Baby photos and flash

[swifty]

Hi everyone,

This question just came up when a mate and I were discussing studio style flash photography for newborns.
He said that babies have very sensitive eyes and flash photography should be avoided.
So how bout when they're asleep and eyes closed. Would that be safe?

Also how old would they need to be b4 you can do awake ones with flash photography?

I now seem to recall all the newborn studio shots I've seen are with the baby sleeping.

[reaction]

6mths?
maybe soft bounce if flash is only 1 stop above ambient

[kiwi]

Urban myth

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?d=dmtATD&c=367698&p=

[reaction]

I duno, a 'should not ' from one MD isn't so convincing.

[kiwi]

Sure, but it's one of many if you google it (which is all I did )

[reaction]

everything I've seen is based on 'will it burn a hole in their retina'. of course it won't

but the real worry that asians usually believe in is that sudden bursts of light (which don't often happen in nature) may affect the baby's eye development, including the ability/speed of focusing on things, etc, and some infer it will affect/cause short/long sightedness/astigmatism

I don't think it's possible to test for these things tho. Unless someone wants to donate one twin...


Just like hitting a ping pong ball at you won't do any damage, I still wouldn't volunteer to be hit with ping pong balls for enjoyment. In the same way I wouldn't flash a newborn, just in case anything that goes wrong with their prophesied 20/20 vision is blamed on you.
:th3:

[kiwi]

If that were true, don't you think in this litigatious world that there would be precedent. Warning stickers ? Etc

If there's no smoke there's no fire

[swifty]

Hmmm.. I'd still err on the side of caution I think. Could be a sensitive subject.
I'd consider sleeping shots if the parents are ok with it but might wait til they're older for the awake shots. But how old.. that's the question.

[Jimbo]

I'm only relaying what I've heard elsewhere, so it could be BS, but I was under the impression that babies are born with eyes fully developed, ie at adult size. Your eyes don't grow. This is why babies have such "big" eyes, the biological reasoning is to endear them to their parents.

This would accord with the proposition that the risk is an urban myth.

[jasevk]

I've shot my 2 babies using flash, and for clients, never had any issues. Use a large light modifier close to bub, using your flash on low power and you'll have nice soft lighting which isn't too overpowering to cause any discomfort... easy