Labor Delivery at St Charles Hospital

This fresh 24 session was the first time I had shot in Labor Delivery at St Charles Hospital in Oregon. I was so impressed with how spacious the room was and all the space we had. There was a bed, table, a couch and two windows. Mom even mentioned that she didn’t even transfer rooms after giving birth. How nice that must have been!?! It was wonderful to photograph in such a large hospital room as that isn’t always possible. This session yielded so many favorites and you can see the full session here.

Before & After

I admit I was a little worried when I walked into this hospital room because even with two windows, it was a little darker than I like. Their room was on the east and it was late afternoon so the sun was on the west side of the hospital. Luckily, the sun would reflect back every now and then from a building across the street into the window and spill into their hospital room. By working with the family in the light right in front of the window, it actually turned out beautifully.

This image of dad admiring his new son was one of my favorites. I used a chair to gain a little height so our views would be the same. Since I was shooting indoors, I set my kelvin white balance to 5200. By using a custom white balance setting, there wasn’t much I need to do in post processing. For this image I straightened the line of the bassinet that ran horizontal. Then I added some contrast to deepen the tones and a slight vignette to darken the edges. Less is more when using a vignette so don’t go to heavy when adding that to a photo. Those simple changes added just the right light and contrast to this image to polish it.

Settings

f 2.0; ss 1/500; iso 2000

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