FAQ Friday (2/21/14) with Heidi and Mariah! Backdrop materials and Newborn Posing

 

Welcome to FAQ Friday with HHP! We post a call for questions on our Facebook wall and our YouTube Channel and select the 2 most popular questions on Friday to answer for you here! Let’s get started!

Here are our top questions this week:

Q from Pamela: I love that you do this weekly! I do family photograph, which includes newborns, and although I have gotten much better at posing those little cuties (finger placement is key!) I have not been able to afford to take a workshop yet. I have found many videos online showing different posing tips, but none on how to get the little ones into the “frog” position that is so popular. I have had 2 babies of my own so know that they aren’t so fragile, but I have been really apprehensive about attempting this pose on other people’s children! If you could offer some tips that would be greatly appreciated!

A:  Hi Pamela!  Great question!  This is definitely one of the trickier poses for newborn photographers.  I only attempt it when I know baby is very sleepy and I always have an assistant to support baby’s head so that I can keep them comfy.  I then create a composite image in Photoshop to take my assistant’s hands out.  I found a whole bunch of Youtube videos showing how by simply typing in “newborn frog pose”.  Since we don’t have time to record another epic video today, I’ll link over to theirs so you can go leave them some love!  Check out Julie Klaasmeyer rocking it in this video 🙂 

Q from Heather: What do you paint your back drops on and what kind of paint do you use?

A:  Hi Heather!  I paint all of the backdrops on rolls of canvas that I purchase on Amazon.com.  I’ve bought all different brands.  Just type in “roll of canvas” and you’ll see lots of options for size and length.  I usually paint on canvas that is 62″ wide.  I use acrylic paints and any brushes I can find.  I usually buy super cheap acrylics in big tubes because I go through a ton of it on those giant pieces of canvas.  I go through a few hundred dollars in supplies for each and every canvas we paint here, so I only paint them if I know it is a scene that we can reuse!  I’m so excited to be offering all of them to you through Photo Prop Floors and Backdrops so I can see them being used more widely!

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