Best Practices
Tips for having your photo taken
Haircuts:
If you get your hair cut do it one week before the photo session. This will give your hair time to lose the "just cut" look. For men, this applies to shaving as well, but think in terms of hours, not days.
Immediatelly before, run your hands through your hair to to fluff it up. For women, flip it over to give it definition.
Clothing:
Dress to the season.
Avoid shiny clothing
Pleats can make your hips look bigger, a flat front looks better on many.
Wear clothes that fit. For men a properly tailored shirt or pants will make you look better.
Avoid bulky clothing that covers the neckline or face.
Avoid complex patterns
Try on the clothing you'll wear in advance. Practice wearing it around for a day to see how you feel in it. If it feels wrong during the day then it's wrong for a photograph.
Always wear long sleeves for a business photo. To appear professional dress slightly more formal than your job requires.
Makeup:
For women less is more. Cover up blemishes, even out skin, remove shine, use a daytime bronzer, add a little mascara, blush and a light or neutral lip tone. A light power can keep the face from appearing shiny.
For men hide circles under the eyes, remove shine/grease, tan 5-10 minutes, add some hair spray or gel to keep it down.
Hide redness, the camers shows it off.
If you're having your makeup done professionally for an important day consider having your makeup done the same way at a practice session well in advance so you can see how it will look.
Accessories:
An age, career or lifestyle accessory can be appropriate and add detail to the photo. For example, if you are taking a photo for a new dental office include dental instruments.
Sunglasses are rarely appropriate for photos. The eyes are a key source of emotion. Sunglasses lead to a "bug-eye" look as you have big flat disks where all our emotion should be.
If the accessory seems to be too much it likely is.
Know yourself:
Learn your good side and how you look your best by looking in a mirror. Imagine a photographer that's above you, at your eye level and below you and learn what direction to turn and face for each. Tell your photographer what side you prefer.
Talking and Looking:
Talking during a photo looks bad. It's that simple. It goes quicker if you don't. The same thing goes with looking. The less you adjust your direction of your gaze the quicker it goes.
If you are helping someone take a photo encourage them to look at the camera and smile.
Emotions and Facial Expressions:
Humans can not fake or hide an emotion. To counter this we can take cues from actors to express any emotion. For example, to maintain a confident look think of a great moment in your life. To maintain a true smile think of a happy moment in your life.
Most facial expressions need to be carefully considered before doing them. Many expressions only look cute in a small child. Pursed lips and pouting make an adult look juvenile.
Composition and Look:
Discuss the look you want out of your photos with your photographer. Don't simply trust they'll know the kind of look you want.
Ask questions
To keep comfortable ask your photographer to count down to shots. Close your eyes and only open them on "one." Alternately, during the countdown force a blink before the photo is taken to help cut the reflex.
Props:
While a prop can add individualism to a photo they also require careful selection and placement to not be overwhelming.
Families:
Parents, if you are taking a family photo with your children don't worry about them during the photo. Keep looking at the camera so when they are looking at it you are too. Your children will follow your lead.
Children:
If you need to encourage young children when they are having their photo taken you want to choose a single person to be directly behind the photographer and encourage the child to look at the camera. If you are off to the side you will get them looking away from the camera so you want to be sure this is what you want. Multiple people encouraging only confuses one child or gets multiple children looking in multiple directions, which adds chaos to the photo.
Including a favorite toy or prop (i.e. a juice cup) does two things for a child; it comforts them and adds an age-appropriate accent to the photos.
With Animals:
Be very particular about photos with animals. A cat clawing it's way to get to the ground should not be in the photo and a dog should not be sticking it's nose into the camera. Only include a pet if the post is pet approriate and the pet is calm.
Holidays:
When taking photos during a holiday there are two things you can do to improve the photos. First, dress everyone in seasonaly appropriate clothing. Second, include some props such as a stuffed easter bunny, American flag, minature pumpkin, or wrapped gift.
Action Shots:
Action shots take a lot of focus as a subject. Rather than just play sports one has play the sport and pose. Doing less than the best can make a sports photo, dancing or playing look fake.
Location:
Location matters. A studio isn't always the best place nor is the popular outdoor location. Pick out where to have the photos taken carefully.
Backdrop:
Plan your background based on what you want to say. A piece of fabric, park and brick building each give a different feel to a photograph.
Time of Day:
Plan when and where you want to have your photos taken carefully.
On days with few clouds, the majority of sharp, bright, traditional, photographs result from the middle of the day with the sun high in the sky. During civil twilight, the fleeting time (10-15 minutes) at the beginning and end of the day when the sun is below the horizon but before or after it is completely dark, beautiful silhouette photos with a vividly colored sky are possible. The time in between the two, with the sun dropping to the horizon, produces photos with a look somewhere in between.
Looking at the same times of the day with overcast weather we find that photos taken during the day are more flat with a slightly blue tone. Sharp shadows are always gone. Artifical lighting is often required in these situations to add color and depth to the photo. Civil twilight and the time immediatelly before will be much darker or non-existant.
Night time photography requires the discovery of a suitable artifical light, the addition of flash, or long exposure times which often adds blur to a photo.
Indoor photos gives the necessary control to produce sharp, bright photos but without the natural look from being outside. Indoor photography is always an option if conditions outside are not suitable for photography. Blinds can be closed and the exact amount of light needed can be added to a scene any time of the day. It is very easy to add mood to a photo with directional lighting or the removal of all bright light sources.