference in size between baby and parents (close up and far away)
babies are bendable
make sure you are NOT looking up their nose.
Natural light!!!

[WesternGuy]

I tend to agree with what has been said so far - the 50 f1.4/f1.8 will do for most things, but a zoom does have its place when you want a picture from a little farther away and you want it candid. My walk-around lens is a 24-105 L IS and I find this is great for taking pictures of all the grandkids, although a couple of them are teenagers/young adults and run when I bring out a camera. Ultimately, I guess it all depends what you have and what you can afford to supplement what you have. Good luck - little kids are great subjects and lots of fun, particularly because until they get to a certain age, they will pose just about anyway you want and even the candid shots are good. Good luck.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

[Alison]

My 50mm 1.8 lens lives on my camera. It's my favourite lens for close up, natural low light, portraits.

[adina]

do you have a price range?

i love my 24-70 2.8L. love love love.

but it's pricier. the 50mm is not, and is a really great lens.