Preparing For Your Portrait Session
I am always delighted when seniors look back on their sessions and say
"we had so much fun that day." Here are a few tips to help achieve that
goal and for everything to go smoothly.
Parents! Take a break from parenting. Have fun, loosen up, & and most
important, don’t tell your teen to smile! Let me do that for you so you can
relax and enjoy your family and I can do my job.
If you have any special props like a hat, sunglasses, a toy, scarves, an
instrument, sports gear, dance costumes, a car, a stuffed animal, etc...
Make sure to bring them.
Weather is an important part of any Outdoor Portrait Session, including
yours. Rain could present tricky problems during a portrait session and if
it does rain on your scheduled session date, we’ll reschedule. If you are
unsure, just give me a call the day before or the day of the appointment.
When we are in the middle of a public location and there isn't a restroom
for miles, changing clothes can sometimes present challenges. Solution:
wear a bathing suit underneath your clothing. Problem solved.
Parents and teens don't always agree on their definition of the perfect
portrait. For example: parents like to see lots of smiles and close-ups
while teens like more serious expressions and full lengths. Don’t fret! We
can take portraits of each idea you have. Smiles for families + relaxed
for teens = everyone happy. Just let me know what you want.
Remember (Moms) Don’t stress! That’s my job. I want you to enjoy this
time with your senior. The main goal here is to have fun and take great
portraits of the people you love.
Details about Clothing, Grooming, and Timing
Since you do not commission a fine portrait very often, we cannot expect
you to know all the elements that affect its creation. Memorable portraits
take careful planning and the clothing you choose is very important to
your portrait’s success. The following guidelines will help you to make
important decisions about your portrait.
Clothing Selection - The goal of any fine portrait is to direct the viewer’s
attention to the face. Everything else in the portrait-clothing, hair,
background, and props- should be secondary to the face. When a face
dominates the portrait, you will never tire of it as time goes by.
Improperly selected clothing can overpower the face and ruin an
otherwise excellent portrait. While it’s our job to choose the proper
portrait lighting and pose for you, we must rely on your help in selecting
clothing that will create the visual effect you wish to achieve.
Clothing Color - For an outdoor portrait dark colors like burgundy, navy,
purple, brown, denim, evergreen, rust, and black always photograph
well. Dark colors are more flattering and slimming to the wearer while
light colors such as beige, tan, peach, pink, white, and yellow add bulk
and mass to the subject wearing them. Keeping this in mind, lighter
colors work better if a lighter backdrop is chosen in the studio.
Especially bright colors, such as orange or red, will ruin a portrait, and
bold stripes, checks, plaids, busy prints, and logos never photograph
well. While solid colors and denim always work best, small gingham and
small simple floral prints are ok too.
Clothing Style - Very simple garments always photograph best. Turtle
necks or V-necks are flattering, provided that neither is exaggerated in
style. Avoid very wide or particularly deep V-neck garments as well as
bulky cowl neck sweaters that completely hide the neck. Long sleeves
are essential since in a portrait, bare arms will overpower the face.
Please do not wear short shorts, short skirts, or tight fitting skirts. This
makes posing more difficult. Long flowing dresses, jeans, or khakis
make better selection. If feet are to show, make certain shoes and
stockings - preferably both in dark colors - are in keeping with the overall
intent of the portrait.
Hair, Makeup, & Glasses - Many young ladies have their hair and
makeup professionally done the day of their portrait session and we
highly recommend this. Young men should have their hair cut about one
week before the session. Neither young men nor women should radically
change hair style before a portrait session. We cannot hide "five-o-clock
shadow" so make sure you shave before-hand. If you normally wear
glasses, plan to wear them for your portrait or people won’t recognize
you. For the nicest possible portraits, it is worth your trouble to borrow a
pair of empty frames from your optometrist. Please note that it is
impossible to correct lenses which darken in sunlight.