I love the internet - where else can you catch up with someone you haven't seen since high school and pick up instantly? Well, I haven't seen my friend Courtney in *ahem* a number of years, but from her Facebook page it seems the only thing that's changed about her is the number of gorgeous children… including her latest who is 5 months old today!

So in celebration of today Courtney, here are some tips for capturing your baby boy!

First things first - find your pocket of great light.  Where are the good windows in your house?  Glass doors? No glass doors? Take advantage of this gorgeous weather we're having down south and open one up!  Windows and doors take the bright sun and diffuse it into gorgeous portrait-taking light, so find your best and brightest portal and plop that baby boy down at the edge of the light. (Or you might want to try a baby doll first so he's fresh when you get your camera settings perfect!)

What do I mean by the edge of the light?  Here…  see how my not-so-little one *sniff* is positioned just on the shadow side of the light?

Now look what happened when I put my duff down just inside the door - me sitting in the light, and her just on the other side - magic!  And since she's facing the light - look at what it did to her eyes!

Now lets talk about backgrounds.  From what I've seen on facebook, your little man should be lifting his head and pushing up.  Since we want a decluttered backdrop, use a bench, ottoman or even a chair like the one Sydney's sitting on and place it behind him. Now take a very neutral blanket (dark and heavy wools, felts, etc work nicely - but so do plain white down comforters!) and drape it over the back of the ottoman spilling onto the floor under him.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just make sure it's not distracting.  If it's large enough, you could even put a boppy or a dog pillow underneath it to give him some reinforcement. 

Next - you have a Sony DSLR-A300 camera, so rather than get into how to use your manual controls (because I'm just not familiar with your camera!), lets try and take advantage of the built-in portrait mode.  That should be your equivalent of Aperture priority mode. While you're at it - turn off your flash! You want all natural light here.  According to the Sony Website, there should be a "flash off" position on the Exposure Mode dial. 

Also, check your ISO.  If you find a really great pocket of light, you should be able to stay between 100-400.  The lower the ISO the better RAW files you have to work with on in your computer. How do you know what that number should be?  Take a test picture.  Too dark? Bump your ISO.  But be careful - go too high and you'll introduce noise. 

Speaking of Raw files, are you shooting in RAW or JPEG?  For these precious portraits, you want to be in RAW, or at the very least, RAW + jpeg so you have both on hand. Just make sure your memory card is clean so you have lots of room!

Okay - now that you're done with your menus and dials, get on your belly and shoot!  Go eye to eye with that baby boy.  Connect, laugh, tickle, sing Elmo songs!  Don't just rely on your zoom - get in close with your camera.  You don't have to see the whole blanket in every shot.  What if you just got his head?  Just some toes? Get down low with him and just see what happens!  Just make sure he stays facing the light! 

And finally - come over to the boards and show us your pictures!! 

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Ever wonder how some kids just seem to always have that twinkle in their eye, like in EVERY picture?  Well that Momtographer has learned the magic of "catchlights."

Catchlights - if you haven't heard the term yet, rest assured, you will. It's a phrase that gets a lot of play in portrait photography circles - and with good reason!

But what the heck are they? Some sort of magic lighting gizmo that comes with membership to the secret society of expert photographers?  Um, no. Quite simply, they are reflections of light CAUGHT in your subject's eyes. The key to getting a catchlight is to always have your little one face the light source (i.e. a window, door or sunshine) so that the light can reflect back into their eyes.

Here's a little tip - if you can SEE it before taking the picture then it's there!

Once you master this little, or should we say BIG tip, you will be well on your way to transforming your snapshots from blah, to WOW!

And please - we BEG you - resist the urge to fake it!  There are so many tips, tricks, tutorials and software actions out there to create a catchlight where there isn't one, but most of the time your kid ends up looking plain creepy!  Besides, why spend your time learning how to fake something that is so easy to achieve for real?!?

So what exactly do we mean by facing the light source? Here let us show you...

Now that you "see" it, it's pretty simple, isn't it?  Now go snap to it - we want to see those catchlights!

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EEvery home has at least one - a gorgeous pocket of light that will reward your efforts every time! A spot that will help you take pictures that just look GOOD.Your job is to find it.

What we're looking for is an area of your home that bathes your beauties in bright, even sunlight.  Think of a large window in your kitchen or living room, or bedroom. No good windows?  Open a door!  No good doorways?  Open a garage door!

One of Adrienne's favorite places to take pictures of her daughter is in the bright light of her kitchen - it's one of the spots in her home that just works.

