Here's a little checklist to help you prepare the subject. So when someone's coming for a portrait session, these are some of the things you want to be talking to them about and advising them on. So, clothing consultation before they come we often need to give them a clothing consultation we'll need to guide them into what to wear and what not to wear like pinstripes and not good because you'll get what's called and wire a we want to, we want to help them and some of the things we want to do is help them avoid bright colors. See bright colors if you have a bright color. Recently, we did a shoot for a mother and daughter and what what happened was we told them not bright colors and we went on the shoot and the mother turned up with a bright orange wrap and all undress skin was orange in all the shots.

Nothing we could do is environmental shoe. She turned up like that even We advise them not to. And so then most of the images to work have to go to black and white because the orange is really on a skin. So bright colors underneath here will obviously affect the skin and stuff. And the other thing is it draws the eye and we want the sub what the subjects face in their eyes to stand out as the eyes we want to create a connection with. And if it's really bright clothing, then your eyes are going to be drawn to that and you're going to lose the connection.

Another thing to avoid is exposed arms. Now exposed arms in a studio shoot, they become very bright, especially on European people. If especially Northern European and North American if they're not turned, you'll see that the white skin really reflects and your eye will be drawn to that. So you advise the client to avoid open skin here. And they will thank you when you do this for them because they don't know and if you explain to them why that's gonna draw attention away from your face we already want to capture you and your character and your eyes. We don't want that to be drawn away so especially ladies, the ladies like to turn up with bear arms and it's not that good for them when it comes to a portrait session.

Now v necks tend to slim the face and the body so v neck like shirt colors like this or anything that's a V that will tend to slim the face down. But what you'll find is if you have a wide open neck like this, what will happen is of that skin again, will be really well lit up and it will draw down and it will widen subject. So if you're trying to slim a subject, a V neck, it's a very thin and you want to wind and then you can open up a little bit with me advise them to avoid having glittery makeup. Now, glittery makeup is a big no no because it really does come through in the image unless you're going for that style unless you're doing that type of shoot. So ask them to avoid that and ask them to use as natural makeup as possible.

Because what's going to happen is when you process your portraits, you're going to be pulling the colors richer. And if they've got heavy makeup on, you can't do that. So you need to explain to them that you want them to have quite simple makeup. We had a makeup artist turn up on a shooting I did some makeup and I kept saying to the makeup artist is too strong, is too strong. And she was doing what she was doing with the makeup for them to go out into the street. And how they would like to look if there's going out to a special event, but that is not good photography, makeup, photography makeup.

You want to shape the face and create the look with the light. So too much color too strong makeup will create problems later because you're going to have to tone that down in post processing a lot of the time. So encourage them to be as simple and as natural within their normal style as possible. Now, obviously, contacts are better than glasses, and I'll show you why. I mean my studio I've got my lights quite high, but with my eyes up, you can see reflections of the studio lights. So when people turn up with glasses, you have to get your lights high, but it's better if they were contacts or if they're comfortable not having their glasses on.

The other thing with glasses is it's gonna make your eyes squeeze up with and smaller as well. Which is gonna obviously not be as attractive as if your eyes are wide open. Obviously I have to use it while I'm filming this because I can't see anything. But they may feel the same way. But just be aware that glasses really can affect the image and change the size of the eye. So when you consulting, help them with that as well.

And the last point I really want to talk about is nervousness. Now, when people turn up for a portrait session, always nervous, they're not used to sitting in front of a camera unless you're dealing with an experienced model. So it the first half hour is about you getting them comfortable, don't look for the killer shots in the first half hour off, if you get some good shots, that's great. But don't expect them in the first off, let them warm up, let them relax. And the way to do that is just be warm and friendly with them and encourage them and get them talking. And then what we want to do as well is just look for those moments in between when they're pose and then relax and those relax shots, sometimes the better images.

So just keep your eyes out for that as well. But really be prepared for that nervousness and it takes usually A good half hour for someone to settle into their photo shoot.