2 Tips to Keep in Mind When Selecting a Photo Shoot Location

Meet Zoe.

Dr. Zoe is an accomplished doctor who specializes in plastic surgery who was in need of a variety of images to represent her professional brand as she opened her own practice. Specifically, for her new website and online profile photos.

THE PHOTO SHOOT PROCESS

During our discovery period, Dr. Zoe shared how she envisioned her photos having desert scenes, green backdrops with cactus, and other outdoor textures.

When helping clients find their best location for a headshot session, it's important to think about the location as a whole.

1. The time of day you shoot

It's important to consider all variables surrounding the time of day you plan to shoot.

Everything from the lighting, weather conditions, and traffic of people or vehicles will affect your images.

When Dr Zoe and I shot, it was the middle of the summer here in Arizona, which meant 100+ degree temps by 9 am. Not only was my goal to try to prevent blown-out backgrounds, but I also wanted to avoid sweating.

With all this in mind, we scheduled her hair and makeup first thing in the morning and met shortly after the sun had started melting everything.

2. Ovoid Distracting Backgrounds

It's amazing how many times we see distracting elements in images that completely ruin the impact of an image. Distractions like:

People walking by
Power lines
Limbs of plants growing out of your subject's head
Garbage cans
Vehicles driving past
Irrelevant storefront signs
Bad window reflections.

All these distractions are easily avoided if you take a moment to evaluate the full scene of your image.

In my experience, I have never had a client get upset with me as I've paused to allow a couple behind us to walk by or had them take 2 steps to the right because the cactus limb was growing out of their head.