We are so excited for your engagement session!
To help you make the most of your session, we thought we would pass along some tips that we've learned along the way.
These come from a LOT of experience, so please keep them in mind during your planning!
Outfit
1. Dress it Up: We officially give you permission to look HOT! Dress up and wear that fabulous black dress you've always wanted to take out on the town. We love cocktail dresses, refined suits, great heels, and tailored outfits.
Black is always a great option for photos - it's slimming, polished, and elegant.For a lighter feel, neutral grays and tans look wonderful as well as light pastels like blue and sage (pick colors that work well with your skin, hair, & eyes). Nothing is too dressy for photos, even if we're shooting in the middle of nowhere - a classy dress and a tailored suit look great anywhere we go!
2. Keep it Simple: For ladies - pick a great solid colored dress, add a fun accessory like a chunky necklace or stylish earrings, then pair with some great heels.
For gentlemen - choose a suit that is tailored to fit you well (or a nice pair of dark jeans - my fav) and pair with a collared shirt or tee in your favorite color and add a watch, a pair of shoes.
3. Get it Tailored: Pick outfits that fit and flatter your figure. Show off your best features (legs, arms, shoulders, abs, curves, etc.) and make sure that any dresses, jackets, slacks, or collared shirts have been tailored to fit both of you well. The better your clothes fit, the more gorgeous you'll look!
Also, make sure to have your clothes dry cleaned and pressed to avoid wrinkles.
4. We recommend one outfit for most of our shoots so we can spend our time getting great photos! If you would like to wear an additional outfit, it will have an impact on the amount of time that we can spend shooting, so narrow things down as much as you can! Make sure it’s something that can be quickly changed into at our chosen location
(think back seat of a car…)
Makeup
1. Hold a run-through with your makeup artist. This is the perfect opportunity to get to know your artist for the wedding day and hold a mini practice session. They will know exactly how to prep your skin and eyes for natural light photography. If you need recommendations for makeup artists in your area, let us know, and we'll help you out!
2. Have your hair blown out or styled for the session. Avoid fly-aways with a good shine serum and bring along a brush for mid-shoot touch-ups.
3. If you'd like to do your makeup, pay attention to your eyes! Eyeliner and good mascara are a must! Take extra care on your mascara and really separate your lashes. Your eyes will be the most important factor in many of your images, so spend extra time making them look beautiful! Wear more makeup than usual, use a good blush, and set your foundation with a loose powder. MAC and bareMinerals are great brands. Also, natural color tones (browns, tans, pinks) end to look flattering on most skin tones.
4. DO NOT GET A SPRAY TAN OR FAKE TAN OF ANY KIND.
Spray tans and fake tans use an orange/bronze base that may look great to the eye but immediately shows up as a
funky yellow/orange in the post-processing of your images - particularly in your arms and neck.
I know this sounds weird, but natural skin looks the absolute best in photographs (yes, even on legs) because it interacts with natural light perfectly.
If you have naturally tan, dark, or bronze skin, it will look fabulous as well because it's your natural skin tone.Besides, who wants to risk a patchy spray tan for your photos? So keep it natural! You'll thank me :)
Day of /during /after your shoot
1. Go to the restroom right before you leave. Many places that we shoot do not have accessible restrooms nearby, and we want to be sure to maximize the shooting time we have together.
2. Have fun! We’ll take care of making you look fantastic, so don’t worry about a thing.
We’ll give you plenty of direction, so the only thing you need to do for us is be madly in love!
3. The Couples session is normally 2 hours but I have been known to go over ( Don't tell the Mrs.)
4. You will receive an email from me around the 4 - 6 week mark. I will try to get them out sooner if the schedules allows as I love seeing and hearing tears from my couples ( can you hear tears ? )
Let us know if you have any questions, and we’ll see you soon!
FYI - here is my contact info again -
Chad Pennington
Sobitart Photography
201-282-1356
chad@sobitartphotography.com