Photographers Pre Shoot Tips and Advice

So you want to do Professional portraits, but where do you start?  After  you have chosen your photographer based on style of photographing, investment, and other aspects that are important to you.  Now what does it take in preparing to look your best on portrait day?

* Haircuts - do this about 2 weeks prior to your photography session so it still looks fresh but not choppy.

* Suntanning - Everybody likes to be tan for their portraits, however even the tannest of people still have a red tinge to the skin because it is actually burnt.  This is impossible to color correct in your images.  For best results stop your sun sessions 3 days before your shoot so your skin absorbs the color you obtain from the sun.

*Clothing- Neutral colors work best, black, white, Khaki, and bluejeans.  These are easy colors to mix and match without being distracting to the viewers eye.  Patterns are not usually a good idea as it can draw the viewer to the clothing rather than the faces, the focus of the portrait. The Aloha attire can look nice if it is kept to a minimum, not everybody wearing the same exact outfit, again mix and match with some wearing solid neutrals and it works fine.  Khaki and white is the best choice as it photographs very clean, make sure your whites match, either white-white or creme white, everybody wears the same.  This makes it easy for large groups most everybody owns something khaki and something white without having to shop for outfits.   If you want to wear colors such as red make sure they are the SAME color red. When photographing you will be right next to each other if they don’t match it will look mismatched.