Sooner or later, you may find yourself with an unexpected challenge that you have never thought about before, like photographing a pregnant woman. If you work in portraiture or in any type of photography that involves people, you will have to know what to do when dealing with a bump.
When a woman wants to have her bump photographed it’s usually because she wants to treasure those few months where she is carrying her child. It’s important to talk to your potential model and make sure that they get what they want from the entire experience. Here are some tips to help you out:
1. Practice!
If you have a pregnant friend then you can practice but you can practice just as well with a model with some padding around the stomach. The reason it is worth practicing is because you can learn to see what kind of shapes and shadows you can end up with. Particularly in studio photography you need to know how to light a bump effectively and it’s best to figure this out when practicing with a model.
2. Poses!
When working with your model, be sure to practice poses. This includes poses to make the bump look smaller and ones to make it look bigger. Look at ways a woman can stand so that they still look slim even with a huge bump (this is what most women want!) and watch to see what the best ways to hold the arms and head are.
You want the model to look comfortable and not too posed and of course be very comfortable during a shoot.
3. Styling
All mothers are different and some may want some real glamour shots but if they ask you for tips, what normally looks timeless and effortless is a natural, neutral make up, hair that is shiny and simple and plain clothes.
If the model wants to dress up for whatever reason and wear something elaborate that’s their choice and you have to style accordingly. Most women look best in simple comfortably pants and wearing a plain white t-shirt or vest so that the bump is the focal point.
4. Lighting
The nicest lighting for bumps is just natural daylight. This means that you can actually go to a mother’s house and shoot by a large, spacious window or even in the garden (if it isn’t too cold).
Studio lighting is also great for pregnancy photography – you can really work and play with the different lights for example, using different colored backgrounds (like black) and spot lights to emphasize the curves of the bump. Think creative and artistic!
Remember to use flash if you can – tungsten lights are likely to get too hot and uncomfortable for an expectant mother for too long.
5. Free Photographs
If you get mothers asking for this kind of photography, it’s a great idea to do the shoot for free but ask if you can use the images for a stock library. Pictures of expectant mothers sell very well for news stories so get a variety of pictures in between the posed ones, for example; a woman doing day to day things whilst pregnant.
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