Capture the moments your clients will want to remember

Have you ever had a client ask you to capture a few important moments during their birth? Or perhaps you offered before it even occurred to them because you know they will regret it?

It’s almost like we’re living in the moments so hard that we have trouble actually remembering some of the most important highlights or seemingly unimportant moments.

Maybe next time that you’re asked to pull out that smartphone you could say yes with more confidence, and offer them something really special.
I’ve put together a few important points to help you up your smartphone photography game and wow your clients.

Thirds. Action. Light.

One of the basics of creating clear, focused imagery is to have a properly composed image. Use the rule of thirds to place your subject within your canvas (lens), and decide on portrait or landscape when taking the image. To help you understand the rule of thirds in photography I’ll get you to view the image below.

When taking a picture, imagine 9 squares (3 horizontal lines, and 3 vertical lines.) The theory here is that your eye naturally wants to go to the points of intersection rather than the middles of each square. So be sure that your main subject is not dead center unless you’re doing it creatively. Some say don’t break a rule until you’ve learned it;)

Is your subject moving? If not, then you won’t need to worry much about the blur within the image and you can take your time composing it. If you’re subject happens to be moving, your image will reflect that with added blur. A little blur helps to capture the moment with reality, but you’ll need to hold your phone steady while keeping the focus on your subject. A selfie stick, although silly and possibly conceded looking, helps to stabilize your stills and video immensely. You can get these relatively cheap in stores or on amazon.

If you happen to be in a poorly lit room, which is usually the case during labor, then your images will be less clear, unfortunately. So you’ll want to shoot simple with few distractions. Consider more close-ups and less movement in this case.

If you find yourself at a well-lit birth, congratulations, you’re about to take some amazing images and totally surprise your clients!

Editing

I’m not going to go into depth here, as there’s really a whole heap load to say about smartphone photography and editing. But if you’re interested in capturing these moments, it will be worth the effort to edit them as well. This will really polish them off. Below you’ll find two iPhone images that I took recently. You can see the before and after and the difference it makes to edit.

If you’d like to keep it simple, just use the editor within your smartphone camera. Adjust the exposure and white balance to your liking, add some contrast, and remove some shadows. You can also use the filters they offer, some are OK.

If you really want to create the wow in your images, consider Lightroom CC. It’s an Adobe program for desktop and mobile offering professional image editing options, however, this program is pretty simple if you just use the basics. If you choose to pay, you can actually store your images within the app. I find that most useful.

Make a list

Birth can be unpredictable, busy, and all-consuming, so you won’t have much time to set up your shots. Take some time to create a list of 10-20 shots that you aim to get. These can be Mom’s ideal shots, or yours. Here is a list below of my 11 go-to shots for Births.

pregnant belly
during a contraction
partner supporting birthing person
details (tiny details around the location that you think they would want to remember)
coping strategy (everyone develops their own coping strategy, capture that in the best way you can)
family members on location
cutting the cord
first nursing moments
holding baby
baby details (feet, hands, eyes, mouth etc.)

The best way to offer this extra service and feel confident about it is to practice. Remember to first decide what your subject is and whether or not it’s moving. Set the camera up in landscape or portrait and shoot with stability. Well-lit locations are best but you can adapt to almost any lighting situation. But please, do not use flash unless the birthing person says so!! Know your list of shots beforehand so you don’t miss those important moments. Choose a high-quality app editor such as Lightroom CC to add a beautiful edit to your images.

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