Families & Children Session Preparation

Wear clothing that is comfortable, colors you enjoy, and styles that are YOU. Simplicity is best; large bold prints and patterns tend to distract and overpower. Try to avoid sleeveless and very short-sleeved garments. Bare arms in a photograph will usually add distracting lines (and pounds). Shoes in full-length portraits should blend with garments and not distract. Match your socks to your clothes: dark pants with dark socks; light pants with light socks.

Consistency
Families and groups should all be dressed in the same style of clothing (for example: formal, dressy, or casual). Colors should coordinate with similar tones and shades, use white as an accent only - unless everyone is wearing white (so one person doesn’t stand out). Shades of denim tend to go with most everything.

Glasses
L enses catch light reflections and/or may distort the contour lines of your face. Of course, we can photograph people wearing lenses and our professional retouch artists are the best, but no amount of expertise will fix all types of reflections and distortions. A solution may be to have your optometrist take out the lenses on your frames or if you are comfortable, you may want to be photographed without them. Please Note: There is an additional charge for removing glare from portraits.

Make-up
Wear your normal make-up. The main interest in a fine portrait is the eyes. Mascara enhances the eyes. Eye shadow should be applied lightly; keeping in mind that heavy fluorescent or white eye shadow will give eyes a “ghost flare”. Blemishes that show through your make-up and on your images can be removed by our retouch artist on your finished portraits.

Hair
Unless your hair was done professionally, it’s best not to experiment with a new hairstyle. Wear your hair in a style that you already feel comfortable with. For men – a haircut that is a week old is usually best.

Men
Please shave at least two hours prior to your session. There is no way to hide a “five o’clock shadow” or mustache in portraits, without costly artwork.

Children
You may want to bring a change of clothes, a favorite toy or costume, or that special blanket to help personalize your session. For the little ones, we may need to take a short break, so it’s okay to bring them a snack (nothing too messy - we don’t want to dirty their outfit).