Your Senior Portrait Prep Guide
Your senior portrait day is almost here!! Whether you’ve been planning your outfits for months or you’re pulling together the final details now, this guide has everything you need to show up feeling prepared, confident, and ready to have the best time.
And before we get into it: you do NOT need to know how to pose. That’s my job. I’ll guide you through everything from what to do with your hands to where to look, how to move, and all the little details in between.
Your job? Show up and enjoy it. 🤍
THE NIGHT BEFORE
A little prep tonight makes tomorrow SO much easier.
☐ Try on every outfit from head to toe.
That means the actual shoes, jewelry, accessories, and undergarments you plan to wear with it. Make sure everything fits, feels good, and looks the way you pictured it.
☐ Steam or iron your outfits.
Trust me on this one — wrinkles definitely show in photos!
☐ Keep each outfit together.
Hang everything together and pair it with the accessories and shoes you plan to wear. This makes outfit changes much quicker during your session.
☐ Keep skincare simple.
Stick with the products you already know and love. The night before senior portraits is NOT the time for a random TikTok skincare experiment.
☐ Drink your water + get some sleep.
Tomorrow is going to be fun, but we may be walking, changing outfits, and shooting for a while. Come rested!
BEAUTY + TOUCH-UPS
You don’t need to bring your entire bathroom cabinet, but a little touch-up bag is always a good idea.
Consider bringing:
☐ Lip color or gloss
☐ Powder
☐ Brush or comb
☐ Hairspray
☐ Bobby pins
☐ Any makeup you may want for touch-ups
☐ A small mirror
And give yourself more time than you think you need to get ready. Rushing right before your session is no fun, so build in a little breathing room.
ACCESSORIES = OPTIONS
Accessories can completely change the feel of an outfit without requiring a whole new look.
Bring any jewelry, jackets, sunglasses, fun shoes, hats, or other pieces you might want to use.
If you’re debating whether to bring something, bring it!
We don’t have to use everything. I’d much rather have options and decide together than have you wishing halfway through the session that you’d brought something.
COMFY SHOES ARE YOUR FRIEND
Even if every outfit involves heels, boots, or cute shoes, bring a pair of slides, sandals, or sneakers.
We may walk between locations or wander around looking for the perfect light, and there is absolutely no reason to do all of that in heels.
You can switch into your photo shoes when we’re ready to shoot.
THROW THESE IN THE CAR
A few practical things can make a big difference, especially for outdoor sessions:
☐ Your preferred mosquito spray
☐ Sunscreen
☐ Water bottle
☐ Snacks
☐ Comfy shoes
☐ Touch-up bag
☐ All outfit accessories
And please eat before your session! Modeling requires fuel.
For locations where we don’t have an easy place to change, I’ll have my pop-up changing tent with us, so outfit changes are one less thing you need to worry about.
MOM, THIS PART IS FOR YOU 🤍
You have two very important jobs:
Official hype girl + detail checker.
During the session, an extra set of eyes is always helpful for catching things like:
☐ Flyaway hairs
☐ Twisted necklaces
☐ Clothing that needs adjusting
☐ A strap or tag trying to make an appearance
☐ Keeping track of accessories between outfits
But your other job is even more important: soak it in.
Senior year moves ridiculously fast. Watching your girl step in front of the camera, laugh, gain confidence, and celebrate this season of her life is part of the experience too.
ONE LAST THING… 📸
Please don’t worry about whether you’re “photogenic” or whether you know what to do in front of a camera.
You don’t need to.
I’ll guide you through the posing, movement, expressions, and little adjustments that make everything look natural. We’ll move around, laugh a lot, and probably change things up as we go depending on the location and light.
The goal isn’t for you to show up knowing how to model.
The goal is for your portraits to actually feel like YOU.
So bring your outfits, your accessories, your favorite people, and come ready to have fun.
And be prepared to hear me say “so cute” way more times than I can count.
I can’t wait for your senior portrait day!! ✨
