Dose 1. Timing is everything, take many shots with your camera.

Know what audience you want to reach first.

I had a professor once in college mention
that it is important to know WHO you want to talk to first
before you start contacting the world.
And DRESS for success and first impressions
on the first date, so to speak.
In other words, LOOK GREAT on the first meeting!
That first meeting could be an ONLINE EXECUTIVE PORTRAIT,
or on a business card, or on other print media or press releases.
In my humble opinion in MOST cases you will want to look your BEST!
LOOK your best and ACT your best on day 1!

You can do it!

There are obviously or not obviously a variety of poses or not so posed types of portraits. The key is a certain dialog and interaction that the photographer draws out of the subject that creates a GREAT photograph of YOU!
This dialog is VERY important!
Why? Having a conversation gets the ball rolling and establishes some RAPPORT between the photographer and the subject. Without RAPPORT with the subject it's really called a SNAPSHOT. SNAPSHOTS are popular because of the BILLION dollar market with new POINT and SHOOT cameras vs DSLR fully manual digital cameras.
SOMETIMES a snapshot can produce a great CANDID.
Sometimes NOT.
A professional photographer ought to be able to PREDICT
in a certain time period of 15 minutes - some less and some more - the time it will take to make the client feel comfortable, develop rapport and create ANY pose, candid, or portrait.
An amateur photographer may not take the time to develop rapport, BUT know the subject really well and POOF, the photograph is AWESOME!

BOTTOM LINE: Timing is everything!

BOTTOM LINE: Whether you're a pro or an amateur,
you CAN get great poses or not so posed images
for business headshots and YOUR IMAGE.

Don't be afraid to take EXTRA shots.
Digital cameras are awesome!
I took 294 images in a 15 minutes time period.
Client could not believe I took that many when I went over the shots on the viewing screen!!
I had another professor say, SHOOT a lot!
Why not???? You want that 1 GREAT SHOT! NO?????
5-10 quick shots in a row, mainly for BLINKING,
headbobs, and expression changes and created 5 posed and non posed images yesterday for a family portrait with 2 cats and their owners.
It was sooooo cute. They call their cats their daughters.
It was a nice family shoot.

Dose 2. Backup plans and Batteries/Rechargables/CDROM/Hard drive failure/etc

HAVING backup B A T T E R I E S.

Can't always rely on electric for ALL your power needs.

You know how many couples argued at the 100 foot xmas tree in Delray Beach over something dumb like drained batteries and they MISSED their family or kids snapshot on Santas lap and they HAD to pay for mine???

Some got mine and their snapshot.

Others just took their own.

Yes, we're one of the few areas that ALLOW people to use their own digital camera and not force them to buy a Santa picture.

Very cool, huh?

Dont worry...I did over 650 already in less then 10 days.

So...

Back to batteries...

I use RECHARGEABLE batteries.

Got mine in walmart.

Have more than one charger.

Do 4 AA at one time.

A lot of flashes and some cameras use AA.

Some use AAA.

Regardless of what batteries you need,

a good professional photographer ALWAYS has backup batteries.

Back up everything.

Lenses, second camera body, lenses, etc.

Stuff happens.

Being prepared can save the day and make you look TEN times more professional.

Happy holidays.

Ready for the holidays?

Ready set, CHARGE!!!!
(those batteries)

Dose 3. Be prepared when your portrait subject should
not smile/Missing tooth/etc.

To smile or not to smile. That is the question.
Is that what Shakespeare really said???

Yup!
I hereby dedicate this post to the LAST WEDNESDAY of 07!
Happy NEW YEAR!

And the topic is about the following important stuff:

tips from an expert on how to capture the RIGHT image.

Most of the time I do prefer a nice warm smile and captured just right the expression just glows from a young child to a person in their late 100's :) or just someone in between; They could be playing a sport or just posing in a studio for me.

But, there are times when a smile is just not possible and our job as photographers pros or amateurs is to make the subject feel comfortable and also look there best.
MOST people are not models so out job of photographers
are to CHOOSE the right lighting first, then the right background then the right subject matter or props and clothing.

Sometimes I test a person BEFORE the shoot on the same day or a different day to see what their smile would look like.
I found out the hard way when I said, "SMILE!" to a former hockey player. Well, anyone who knows hockey knows that hockey players teeth take a beating. BUT, needless to say, after saying TEETH, or BIG SMILE or say cheese, and MOST people in front of the camera DO smile when you tell them to, you find out what the real story is as it unfolds right in front of you.

That PRE shoot is like pre heating the oven or PRE paring for anything. Getting ready before you have to be ready.
Like studying for a test. So, anyway, NOW we are all ready for the shoot and we NOW KNOW if we have work around
on shoot day with a extra ordinary situation.

So, BOTTOM LINE:
My last wednesday of 07 image tip:
Determine BEFOREhand IF you want to have a warm smile or something else. Everyone is different in front of the camera. Perhaps a young child got hit with a baseball playing really hard or slid into homeplate and cracked a tooth. Sure some of us have already been there, no?
DECIDE: SMILE or no smile. Lighting one way or another.
Background or different background. etc.

I should add that for MODELS you can have flat even lighting and they look good ALL the time, but the challenge is to make regular everyday folks look great in from of the lens.
Making people like flattering when they are not.
:)
Stay tuned til next years tip in image and professionalism.

Dose 4. Prepare WHAT kind of clothing/backdrop you will wear to
your portrait shoot.

[Dose 4] Prepare WHAT kind of clothing you will wear to
your portrait shoot. Solid colors are probably best unless your a particular
designer or artist for clothes or other artwork. Most business portraits can look natural, just that there are some things to prepare BEFORE we get to the
shoot before we go for that natural warm glowing smile.
One of those things to do is paying attention to how we dress. Sometimes we might match the background or at least DO NOT clash the background.
So, neutral dark colors may work best.
ALL the attention you do want on YOUR FACE, not your
loud colorful outfit.
RED though is a power color and having a touch of red for business I think is always a great idea. NO patterns and NO stripes.
Mostly a no no a lot of the time.
I know there is another expert in the audience on image consulting and I look forward to her feedback here too. See ya next wednesday coming up for the 5th dose on creating your image.

Dose 5. Makeup to wear for guys and gals during the shoot can cut down on the amount of photoshop time or retouch time the photographer might have to spend onthe computer. Maybe you can consider the extra cost to make that first impression and have a pro handle your makeup unless you are familar with how to make your features on your face look the very best. I would like to hear a ladies perspective on makeup as well.