Jump to content

I need a quick response: Which film/lens for birth pics of baby?


Recommended Posts

Hi,

I am preparing some photography outfit for the birth of our baby ..

today or tomorrow. I want to avoid using a flash so that the poor

little baby doesn't get a shock. I am considering a range finder

camera with a 50mm/1.8 lens and a 90mm/4 lens, plus a Rolleiflex TLR

2.8. I want to use B&W film here. Please advise me. I have other

camera systems available and faster lenses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

 

I sure wouldn't worry about a flash giving a healthy newborn a shock. I spent 18 years as an anesthesiologist covering labor and delivery work at a very busy hospital. Consider the following.

 

The physician will be using very bright light for the delivery. Since most babies are delivered head first, their first experience is in a very bright environment.

 

The greatest shock is the the cold room.

 

Secondly, better off not attributing lots of adult characteristics to newborns. Lack of myelin development renders a baby unable to "see" like it eventually will. Recall that it will take the baby a while to start tracking/following. I'm not suggesting babies are blind, just that there is no evidence bright light will bother them. Hearing is also a developing sensation for newborns. Lots of this stuff continues long after birth. Think myelination again.

 

If the baby is a premie, or in trouble/low apgars, no flash/external stimulation is appropriate. It can stress a marginal/sick baby and distract the health care team. Hard to examine a cyanotic baby after being blinded by some goofball's flash.

 

That said, I've seen about a zillion proud parents snapping away with their point & shoots. Pretty much everybody does. No adverse side effects ever noticed.

 

Bounce flash would also be something to consider. Less intensity in the child's face can be accomplished with a diffuser or angling the flash away from the face.

 

Fuji Superia 800 is an excellent film if you are to remain a purist. Should give you enough exposure to shoot at f2 or smaller.

 

I very much enjoyed my years covering OB. The women absolutely love the anesthesiologist after they get their epidural. They propose marriage, make promises, highly laud you, and then drop you like a dead chicken soon as the baby comes.

 

Funny that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raid:

 

I am not going to try to intimidate you but, a previous poster gave you some very valid advice. I photographed the start of the arrival of my son 5 months ago. Available light, no flash with an M. Joy turned to panic at very short notice and the camera was all but forgotten. I am thankful I did not use flash, as it would have been a distraction in a very tense environment. Further distractions include the size and weight of the flash unit and the sound when most of them recharge (high pitched whine).

 

By all means take pictures, but consider those around you, your spouse, doctors, nurses and other support personnel. If problems arise be prepared to fall back out of the way, and no more interruptions, and a flash falls in this category IMHO.

 

Congratulations and best of everything for all of you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raid:

 

You do not say if this will be C-section or normal delivery. C will be under bright lights, so whatever you choose will probably work. If you are using a birthing room, consider aiming a light at the ceiling for a bounce light effect to add to the ambient level.

 

I used a 50 DR Summicron with Kodak Gold 200 print film. For B&W I would choose Tri-X and be prepared to push a stop if necessary.

 

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations Raid! It will be 27 years come June 24th that I put on scrubs and took my Leica M4 with a 35 f/2 Summicron into the delivery room along with a light meter and a few rolls of Tri-X. My wife had opted for natural child birth, I'd attended the classes, and I pretended that it was no big deal for me as my stomach turned flip-flops and beads of sweat formed on my forehead.

 

It was easy to grab a couple of incident readings as soon as we got in the delivery room. It's a lot brighter on the delivery table than the rest of the room. My job was supposed to be keeping my wife calm and relaxed, but my fear was how to keep myself calm and relaxed. I managed to get off the entire 36 exposures between the crowning (first appearance) of the babies head and the doc holding up the infant for the mother to get her first look. A quick film change while the nurse cleaned up the newborn and I was ready for the mommy-with-baby shots.

 

A 50 would have been nice for some of the shots. A 90 would have been way to tight. A 21 could have gotten in the whole scene. That's the ideal situation, but you're there not to take pictures so much as to be with and lend support to your wife. Keep it simple. In a modern hospital there's no need for flash. The rangefinder with 50 will work fine, but a 35 might be better. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to all who responded to my request for some helpful input. Let me put your mind to rest by assuring you that my wife's health and the baby's comes first. I did not want to do any photography, but my wife wants a few photos of the baby after she is born. I am not interested in actually taking photos of the labor/birth process. I will be there for 2-3 days anyways, so I will wait until the baby can be clearly seen. I will certainly not use flash, and that's why I have opted for the TMZ 3200 and a 400 ASA film. My primary role will be to support my wife. I may wait until Day 2 to take photos of the baby as she will be brought to my wife (and me!).
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife gave birth to our daughter in our own bedroom, no permission needed for flash photography ;-)

 

Where I live it's quite common to give birth in the privacy your own home, unless there's a medical reason to give birth in a hospital.

