How should I prepare for the portrait session?

Be prepared to be comfortable, we want you to enjoy your experience!

We provide the following tips on how to look your best. Keep in mind that portraits are best when the viewer’s eye is drawn to your face!

Clothing Color & Style Make the Difference:
Darker shades are more slimming

Solid colors are best: Stripes, plaids, checks, and bold prints draw the eye away from the face

Express Yourself and Your World – Bring your:
Musical Instruments, Fresh flowers to make your portrait come alive, Art supplies & paintings, Theatrical garb – Dance costumes, Cheerleading outfit – Athletic uniforms – Sports gear, Horse tack and riding gear, Favorite hats, Whatever makes you unique,  Or, just bring yourself!

Hair
Wear your hair in your most comfortable style. Have your hair cut around a week before your session is scheduled. Don’t try a new hairstyle just for your session.

Skin Conditions
Don’t worry if you develop a blemish. Our finished portraits can be fully retouched to eliminate blemishes and soften harsh lines.

Glasses
It is ok to wear glasses for your portrait, but keep in mind that the type of lenses you have may affect how we take your picture. Glasses that have non-reflective lenses are preferred by photographers because they do not reflect studio lights, camera flashes, or any other lights in the room. If you have non-reflective lenses, we will have no problems with reflection at any angle while you are wearing your glasses. Glasses with lenses that do not have this feature will reflect studio lights and cause glare in the lenses. We are able to keep your lenses glare-free by instructing you to move your head slowly until we see no light reflection. This does not take very long. For larger family portraits or group pictures, we suggest removing the glasses to prevent possible glare, if possible. In this way, you will not have to worry whether or not your glasses will reflect light.. Everyone wants to see your beautiful eyes, not big, white light splotches! We are able to remove some glare in Photoshop, but tinted lenses cannot be lightened. Please view our image retouching page.

Men/Boys
A fresh shave is a must. If you have a beard or mustache, trim it to your liking.

Women/Girls
Makeup can affect the way your portrait looks. Both fresh, natural makeup and “evening” makeup photograph well.

Hair & Makeup, We can provide a great hair and makeup artist if you would like one. Makeup artists help eliminate the stress of getting ready for your portrait. You will not have to worry about making yourself look good! They have full kits equipped with foundations for all skin types, a huge selection of eyeshadows and blushes, and eyelashes. They are capable of handling any type of makeup or hairstyle. You tell them what kind of look you want such as a smoky cat eye, a very pretty bridal look, or something simple that will look great for your business card headshot. You can also bring a picture of a certain makeup look you like to give them a better idea of what you want. The makeup artists have reasonable rates, and will make you look amazing!

If you are doing your own hair, wear hairstyles that you are comfortable with and you know will look good. If you want to wear a new hairstyle for your portrait, try styling your hair a couple days before the shoot and see if you like it. Don’t wait until the day of your portrait to try to see if you can come up with a new hairstyle. You might not like how it turns out, and wont have time to do your normal hairstyle. It’s better to be safe than sorry! We want you to be happy with what you look like in your picture, so plan ahead. Keep in mind that you do not have to have an elaborate hairstyle for your portrait. A flowy, natural hairstyle is always beautiful!

When you style your hair, try to keep stray hairs off of your face. Stray hairs can be removed in Photoshop, but only to a certain extent. We can remove a little hair coming across your forehead, but a stray hair that extends across your entire face cannot be removed. When you are in front of the camera posing for your portrait, we will make final adjustments to your hair by moving stray hairs off of your face. We can also remove minor “frizz” on the top of your head in Photoshop. Please check out our image retouching page to see samples of this.

There are a few tips we have for women doing their own makeup. If you do your makeup how you normally do it, you will be fine. But- when we take your picture, we set up very bright lights that reflect off of your face. Makeup that normally looks great to you might not look as great in the picture. Here are some examples:

Glittery eyeshadow can look pretty, but if it is LOOSE glitter that you dab onto your eyelids, some tends to fall onto your face. You might wipe off as much as you can after you do your makeup, but it keeps falling afterwards when you move around. In real life, girls might not care about that extra glitter on their face, because they are pretty small and not too noticeable. In the studio, our bright lights reflect off of all that glitter and makes tiny little bright white spots all over your face!

