How to Prepare for your Portrait Session

We all want to have the best photos possible of ourselves and our families and the first step to that is hiring a great photographer. After that there are some things you can do to make sure you get exactly what you're looking for. 

Location

The number one question most people have is "where will we take our photos?" Of course, some clients book an appointment knowing exactly the spot they want their photos taken. If that's you, that's great! If not there are a few things to think about. 
Urban, Natural, or Studio
A Natural area is something like a field, beach, or forest area. Natural backgrounds are great for capturing interaction between families. They're simple and draw focus to the person or people in the image. The Golden hour is the best time to take photos in a natural setting

Urban areas are alleys and cool buildings. They add texture and dimension to your photos and you tend to get more variety in your background. Urban areas are great for families and senior portraits, not so much for babies. 

A portable studio can be set up in your home with a white or black background. Studio shoots can be done anytime of day since they are lit artificially. I do not recommend studio sessions for family portraits since they look a bit dated but they can be great for babies and are an absolute must for newborns

Once you've decided What type of setting you want you may get some ideas about where you want your session to be. If you don't, don't worry. I have a pretty extensive list of great places to shoot photos so you can let me know what type of setting you want and I can choose the perfect location near you.

What to Wear

Few elements in planning your photography session are agonized over more than what to wear. My number one piece of advice is Coordinate, Don't match. You don't have to wear the same outfit. For many years that was the portrait photography style, everyone wears matching outfits usually black or white. Since then things have loosened up. There are no hard rules about what you must wear but there are a few guidelines to follow. Make sure the type of clothes everyone is wearing goes together. If some of your are dressy, you should all be dressy. If some are casual, you should all be casual. As for colors the main thing is not to clash with each other. Try laying out all the outfits next to each other to see how they look together. Some helpful tips are to avoid overly bright colors a lime green or hot pink is going to overwhelm you in a photo. You want people looking at you, not your clothes. If you're the kind of person who has trouble deciding if colors go well together or want to be absolutely sure they will look good, heres a little trick. The good old color wheel. 

Colors across from each other look good together. Choose two colors from the wheel and a neutral like brown, black, white, or tan. Now, not everyone should wear all of these colors. Try having each person wear some combination of the colors so that when the group is all together we get them all. Or if you're really into choosing your colors try visiting this site for a really fun way to get color ideas that all look great together. 

Kids

We want to capture your child's personality not just big cheesy smiles. So don't worry if it takes a little while for them to warm up. I recommend making sure they eat right before your sessions so they don't get hungry in the middle of it. Bring an extra outfit and a favorite toy. You never know what could happen during a shoot that could mess up that perfect outfit you picked out. A child could trip and get dirty or if we're talking about babies we could have a spit up or blowout situation so make sure you have a backup. For young Children a photo shoot can be a bit scary at first. Some stranger is pointing this big machine at them. So bring along a favorite toy for comfort, we may not need it but it can help. 

During the Session 

The Length of your session will be determined by which package you choose but its important to not try to rush through it. I want to make sure that your photos are the best they can be which means a lot of attention to detail. Sometimes I also like to hang back a bit sometimes and let you interact with each other or let children play. Sometimes the best photos are the candid ones. 

​After Your Session

Okay! so we took your photos and had lots of fun, now what? It will take around two weeks for your photos to be ready to be viewed. What am I doing during these two weeks? Well, I may have other photo sessions but I'll also be editing and retouching your photos. While I don't do extensive retouching generally, there are some things that need to be done to every photo to make them look their best. A bit or color correction and smoothing can make a world of difference so it really is worth the wait. 

After Editing

Buying Your Photos

Choosing your photos is not easy. Not only can it be difficult to choose between images, deciding on products can be even harder. I come to your home and sit down with you to help you sort all that out for no extra fee. We'll go through your photos together and talk about how you hope to display them, where you want to put them, if you like flat prints or canvas. If you'd like an album and if so what kind. You can even invite other people over to help or buy some for themselves (grandparents) While it may seem like a pain to set up another appointment trust me when I say that in my experience, clients are much happier when they've had a little help.

So now that you're prepared, Book an Appointment today