I would love very much to own and keep at the studio every single prop set up that I’ve ever fallen in love with. But it would be a lot and I have to make space to actually take some photographs so there is a limit to what I can have in my prop collection.

This little set up is one that I adore but I will admit now that it doesn’t actually exist.  Well I suppose it existed at some point, somewhere in the world as someone took a photo of it but I don’t have it.  Where it’s possible, I keep my newborn photography completely real but digital backdrops are something that I’ve been working with for the last year or so as a way of offering more variety in the finished images and indulging my love of props without actually having to take pictures in the garden because I’ve run out of space.

It’s not as simple as just sticking a baby onto the backdrop when my images get back to my editing suite.  To get the best results, you need to shoot with the end in mind and then create the composite from a specific image.  This allows the lighting, subject and backdrop to blend into one ‘you’d never know’ finished image.  The family in question had seen this set up before their session so it was easy to create something that worked perfectly with the backdrop and the resulting image just works perfectly.