Soon-to-be-grandparents w/ new EOS R6 Mark II - maternity shoot advice

[Lukester]

Hello,

We're about to be grandparents and hope to help our daughter and son-in-law with an informal maternity shoot at their home tomorrow...  The plan was to use a couple of high-end iPhones, but we moved up our plans to purchase a nice camera and picked up our R6 Mark II a couple of days ago.  

I thought I'd reach out and ask if anyone had advice for absolute amateurs and newcomers to this camera.  We'll be taking some indoor pics at their house (with great window lighting) and some outdoor shots in their yard (on what is forecasted to be an overcast day).  

Any direction/advice you can give on the most likely successful settings for us in these situations would sure be appreciated, given our very short timeline for experimenting beforehand.  Our lens is the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1.  We've also purchased a Speedlite EL-10.

Thanks very much for any help you're able to provide!

Luke

[Waddizzle]

Congratulations!

Short notice is right.  Take photos with your phone, too,  Set shooting mode to Intelligent Auto, the Green [A+] mode.

The kit lens will be starving for bright light indoors.  Take as many photos as you can at the 24mm zoom setting on the lens. 

If you shoot outdoors in bright sunlight, then set the zoom setting wherever you want.  If it’s overcast, then stick to 24mm. 

[shybull]

Maybe buy a prime lens or two. 50mm 1.8 or 35mm or 24mm. Not sure what they have in RF mount.

Used EF lenses can be found at a good price. But you'd need a adapter. 

Learn to use your flash, bounce it, diffuse it. Maybe buy a Canon St-E10 wireless trigger. Then you can move the flash wherever you want. 

A reflector would be good to bounce the window light. B&H has different sizes. 

This was taken using window light. 

[shybull]

Also stay out direct sunlight. If you can

[Waddizzle]

Time is short. The shoot is tomorrow.

[shybull]

They're  grandparents, with a new camera. Trust me, there will be other shoots.

The info is still very relevent to them.

[stevet1]

Lukester,

About the only advice I've seen recently is to use a soft focus. Keep your contrast low, like shybull did.

Steve Thomas