Getting yourself ready for a photo session needn’t be difficult, there are a few things you can do to prepare to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible and that you get the result that you want.
Requirements for on-location background & lighting setup
If we’ve arranged to photograph you on location using my background and lighting setup we’ll need to confirm the following to ensure everything runs smoothly.
- How many team members are there to be photographed? Please provide a list.
- Background Choice, White / Black / Grey are all available as standard, other colours are available on request.
- Do you want Head / Head & Shoulders / Half-Length / Full-Length photos (Typically for headshots we do head and head & shoulders to give you options)
- Do you want to stand or sit for the photos?
- High Key (bright and evenly lit) or Low Key (darker and slightly moodier)?
- We would need approx 5m x 5m space to set up, a table and access to power for charging is recommended
- My equipment is all battery-powered (with spares) so we won’t have cables trailing all over the place
Pre-Session Preparation
- Keep well hydrated before, it does wonders for the skin
- Avoid too much alcohol the night before
- A good night’s sleep is recommended
- Smoking can reduce blood flow to the skin and the skin won’t look as good
- If you wear glasses normally you can keep them on for the photos, but make sure that they (and in particular the lenses) are clean
- Make sure clothes are clean
- Iron clothing if needed (even if it’s brand new it can still have creases from being packaged)
- I don’t recommend very light clothes on a white background, and avoid dark clothing for a black background
- Clothes with heavy patterns or very vivid styles and colours are generally best avoided, keeping it subtle and simple really works well
- Jewellery and makeup are absolutely fine, but less is generally better, the photos really want to be about the person and not the accessories
- Sometimes people will be tempted to get themselves tanned or try self-tanning products, I don’t normally recommend it, if anyone really wants to they should leave a day or so before having photos done as any patchiness will be quite obvious to the camera
- It’s meant to be fun, don’t take it too seriously or you will end up tense in front of the camera, I have a range (about 6 in total) of really bad jokes (not poor taste, just bad) to get you relaxed, if you want to prep beforehand try to come up with a couple of bad jokes yourselves to see if they are as bad as mine 🙂
Retouching
A commonly asked question is do I retouch the photos, the answer is No, and Yes.
Every supplied final image is edited for exposure, colour balance and cropping.
Minor blemishes (i.e. spots or a couple of unwanted lines) can be removed just make sure I know that you want this one, you can confirm when selecting your final images if there are any blemishes you want me to deal with.
The way I approach it is generally if it can be concealed with makeup or if a blemish would resolve itself in a couple of days we can make it disappear, otherwise, it’s really a part of the person and would normally stay.
More substantial retouching is available but would be charged per image. I don’t retouch the shape or size of anyone unless you specifically request it.
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