We all see those adorable images of a newborn dangling from a tree branch, on the edge of some table, propping their sweet little heads up on their tiny little hands and we wonder "how in the world did they get that tiny little baby to do that?". Well, it NEVER should be the "baby doing it", but should always be done with the baby's safety put first and farmost. Most of the images you see of newborns posed in these unnatural positions are what's called a
composite image, where two (or three) images are merged together in Photoshop.
NEVER EVER EVER should a baby be put up on anything unassisted, dangled from a tree branch swinging in the wind or put on anything that could compromise their well being. SAFETY comes first and it's very important that every Photographer puts your child's safety above all else! I've cringed at the sight of a lot of images where a Photographer has put a baby in a glass jar (YES, IN a glass jar!!!!!), I won't even get into great detail about that because the scenarios that run through my mind are just plain TERRIFYING, but my point is that just because a Photographer says they've done it a million times, does NOT make it safe!!! If you don't feel comfortable with a certain pose, please, by all means speak up and stop the person from endangering your precious gift from God. That split second image is NOT worth the safety and well being of your child!
To give you an example of a composite image, I'm going to show you a series of shots I took and then the final image that I created by merging three images together in Photoshop. As you can see, this precious little Angel's mother
NEVER took her hand off of her precious little girl and the image was created safely in Photoshop.
First I take a picture of the guitar alone:
Next, I have Mom hold the baby's bum...........there is a beanbag on the back side for extra support in case babe startles and rolls in that direction. I also have weights behind the guitar to keep it from slipping as well.
The last image, I hold the baby while Mom switches sides and as you can see, Mom's hand is now supporting the other side of the baby near her head.
And Photoshop is now where the magic takes place, where I merge the 3 images together to create this final image and never once was this baby's safety compromised!:
