How to look and feel confident at your portrait shoot.
If you’re thinking about having some professional portraits done, whether it’s for your business or LinkedIn, here’s a couple of tips I’ve put together to help you come across more relaxed, comfortable, and confident in your photos.
It starts on the inside.
Of all three tips, this one is the most impactful and important! Your internal dialogue and how you see yourself play a huge part in how you appear in photos. Why?
Because it’s all comes down to body language. Typically, people who suffer from poor self image or who lack confidence in themselves have a signature body language that screams to the world, “Don’t look at me, I’m uncomfortable and unsure of myself !” and this is a subtle caving in/rounding of the shoulders with a slight tuck of the chin, soft pinching of the eyebrows, and a dullness behind the eyes.
Another way that I see negative self talk affecting my clients (especially women) and their images is when it causes them to be hyper-focused on the things they don’t like about themselves. It becomes all they can see and it makes it damn near impossible to create an image they’re happy with because they’re simply not happy with themselves.
So, a few weeks out from your shoot, every day begin speaking kind words to yourself, thanking yourself, complimenting yourself, picking out the things that you love about your body and you’ll find that a subtle and radiant shift will occur in your body language.
Prepare with a vision board.
When I say ‘vision board’ what I really mean is do some research and get an idea of a professional portrait style that you like. (Really, you should do this before you book a photographer as we all have our own style and typically don’t shoot to match someone else) Take note of the way people are posed, the backdrops, what you like or don’t like about it, and save down your favourites. Send these to the photographer to help them better understand what you’re going for. Having a vision board or a few images that you like saved down will help you feel prepared and ready to be in front of the camera which translates into confident and relaxed portraits.
Create ‘you’ time before your shoot.
Having your portraits done can be a bit of a mind game as being in front of the camera can sometimes make us feel vulnerable and trigger our insecurities . . .like “Why is my smile so awkward? ” or “I probably look so lame right now” or “Is my hair doing that weird thing again?”. So, give yourself some extra time before your portrait shoot, whether that’s an hour or even 5 minutes, to draw your energy back into yourself and build yourself up with kind words. During this time you can also review your inspiration images, take a few deep breaths, check you’ve got no food in your teeth ( 😉) and you’ll go into your shoot feeling much more centred, focused, and calm.