 

I shot lots of pictures with my M6, 50 Cron and SF20 with softbox, all turned out very nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My coverage of my daughter's entry into this world was on neopan 400 rated 800, and 24/2.8 and 28/2.8 lenses. Exposure varied between 1/15th @2.8 and 125th @f/4. Contrasty situation without flash, but the flash would have destroyed the look I was after.

 

I would hope you would be after something realistic rather than something that more resembles forensic evidence photos- this is your own family after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our first child was born 9 days a go. I was my wife's "birsth coach". let me give you some advice: You want to be completely emotional there for her and you don't want to be fiddling with bits of metal and plastic and glass more than you absolutely need to. I used my Nikon F5 , 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-D Nikkor, Nikon SB-28dx flash (with a Stofen Omni-Bounce), Fuji NPHII (ISo 400 color negative) . I set the camera to aperture priority, f/8, single servo AF, 3D Matrix metering and set the flash compensation level to +/-0.0. <P><B>Reality warning: the very last thing you want to do is be fiddlling with taking meter readings and playing with the mechanics of your camera.</B>
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I took some available light pics when one of our kids was born. I recall some of the available lighting was very greenish in color (ie, fluorescents, that kind of thing), while newborns tend to have funny skin colors, and the two together don't work well with color negative film. I think your choice to use B&W is appropriate. I would vote for whatever B&W you've used previously- if you haven't, maybe HP5+, Tri-X, or the chromogenics.

 

As a matter of taste, I vote for "new-born baby" pics, not "baby-being-born" pics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations!

Had my son jacob 6 weeks ago. During actual labor, forget about taking pictures, your obligations lies elsewere. When your wife actually lets you start shooting, do so, but it´s a fantastic moment in life, it will never come back. I think you should really be there, if you know what i mean, not hiding behind a camera. For the technical stuff: I used a M6 with 35, 50 and 90 lenses, paired with ilford 3200 rated 1600, and t-max 400, got some very nice pictures.<div>004v1Z-12297584.jpg.a01322bc6126b77bb23ad772b76f97dc.jpg</div>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ian,

I will have a similar set-up with me, but I decided to keep my M3 home and take instead a Canon P camera with 35-50-90 lenses. I agre with one of the respondents that photos of the birth process are no tasteful. Would give a public show of the photos? I will focus on child-and-mother photos. Wish us luck for a successful birth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations, Raid.

 

All this talk about delivery-room photos reminds me of when I was working in a camera shop 25 years ago. We were always very friendly with our customers, as they were with us. That worked out just fine until one day when a woman came in to pick up her prints. She was excited to see the (quite graphic) photos of the delivery and equally excited about showing them to the teen-age clerk, me. I hurriedly gathered up the photos back into their envelope with some nonsense admonition about not wanting to get her nice new photos all dogeared and fingerprinted and gee-whiz-Mrs-so-and-so-don't-you-want-to-get-right-home-to-show-your-husband?

 

Years later I too took photos of my own kids but spared the poor clerk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1st Get your gear ready, most of us are too nervous to fiddle with equipment once the water breaks

 

2nd shoot more than 2 rolls of film and have them developed different days - fortunately I did this and the lab I was using at the time way underdeveloped the 1st roll. I took the 2nd roll to another lab and never used the 1st one again.

 

3rd congrats!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations.

 

I opted to take a bunch of NPH and Delta 400 along with my M7, 35 summicron and 75 summilux to the hospital.

For the actual delivery I took in the 35cron with 4 rolls of Delta 400.

 

Though I did not get any pictures of the actual delivery (I did not want to and also could not, having passed out...) I took pictures immediately after, during the weighing and other post delivery activities, and also managed to capture the first kiss between mom and son...

 

These were probably the most important pictures that I took in my lifetime as an amateur photog...pictures which we will cheerish for a long time (actually, mom does not remember much from the actual events, other than through my pictures).

 

I hope mom and baby will both be healthy. Good luck and our prayors go with you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...