My Go-To Tricks of Helping People Feel Comfortable

Have you ever dreaded your pictures being taken because you feel SO awkward and uncomfortable in front of a camera? SAME!!!

So what do you do then?

A-BRING MUSIC!!!!! This has saved SO many of my session. I have a Boom speaker I bring to almost every session to help lighten the mood, set the mood, and just loosen everyone up. It works like a charm. My sessions never are as good without my speaker. I also have playlists for couples sessions vs young families vs seniors so that way it's easy to just click on one and have a lot of options to choose from in the same genre!

B-Talk to your clients beforehand. Make sure they understand what you're providing (posing, X amount of edited pictures, etc;) and try to get to know their personality and what they are or are not comfortable with. Build up their confidence in you.

C-If you aren't as experienced, have poses planned beforehand and on-hand so you can show them if they aren't understanding how they're wanting you to pose them. Try to use poses that encapsulate their personalities. If they're light-hearted and goofy then do the fun cheesy poses with them to bring out some laughter. If they're passionate and more serious then try out some of your more serious and intimate poses.

D-If you sense they aren't confident the pictures aren't looking good, show them a couple great ones you've got in between posing! Sometimes it's hard as photographers because we know the pictures will look a million times better once we edit them. But showing clients usually helps them have a better idea of how they're looking or what they're seeing they want changed and if you're doing a great job it'll build their confidence in how they're posing, how the session is going, and in you as their photographer.

Let me know if these helped any of you!