My process and tips for portrait photo shoots
I have done many portrait photo shoots during my time as a photographer and thought I would share the tips I have for a good shoot, and the process I use to replicate this experience for all of your clients. I’ll be using a recent engagement photo shoot I did as context, but most of this will apply to all types of portrait work.
When doing an engagement photo shoot, it is very important to capture the personalities of you subjects as individuals and as a couple. They want to feel like the photos represent who they are as a couple. Because of this, my first step after booking an engagement shoot (or a couples shoot or a wedding) is to schedule a time to chat with the couple an get to know a little bit about them. This is the same for other types like headshots, dating and model profiles, etc. You want to show off the personality of your subject and create photos that fit them as a person.
I’ll always ask if they have an idea of the types of shots they had in mind for the shoot. If they have example images of things they’ve seen before and really liked, that helps me prepare a list of poses to go through that will be things they want in their gallery. I do not need example poses to go off of, and many times the client does not know what they want, but it is just another level of being prepared to give them photos that they will love!
This shoot was done in a studio setting and we are going for a bit more serious and stylish vibe. I used the example images as a baseline for the types of poses I would use. My method for this was to start off by closely recreating one of the example poses, and then changing parts of the pose to fit the lighting and the vibe of the shoot. We will just naturally keep changing the pose until it looks great and fits their vibe, while still being a similar style to the example they liked so much. By using a more organic approach to finding the right poses rather than just copy and pasting the example images, it made the clients more comfortable, got us all thinking creatively as we played around with different poses, and gave us unique poses that best fit them and the situation. A lot of engagement photos are also taken outdoors with natural light, so we really had to focus on their positioning relative to the lights to get the best results.
When posing, make sure you know what you want. They will look to you to tell them exactly how to stand (or sit or whatever pose it is), where and how to position their body (especially hands), what kind of expression to use, and if something needs to change with the pose to make it look better. Some photographers don’t like showing the photos as they take them, but I find it helps me show them when there is something that needs to change. Instead of just saying “can you put you’re hand more like this…” just show them on the camera that the current poses looks off and they will understand much quicker and will trust that you know what you’re doing. this is especially helpful if you just want to make very minor adjustments to how they are posed.
Another important tip I have learned, and this applies to all types of portrait photography, is don’t be afraid to tell them if something looks weird. Is their hair doing something funky? Is their shirt bunched up in an awkward way? Does their smile look goofy? Are they rocking a major double chin? is their something in their teeth? Tell them! These are all things you can fix and shows them that you are knowledgeable and that you are going to make them look good. Most people are not models, and are not particularly comfortable in front of the camera. I find, almost counterintuitively, that pointing out and fixing these little things will make them feel more confident and comfortable, because they won’t be thinking “do I look weird?” instead they’ll know you have their back and will fix anything that looks weird.
I have spent a lot of time during shoots trying to fix fly-away hairs, get shirts not to look all wrinkly in a weird way, helping someone make they smile or eyes look more comfortable and confident, fixing collars, etc. Don’t just say you’ll fix it in post, not only will it take you much longer to edit than to just fix it now, but it rarely ever will look as good and these little details matter.
Another tip for these shoots is to stay flexible. I quite often will be trying to get the subjects into a pose and they will do something different that either looks better, or gives me an idea for a really cool pose I had not considered before. You can always come back to the pose you were going for before, but being able to see those moments and take advantage of them is very important.
Staying open to different approaches really helped me on this shoot. I was initially using a key light in a paramount position with a hair light behind the backdrop. After shooting for about 30 minutes, my key flash was not recycling nearly as fast as I needed. It was up to about 4 seconds (charge your batteries before every shoot). As I was frustratedly seeing if something was wrong with the flash, I stopped for a moment an noticed that the natural light in the room was really good. There is a large window to one side of my studio space with an opaque white curtain on it. It was one of those bright cloudy days outside and so the light coming in was fairly strong and really soft. I immediately thought, “let’s stop messing with this flash and just shoot natural light.” So I turned off the flash, bumped up the ISO and think those were some of the best photos from the entire shoot. If I had tunnel vision and only saw a dying flash, I would have totally missed out on that. It was the first time I have ever shot natural light in my studio and it won’t be the last.
You should give your client a clear timeline of when you will finish editing the photos. I typically have this conversation before the shoot, but if not, definitely as soon as you are done taking pictures. You need to stick to this timeline and if anything comes up, be upfront with them about it. One of the biggest complaints I hear is “our last photographer took forever to get us the photos and they weren’t even that good.” Now even if those photos were good, in my opinion, they will be less likely to like them if it takes forever because there is lens of frustration they are seeing all of the photos through. My tip, set a timeline that you know you can do better than. If I say they photos will be done in 2 weeks, I’ll try to get them done in under a week so they are pleasantly surprised with the speed.
Last thing, and this is the most important one for how I run and view my business, is to make sure everyone has a good time during the shoot. I want my clients to walk away thinking “wow that was really fun and much easier than I thought it would be.” Even though we are doing posed studio photos in this case, they still will have a memory of doing the shoot and the photos will remind them of that. You could make the best photo ever, but if the shoot was frustrating and not enjoyable, they’ll probably think of that every time they see the photo. Making your photo shoots a fun and positive atmosphere will also help you get good reviews. I have had multiple clients leave me glowing reviews before they’ve even seen any of the final photos because they had a good time and they trusted me to do good work.
Hopefully this was helpful. I am constantly refining and improving my process to be the best photographer I can be and you should do the same! Good luck!