Pro edition
Session Guide.
The demo argues that the useful part of a sitting is the last twenty minutes, and that almost everyone arrives braced. This is the practical half of that: what to do beforehand, what helps in the room, and the questions worth asking any photographer — including us.
Before the day
| When | What |
|---|---|
| A week before | Pick clothes you have already worn and liked. New clothes photograph as new clothes — stiff, and you fidget with them. |
| A week before | If you are having a haircut, have it a week out, not the day before. Nobody looks like themselves the day after a cut. |
| Two days before | Skip anything cosmetic that is new to you. A first-time treatment two days before a sitting is a gamble with no upside. |
| The night before | Sleep is worth more than any product. This is not advice about beauty, it is about how long you can hold a relaxed face. |
| The morning of | Eat. An hour is longer than it sounds and low blood sugar reads on a face as impatience. |
| On the way | Leave enough time that you are not arriving out of breath. Arriving late costs you the first twenty minutes, which are the ones that buy the last twenty. |
In the room
- Ask to see the back of the camera early. Seeing three frames you like is the fastest way to stop bracing.
- Say what you do not like about photographs of yourself, specifically. "I photograph badly" is not usable; "my chin disappears from above" is.
- Talk. A face mid-sentence is a face doing something, and it is why portrait photographers ask questions.
- If you are stuck, ask to move — stand up, turn around, walk to the window. Movement resets a face faster than instruction does.
- Do not try to hold a smile. Nobody can hold one for more than about three seconds before it becomes a shape.
Clothes
- One texture beats one pattern
- Knit, linen and denim all read well. A loud print becomes the subject of the picture.
- Sleeves are usually kinder
- Not for modesty — bare arms are the brightest thing in most frames and pull the eye off the face.
- Bring a second option
- Not to change looks, but because the first one sometimes fights the light in that room on that day.
- Avoid brand-new white
- It clips before skin does under window light. Off-white, cream and grey do not.
- Check the back of the collar
- It is the thing most often crooked and the thing most often retouched afterwards for no reason.
Six questions for any photographer
Most of this guide applies to anyone you might book, not only to us.
- What is your retouching policy, and will you write it down?
- How long is the sitting, and how much of that is shooting?
- Will I see the back of the camera during the session?
- How many frames do I get, and do I choose them or do you?
- What licence do I receive, and does it cover printing anywhere I like?
- If I hate all of them, what happens?
If you hate all of them
It is worth having an answer to that last question before you book, from anyone. Ours:
- Tell us at the viewing, not by email three weeks later when it is awkward.
- We reshoot once, at no charge, within three months.
- If the second sitting also fails, we refund the sitting fee in full and you keep nothing — no frames, no licence, no hard feelings.
- This has happened twice since 2014. Both times it was the wrong photographer for that person, which is a real thing and not a failure of nerve.