Preparing for portrait/engagement photography

*Choose a setting that reflects your personality or the purpose of the images.  I am willing to meet you outdoors, downtown, in your home, or wherever you’d like, but make sure the setting matches the message you want to convey.

*Dress accordingly.  If you want formal pictures, don’t wear jeans.  If you want more casual pictures, don’t wear what you would to a meeting.  Also, the weather here can be a bit fickle, so check the forecast if you’re intending to have an outdoor session.

*If there is more than one person in the photos, consider how your outfits go together.  You don’t have to match exactly (unless that’s the look you’re going for), but make sure everyone is at the same level of formality and the colors don’t clash.

*Consider your setting and avoid all white or all black that will blend into the background.  If we are doing an outdoor winter shoot, stay away from a predominantly light outfit.  If we are photographing at night or indoors with minimal light, try not to dress in all dark colors.  If you blend in with your setting too much, you get the strange “floating head” effect.

*Women: make-up shows up more subtly in photography.  There’s nothing wrong with a natural look, but if you’ve spent time on your make-up and want it to show up in the pictures, consider adding about 10-20% more than you usually would.  Also avoid a foundation or blush with shimmer, as the reflected light will add volume to your face- which very few people ever want!

*Above all, relax and have fun!  The beauty of digital photography is that it is very easy and inexpensive to re-take a picture.  You blinked?  We’ll take another one.  You sneezed?  We’ll take another one.   Trust me, the more relaxed you are, the better the pictures will look.  Plus, I will never post a picture that I know is completely unflattering, so you have nothing to worry about.