3 Easy Steps for Preparing Your Senior Portrait Clients for Their Shoot

As a senior portrait photographer, tell me if you can relate to any of the following client frustrations that we face:

• Your client blows up your email with questions about what to wear and how to prepare for their shoot.
• They arrive in a basic white T-shirt and jeans but expect the same photos as clients who show up with multiple outfit changes.
• They’re wearing little (or no) makeup that results in hours of Photoshop later.
• Your client doesn’t understand that when the sun sets shooting time is over, so they can’t be late.
• You leave feeling more frustrated and burnt out than excited about the work you created.

I have been there! In the early seasons of my business, I used to get so frustrated with these problems. I felt like I was regularly leaving shoots without any images that I was proud of, and that eventually led to a feeling of burn out and resentment toward my clients. But, a few months into this I realized something major: educating our clients is our responsibility as the photographer.

Because our senior clients have most likely not had their portraits professionally taken before, they are, naturally, not going to understand how to prepare for them without your tips and instructions. If I want my clients to consistently show up in photo-ready wardrobe, makeup and hair, I need to teach them how. I came up with a three-step solution to ensure all of my clients are for their senior portrait sessions.

1. Send them a questionnaire before their shoot.

Upon booking and paying their retainer, my senior clients receive a questionnaire that I send through my client management software, HoneyBook. It asks about their style, what types of locations they love, which senior portraits on my blog were their favorite, their extracurriculars, their favorite and least favorite features about themselves, etc. This document helps me understand my clients so that I can help them prepare, but it also helps me get to know them on a personal level so that I can get them excited about their portrait experience. The more excited my clients are, the more likely they are to put effort into preparing for their shoot with me.

2. Make a “Senior Inspiration” Pinterest board.

I love scrolling through Pinterest looking for outfit inspiration as much as the next girl (can I get an Amen?). Why not use it to our advantage? Instead of pinning my favorite outfit ideas to my own “fashion” board, I pin them to a “Seniors: WHAT TO WEAR” board. Then, I send them the link to scroll through so they can get a general idea of what types of things photograph best. Here’s what my board looks like:

3. Create a “Senior Style Guide.”

This option is the most time-intensive, but it’s also the most helpful. After a year or two of receiving the same questions and sending the same emails to my seniors leading up to their shooting date, I decided to streamline this process by creating a multi-page document that contains everything my senior clients need to know before their shoot—things like what to expect on the day, my policy for late clients, what to wear, what to do with their nails, how to do hair and makeup, and local hair and makeup artist recommendations.

Hope Taylor is a senior portrait and wedding photographer/educator based in Fredericksburg, VA.

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