Layla just turned 1 on July 31st and Michele and I got the best 1 year old baby portraits ever!! I’ve had this vision of setting up the studio lights outback behind the house for the longest time, but it just never worked out because it was wet, or Layla was to small yet etc.. We have this curvy old rock wall and moss covered brick from all the shade, and it just makes for a killer composition and all around great portrait scene in my opinion.
For Lighting we used our huge 40×60 softbox and AlienBee B800 for our Flash Unit to try and simulate natural light as best as possible. I then balanced the flash with the natural light using my favorite ration that seems to really make the subjects pop out of the scene. I light to have the subject at least 1 full stop brighter than the background. For example, I was shooting at f/2.8 @ 1/80sec in order to balance the flash with the background. Layla metered at f/2.8 ISO 100 and the background metered at f/4 @ ISO 100. Therefore the background will come out 1 full stop darker than the main subject or in this case Layla 
For more info on our lighting techniques, check out this Video Tutorial on Portable Studio Lighting I put together a while back.
The light was set-up to camera right about 6 feet from Layla and as low as I could get it on the light stand. For gear I used the I used the Canon 5D mark II and the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS Lens. I love the 70-200mm for babies in particular because it is razor sharp, and has a killer bokeh, but more importantly it has that range I like. I wrote an article on Which Portrait Lens is Best a while back and I highly recommend you check that out to learn everything you need to know!
Now for some Pics of Layla:
This first image I edited in Photoshop using my normal techniques you can find in the Tutorials area.
Layla – 5D Mark II, Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 100, Handheld – Edited
The rest of these images are totally un-edited raw files exported for the web out of Lightroom 3.
Layla – 5D Mark II, Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 100, Handheld
Layla – 5D Mark II, Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 100, Handheld
Layla – 5D Mark II, Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 100, Handheld
Layla – 5D Mark II, Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS @ f/2.8, 1/80sec, ISO 100, Handheld