Too little light and she can open the door.  Too much light and she can adjust the shutters.

Krista loves shooting in her living room, with it's 3 full walls of windows, but she also has a lot of luck in her bedroom with only one large window. 


Just think bright, bright, bright when you're looking for the spot.  When in doubt, snap a picture- the proof will be in the snap.

One you have found and mastered your indoor pockets, move outside and start investigating your neighborhood.  Weather won't always permit you to be outside, but when it does, it's nice to know exactly the right spot to set the stage for those picture perfect moments.

Outside can be a little tricky with ever-changing light, bright sun, and dappled shade, but don't let that stop you! Our suggestion is to find a nice shaded doorway or overhang of a building and practice there. Check out our section on open shade for the nitty gritty!

As you get further along you will find lots of helpful tutorials about shooting in full sun, but for now, stick to evenly lit shade. The exception to that rule - well, any and every moment that you must capture that may not happen in the right lighting conditions!   Happy snapping!

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Light.... ahhhh sweet light! There is nothing more central to taking phenomenal photos than LIGHT! From the beautiful glow of the early morning sun to the golden hour right before the sun sets, learning to read light, see what it does for your photos and use it is truly at the heart of great photos!

We could literally go on for days talking about different types of light, why we love it, how to use it, etc.  But since we know you still need to raise your kids in between taking photos of them, we will try and stick with the Momtographers' less is more approach here too.

Essentially, there are three types of light:

Natural light

Available Light

Artificial Light

Natural Light

We will start with the one we use most often and suggest that you do too - natural light! It's exactly what you think it is - natural. It comes from the sun... period. Now whether it's filtered through the clouds or by a window or shines harshly down on your subject at high noon is another story altogether, but all the same, if it comes from the sun , it's natural light. You could also call moonlight natural light if we were talking night photography - but even that comes from the sun!

As long as you aren't getting help from an artificial source such as a flash or a lamp, then you are working with natural light. The beauty of natural light is that it adds an element of authenticity to a photo that is incredibly hard to recrate with artificial light. There are conditions that exist in nature -such as the golden hour at dusk or just as the sun is rising at dawn - that are simply stunning and impossible to recreate any other way than by just going outside and snapping it up!

Natural light is also great for more practical reasons - IT'S FREE, it's always there, and there is no equipment involved! For the record, with very few exceptions, The Momtographers, Krista and Adrienne are natural light girls. But that won't stop us from diving into the yummy details of the other two for those of you more adventurous folks!

Available Light

Available light, like natural light, is exactly what you would think it is by reading it's title. It's the light that's available in any given situation. More often than not, the moments we want to capture as momtographers are happening as life is happening, which means we have to lea rn to be flexible and use... well, what's available. Let's say you're standing in a room photographing your two-year-old blowing out her candles. Unless you positioned the whole party, cake and all around a bank of windows, it's likely you have a mix of light contributing to the scene. Light from a window, that flouresent kitchen light overhead and light from the candles. Welcome to the world of available light! It can be tricky sometimes, mostly when it comes to color, but nothing that a few tricks can't help you overcome. For more on the different colors of light - see our article on White Balance.

Artificial Light

The last type of light is artificial light. Studio lights, flashes, speedlights, etc. are all forms or artificial light. In some ways, once you learn how to use these different tools created to help with photography, they are WAY easier to master than natural or available light because, quite simply, you can control them! There are no variables, nothing changes unless you want it too.

That's why so many professional photographers operate out of studios with artificial light. There's no hoping the clouds are going to be available for that 11:30am shoot. They set up their lights to look how they want them to look, when they want them to look. People who are super skilled with artificial light even know how to use it out in the field to fill in the holes when natural light isn't giving them the look they're envisioning.

The downside - it can be costly to invest in, cumbersome to set up, and intrusive to many of the spontaneous moments you want to capture, but not disturb. It's so involved, that most professional photographers who shoot on location have assistants who do nothing but help wrangle all the lights! Like everything else in the world of art (and photography, in particular), there is a time and place of artificial light. But in our humble opinion, perhaps with the exception of a speedlight (which can help deliver light in a pinch!) artificial light is the least Momtography-friendly of the lot.

As we said before, we could talk and debate all things light for days on end. But we promised to keep it simple and relevant so we're starting you off with 6 of our favorite most-common lighting situations, showing you the path to mastering them.

Have a look at one of our all-time favorites, window light!