WRONG!
Believe it or not there is stuff that you need to do on your end. There is a belief that some hold that a photographer can work magic because they may have powerful editing programs like Photoshop and Lightroom that can make your photos look amazing. However it is not the job of the photographer to make you look beautiful. That is your job. Here is the link to an article regarding this very topic. Make me look amazing!
There is some planning that needs to go into your session on your part. For example what are you going to wear, and if there is more than just you in the photo what are others going to where? You need to make sure that you all coordinate your clothing. You don't want to have colors that clash, and you definitely don't want to have loud patterns or things that are going to distract away from your photo that is going to eventually ruin it for you in the end.
When deciding what to where consider where you are going to be. For example take a look at the photo below.
As you can see there is a large amount of red and green in this photo, however the young girl is still the center of the photo. She stands out as the model. Why? Because her clothing helps her to contrast against the scene. She does not blend in to the scene and does not disappear into the foliage around her, but her choice of clothing still gives her a perfect touch of feminism to make the shot about her, and bring out exactly who she is as a person.
When choosing clothing I am one that tends to believe that it is best to go with a solid color top rather than having things printed on the shirt or blouse. Why? Solid colors are timeless. The style of the top may not be but the color will always be timeless and therefore thirty years down the road when you are looking back at the photo you will not look at it in disgust and wonder "WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" ( I am sure we have all been there at some point.) Not to mention that with the way that fashion trends go that particular style could be back in style in thirty years.
LADIES:
I have also noticed that women especially are very picky about certain areas of their body and how they look. I am right there with you ladies. I can not stand my little love handles either. So in order to make this easier for you here are a few suggestions. If you are not happy with a certain area of your body, either do not wear form fitting clothing over it, or dress in layers in that area. For example. Let's look at my love handles. I hate them with a passion. So here is what I do to hide them. I tend to wear tank tops a lot, but I know that these tops will show the love handles even more, so what I will do is where I looser top like a sweater, or flannel type shirt over the top, something with a bit of flow, that will not hug my love handle curves and yet still gives a great appearance. If I do not want to wear layers I will just choose a top that is not form fitting and has a bit of a flow to it, similar to the one in the picture above, and this way no one, including my photographer can see that small imperfection.
You can also use long skirts to hide your legs if that is what you are uncomfortable with. Long flowing skirts can also make the shoot more interesting and give the photographer more to work with to make it fun. Things like twirling photos or if it is long enough maybe giving the impression that the wind is causing the skirt to "float" a bit. Either way it can be fun, and still help you more comfortable about you and who you are in your own skin.
MEN:
Believe it or not if men are uncomfortable about their waist line they can do something similar. Instead of making a point to tuck in their shirts, leave them untucked, or choose to wear a sweater that is a bit more forgiving in the areas of concern.
When a man picks out the pants they are going to wear make sure they are long enough. You do not want to have him sit down and give off the appearance that he is wearing high waters. Also with standing poses the cuff of the pants should hit the top of the shoe and cover the sock. When dealing with size make sure that the pants are the proper size. Guys don't like to be uncomfortable. There is no reason that their jeans need to be so tight that they have to be "painted" on, but also there is no reason that they should be so loose that they are falling off. Pants that are to tight will make the waist line look larger (if this is a concern of his) however a waist line with properly fitting pants that a bit of give will not only keep him comfortable and less grumpy but will help that waist look a bit smaller.
CHILDREN:
This is something that is a bit harder to work with. Typically children's clothes are full of shapes and colors which can throw off what you are going for. Do not worry! This is something that can be worked with and may actually add to the photo versus distracting because the child is the only one. Unless of course there are multiple children in the photo. If there are going to be multiple children I do recommend trying to limit the different types of patterns. But if they look good together, and the adults are sporting solid colors, this can make for a very fun shoot.
With younger children I also would suggest that you select potentially 2-3 outfits for the session. I know that this may sound crazy, however after raising three of my own, I have learned that children manage to get dirty even when there is no where to get dirty. I am not sure how but they always managed to attract dirt to them! So with this thought in mind I would have the extra outfits. This will save both you and your photographer stress on the off chance that an incident of spit up occurred in route to the location, or there was a magical pile of dirt that your children found to play in.
Remember when backing your bag for the session to bring extra wipes. Wipes are amazing, and will save you in a pinch for dirty hands, faces and feet.
Now I know there are hundreds of suggestions out there and many ideas out there and I would love to hear them. Please leave them in the comments below so that we can expand the information here, and prepare others, and yourself to have an amazing session the next time you hire a photographer!
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