Introduction 1
► CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
"Words cannot fully describe the beauty of these photos. They are amazing. Both Kent and Keira look like heavenly angels. I really feel like you captured my feelings about my pregnancy too."
Are you looking for a new genre that will allow you to increase your studio's revenue? Would you like to secure the job of producing a family's portrait work for the next eighteen to twenty-five years? Do you want to take advantage of an emerging market trend in portrait photography? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider adding maternity photography to your studio's repertoire.
Images of pregnant women were once taboo in our culture, but in 1991 when Demi Moore posed for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine while seven months pregnant, a shift occurred in how our culture views pregnant women. That single photograph opened the doors for society to acknowledge and celebrate the beauty of the pregnant body.
The demand for images of women who are pregnant has never been greater. Magazines are filled with photos of celebrities proudly showing off their pregnant figures, and women everywhere want to document their beauty during pregnancy. This is a relatively new and highly profitable market for portrait photographers. Portraits of pregnant women have become elegant, sensual, and intimate. The relationship you build with your clients during the maternity session can also lead to future portrait sessions with the women and their families—and that's good news for the professional wedding and portrait photographer.
Historically, a wedding photographer would book a couple's engagement/wedding photo session; a portrait photographer would take newborn, early childhood, and family portraits; then another photographer would take the children's school and senior portraits. Even if you were a wedding and portrait photographer and recorded all of those events in a client's life, there was little more you could do. However, by adding maternity photography to your studio's repertoire, you have another opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your clients, document an important milestone in their lives, and add value to your services. Imagine taking a new client from engagement to wedding photos, to maternity photos, to newborn photos, to children's photos, to family portraits, to senior portraits, and then to engagement photos—the full circle. The market is such that if you can produce a beautiful image of a pregnant woman, you will have that family's portrait work for the
Left—There are times when all the elements come together in a split second and you have the opportunity to capture an amazing moment. This beautiful family was close and tender with each other; only slight refinements to the pose were required to compose the story. This image was created in the studio using window light. A black panel was used at camera left to deepen the shadows. The portrait was captured with a Fuji FinePix S2 Pro camera at '/m second at f/4.0 with an ISO of 400. After the image was retouched in Photoshop, it was enhanced with the Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 Midnight filter. Facing page—Creating a beautiful image is simple when you understand light. Creating this image required only a large window, some fabric, and directing the subjects into a natural pose. The couple was posed atop several backdrops and fabric placed on the floor. The light came from a large sliding glass door in the living room of their home. This image was captured on a Fuji FinePix S3 Pro digital camera with a Tamron SPAF Aspherical XR Di LD 28-75mm f/2.8 lens. The ISO was 400, and a shutter speed of 7*> second and aperture of f/4.8 were selected. The image was slightly retouched in Photoshop and then enhanced with Nik's Midnight filter.
next fifteen years—at a minimum. More and more photographers are seeing maternity photography as a natural evolution for wedding photographers who want to continue the relationship they have already established with their clients.
Maternity sessions can result in exquisite images. Capturing the woman at this remarkable stage in her life sets this type of portrait photography apart
from the rest. This is an opportunity for the portrait photographer to utilize all of their technical and artistic skills to create dramatic to luxurious images, depending on the client's personality and preference. None of these sessions or images will ever be called "typical."
The time is finally right for maternity portraiture. Photographers can use Adobe Photoshop and a host of Photoshop-compatible plug-ins to retouch stretch marks and blemishes quickly and easily and achieve greater creative and artistic freedom. From slimming areas of a subject to the fantasy approach of placing the newborn baby in the image of the pregnant mother, to converting color images to black & white, anything is possible!
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