127. Creating a Natural Look with Artificial Light for Newborns with Sandra Coan
Wisdom in the Tangents Photography Podcast · John Mansfield
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Show Notes
My guest on the show today is Sandra Coan.
She is the premiere newborn, maternity, and family photographer in Seattle, Washington. She’s a business coach, a podcast host, an educator, author, and she is amazing at taking artificial light and creating a natural look for her photos.
This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.
Get 30% off your first order by going to lightdarkco.com/freedom
By learning how to use artificial light in a natural way, you’re creating more freedom for yourself in your business. In how you can control light, and the creativity you can access by being in control of your light source instead of relying on a sunny day and good weather.
You are in control when you can control the light.
People often think of artificial light as the harsh, direct flash, shooting at f/11 style from the early ‘90s. With just a few pieces of gear you can create the softest, natural looking light with artificial light.
Light is light, so when you’re looking to get into working with artificial light, think of the power of the light, the shape and size of your light, and the distance from your subject. Reverse engineer the light of your naturally lit photos and try to match that with the power, size and distance of your artificial light.
Sandra’s preferred gear:
Westcott 7'Ft Parabolic White Umbrella
A lot of the Pinteresty type newborn photos you see take a lot of skill, a lot of preparation, and require a lot of safety to properly execute. Sadly, a lot of photographers who start in newborn photography don’t realize that a lot of those poses are composites of multiple images and babies end up getting injured.
So research your poses and keep your babies safe.
Here is Sandra Coan’s class on Newborn Safety
Sandra does a lot of baby-led posing so that they are in natural positions and much safer. Plus they look like themselves, just as they are.
Find what you love doing and go for that. There are people out there looking for exactly that thing.
When you find what you love, and do it loudly by marketing and sharing about it, that’s what is going to set you apart in the saturated market of so many photographers doing the same thing.
Cat Photographer - the.cattams.family on Tiktok - PurfectPose on Instagram
Find Sandra at
tiktok.com/@sandracoanphotography
Beyond Natural Light Facebook Group
Crafting the Natural Light Look - Book
What Are We Loving?
What Sandra is loving:
the Weather in Seattle
Tiktok - Follow her here
What John is loving:
Movie - Spiderhead (Netflix)
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