Photographing Sleeping Children

[Angelclaud]

Related to photography, how do you photograph sleeping children? I find that so hard to do. First of all, normally my daughter will be sleeping in a very dim room so the lighting is minimal, which is of course very hard for photography. Then, there seemed to be not much creativity in the posing. Also, trying to stay as quiet as possible when moving around as to not disturb her. LOL. Any ideas or suggestions?

[MSPeeler]

My kids are heavy sleepers... so they always sleep through anything I'm doing! As for the lighting.... that's a tough one, but I always use my flash, since they don't wake up, lol.... but I'd love to get "backlit" type room, so it actually looks like night time.... Maybe just have a closet door open towards the bed... or another room light on....

did I ramble enough!?

[geswho40]

I think a lot of people get their sleeping photos during nap time when it's not dark.

[Tree City]

Maybe you could set up your camera on a tripod and stage the photo BEFORE putting your little one down for a nap. That way, you can just sneak in there and take a pic without flash but still have a good (not blurry) pic. But this would only work if your child is still in a crib lol.

[nikkiecole71]

I think a lot of people get their sleeping photos during nap time when it's not dark.

That's what I do. My daughter gets so mad at me when she sees the pics.

[Neverland Scraps]

I always take photos of my girls sleeping, did it from the moment they were born all the way to making sure I sneak in their room hours before their birthday to get one last photo of them at that age!

What do I do?

I try to take the photo with the flash, leaving the hallway light on. If that doesn't work, I simply and quickly turn the bedroom lights on to see if it disturbs them. If the lights dont disturb them, I move about the room taking different angles of them sleeping. If the lights disturb them, I quickly turn it off until they settle down and try it again. Sometimes I have to turn it on/off a couple times and sometimes I get lucky the first time. It all depends on what time I go in their room.

[Tree City]

Wendy, you're sneaky lol! I love the "last pic before their birthday" idea. DD is such a light sleeper that I bet she'd wake the second I opened her bedroom door, let alone tried to turn on her light. ;) But DS is a better sleeper, so maybe I'll try something like that with him.

I'd forgotten this until reading Wendy's post, but my aunt told me that she used to sneak into her DS's room and set up the video camera. She'd wait until he was just about to wake up and then she'd record him. She loved watching him wake up. She said he had the "most adorable face" when first blinked awake and so she wanted to capture it on video. TBH, I used to think she was crazy until I had kids of my own.

[nutsaboutgabe]

The silly things parents (moms) will do to get that perfect shot. Love it!!

I always take photos of my girls sleeping, did it from the moment they were born all the way to making sure I sneak in their room hours before their birthday to get one last photo of them at that age!

What do I do?

I try to take the photo with the flash, leaving the hallway light on. If that doesn't work, I simply and quickly turn the bedroom lights on to see if it disturbs them. If the lights dont disturb them, I move about the room taking different angles of them sleeping. If the lights disturb them, I quickly turn it off until they settle down and try it again. Sometimes I have to turn it on/off a couple times and sometimes I get lucky the first time. It all depends on what time I go in their room.

[Angelclaud]

Thanks for sharing for ideas everyone. I am certainly going to try out a few things. I love the just before birthday photo idea and the video camera recording just before waking up. Not sure if I can get the video successfully but I would certainly love to try.

[scrappydoo82]

I wanted to take one of my youngest last week but she had a virus and I was afraid I would wake her. She had one of those eye masks on and it was too cute.