Reflective makeup, Sometimes women use makeup that is made to be reflective and cause light to bounce off of the face. A good example is glittery bronzer or highlighter. There are reflective pigments in the makeup that make a pretty shimmer. When sunlight hits your face, it bounces off the glitter and accentuates certain parts of your face. Unfortunately, when studio lights hit the same makeup, it may not look as flattering and can be super reflective.

Foundation that you use every day is ok to wear for your picture. Something that you may not know though, is that there are foundations specifically made to look good and not be reflective when studio lights hit it. We call it “studio makeup”. This kind of makeup is available at several makeup stores including the MAC cosmetics makeup counter at the mall and Smashbox makeup line at Sephora.  Studio Tech foundation is a favorite at MAC, and Camera Ready foundation at Smashbox. This makeup can be a little pricey though, and it’s not necessary. Some models that plan on doing multiple photoshoots to build their model portfolio might find this worthwhile to buy if they don’t plan on using a makeup artist. (If you are a self contractor and make your money by doing promotional modeling or gogo dancing, for example, you can write off makeup you need to buy for your job at the end of the year on your taxes! Plus, MAC offers a 30% discount for models.)

The moral for this story is: normal everyday-wear foundations are reflective when studio lights hit them. That’s why your forehead and nose might look really shiny in your picture. The way to counterbalance this is to wear POWDER. If you use your normal foundation, wear powder on your face even if that is not part of your daily routine. Wear powder all over your face, but make sure you have a good layer of powder on your forehead and nose. That is where it is most reflective. If you notice you are getting oily before or during your photoshoot, put more powder on to eliminate some of that shine. Oily skin is also highly reflective and will look very shiny in pictures!

Even men benefit from a little powder on the face, as long as it matches their skin tone. Powder is meant to cut down on the shine, and men with shiny foreheads can appreciate that they look better in their picture with a little powder!

Do not cake on your foundation or powder, though. Yes, you don’t want your face to look shiny in your picture, but you also don’t want to look like you have an over-powdery face! It is better to have a little shine than to look all cakey. Why?- Because we can cut down on some of that shine in the computer with a little Photoshop magic! Check out our image retouching page to see examples of how we do this. We can’t fix really cakey makeup in the computer, but we can fix some shine!

Another example of foundation-gone-wrong is foundation that does not match your skin color. Sometimes women try to get away with foundation that does not really match their skin tone, because the color difference is not as obvious in natural light. For example, you may be wearing your summer shade of foundation (which is darker since your skin is tanned) in the winter time when your skin is lighter and not tanned. The summer shade you are wearing on your face will be darker than the lighter skin on your neck, since you do not typically put foundation on your neck. When our bright studio lights hit your face and neck, your face will be a darker color than your neck! This cannot be fixed with Photoshop. If you have been using a foundation that is very obvious that is does not match your skin tone, it will be even more apparent in your picture. Now is a good time to buy a new foundation that matches your skin tone better. It is a good investment because you will use it every day, and you will be happier with the results of your portrait.

Most foundations you wear don’t perfectly match your skin tone, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect. When you apply your foundation, don’t stop at the base of your face. Bring it down underneath your chin and blend it in to prevent a “mask” look. It is even better to apply foundation to your neck to prevent your neck from being a different color than your face. Also apply the same powder you used on your face to your neck.

Clumpy mascara will not look good in your portrait. Buy a new tube if you need it. It’s a good investment because you will use it everyday, anyways!

Fake eyelashes can add an instant touch of glamour! Any typical lashes will work great, but don’t get extremely long ones unless you want a very dramatic showgirl look! Make sure to buy black eyelash glue, not white. It will help hide little glue mistakes and blend in well with black eyeliner and mascara.