Tips for Awesome Senior Portraits:

1. Get plenty of sleep the night before your photo shoot. You will feel better and your skin will be fresh looking.

2. Hair. Guys, if you are getting your hair cut before the shoot do it at least a week ahead of time.  Be sure to shave unless you are wanting the GQ unshaven look. Girls, if you plan on coloring your hair or getting a new style, make sure to allow at least a week to get used to the new do. Generally we do not recommend getting a new style before your photos. This could result in a bad hair day lasting a lifetime in your photos.

3. Clothes. Plan on what you want to wear for your shoot. We do not limit you on clothing changes but the more time you take actually changing your outfit will take away from shooting time. Typically,  you will only have time for 2-3 clothing changes.  Make sure your clothes are pressed and wrinkle free. It can become costly to remove a bunch of wrinkles from your clothes in post processing. An good idea for girls is to put the accessories that you are planning to wear with each outfit in a zip-lock bag and hang it with the outfit it goes with.  Make sure to check to see if you have tan lines that will show through your outfit. Tan lines tend to be distracting and unpleasant. Generally solid colors are much better than a wild pattern. The wild patterns tend to distract from your face.

 

4. Undergarments. It is usually best to wear nude colored undergarments. This color will tend to blend in with your skin and the flash on the camera will not highlight bright colors that you do not expect to see. Make sure you do not wear flowered or brightly colored underwear with your white pants. Unless your pants are extremely thick the colors will show. When you are planning your outfits, make sure that your bra straps do not show or plan on wearing a strapless bra. It is much easier than having to tuck in straps at the shoot.

5. Makeup. Be sure to bring your makeup, brushes, combs, hair spray and a small mirror to touch up with during the shoot. Eye makeup should be blended—no sharp demarcation lines between colors. Color on the lips helps to give them definition and keeps them from blending into your skin. Keep it natural looking trying to enhance and not make the lips the focus of the photo.  Avoid white above or below the eyes. Too much color above and/or below the eyes will attract attention to the make-up and away from the eyes. If you are looking for a sultry sexy look then you can apply the eye makeup to attain that “smokey eye” look. This can be very dramatic. Blend foundation makeup at the jaw-line so that there is no demarcation between the face and the neck. Shimmery makeup tends to look funny, whereas makeup with sunscreen or wearing sunscreen in general reflects light and tends to make the wearer look washed out.

6. Eyeglass lenses can pick up light from almost any angle, and can cause some disturbing optical illusions when photographed. If you would like to have a portrait with your glasses, many optometrists will loan you a similar set of frames without lenses in them.

 

7. Blemishes. we will touch up minor blemishes on photos chosen for print. Dont use to much make-up trying to hid blemishes . It is easier to retouch them if you keep a more natural look.

8.  Personality, Bring items that reflect your personality, talent or hobby such as sports gear, musical instruments, awards, your car or motorcycle etc. Having your picture taken with items like this will create unique portraits of yourself. We can go over these things in your consultation to make sure we are comfortable working with them. We are pretty comfortable with most things except snakes and spiders.

9. Nails. Guys, make sure your fingernails are nicely trimmed and clean. Girls, treat yourself to a nice manicure and pedicure before the photo shoot. If that is not an option be sure to remove messed up nail polish. It will show in images and is not appealing.

10. We want to capture who you really are so dont worry about the shoot.  Most of all just RELAX and HAVE FUN!