Settings for shooting a birth

Dsstudios

I was asked by a friend to photograph the birth of her son. I am feeling the pressure! I have read online the lighting can be poor in the room and am worried about getting clear photos that freeze movement. The more I read online, the more confused I get. I have a Nikon 18-55mm and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I have been practicing settings found online, in a darkish room and nothing is consistent. She is due between the 21st and the 25th. Please help!

bruto

First of all, try to figure out what distance you will be from the baby at the time of birth. The 50mm might turn out to be a little too long a focal length for comfortable coverage. If you're not sure, the kit zoom is probably the best bet, even though the 50mm's wide aperture would be nice in low light. Remember that for this kind of job it's more important to get the subject in focus and clear than it is to worry about digital noise, so go ahead and use a high ISO.

For experiment, try aperture priority with kit lens wide open, Focus mode A and dynamic area so that you can aim at exactly what you need, and set a manual ISO of about 3200 or 6400. The shutter speed will not be very fast, but it is probably good enough for most labor room situations. Dark areas at high ISO will look pretty noisy, but human subjects and lighter areas will probably not look bad. You will have the opportunity for many shots, and if any appreciable percentage are good, it's enough.

This is presuming you can't use flash. If you have any opportunity to use flash, you can keep the same settings mentioned, and pop the flash up. It will act as a fill and freeze motion. Natural light will look nicer, though.

If the delivery area has odd lights or bright spots, try changing your metering to center-weighted, to favor the subject in the middle. If your subject is much darker than the surrounding area (for example a black baby on a white bed), switch to spot metering and make sure your spot, which is the same as the focus spot, is on the dark subject.

For consistency, make sure you have the focus figured out. Multi point focus will tend to look for the nearest face, and may not hit what you need. Dynamic area focus and A mode should work pretty well and not be too fussy, but make sure that your focus point stays centered. The D3200 control is easy to hit by mistake, moving your focus point off center. Hit the OK button from time to time to recenter it.

If you can get enough distance, the 50mm would be good, as you can open it up and thus get faster shutter speeds. I'd take it along at least, and if you find that there is enough room to stand back a way, use that wide open for shots in which your subject is in motion. Remember, though, that when wide open, the depth of field will be very shallow. You won't likely get both the mother's face and the emerging baby in focus. At some distances, you may not even get the whole baby in focus.

Sorry to say, this is all a little bit speculative. The last time I had a camera in a delivery room was in 1980! I used a meterless Leica with an f/2 lens, and ISO 400 black and white film. It worked well, but it seems now like a long time ago in a galaxy far away!

Dsstudios

Thank you! Your help and the time to answer so thoroughly is greatly appreciated!