You booked a photoshoot for headshots and portraits, congratulations! You are indeed serious about how you show up online, that’s something.

As you know grooming, attire can make or break a photoshoot, they are important but not sufficient. Learning about mistakes others like you made can give you a distinct advantage. Learning from your own mistakes is going to be expensive and time consuming, learning from others' mistakes is smarter. I read the following on a plaque somewhere:

When you can make new mistakes, why repeat old ones?

Through years of my professional photography, I noticed 4 mistakes my clients made – with discomforting regularity. I wish I could turn the clock back to tell them how to avoid them, but I can’t, that's is turn the clock back. What I can do instead is to tell you and help you avoid them. Here they are...

Mistake No. 1: Not preparing for the shoot – putting too much trust in Photoshop.

Some people turned up totally unprepared – either because someone else asked them to get a headshot real quick (they didn’t have their skin in the game) or because they thought preparation was not necessary.

‘arre! theek hi, yeh koi test thodi na?’

or

‘what are we paying the photographer for? He will do the work, all I need to do is just show up for the shoot‘

or

‘Photoshop hojayega, kuch bhi ho sakta hi Photoshop me aaj kal’.

This approach didn't end well for those clients who thought so. Here are two specific instances I vividly remember:

• A gentleman, (senior partner in a law firm) turned up with 4-day old stubble despite being told to groom 2 days ahead. After I delivered the headshots, his assistant called to ask me if I can photoshop the stubble away? My answer was a 'no!'.

  
  

  Lesson learned: if a client is not prepared, postpone to shoot.

• A lady, (founder of a startup) tried her hand at dying her hair and doing her own makeup, nothing wrong with it but she wasn't adept. Her forehead and ears were stained with the hair dye and she smeared her lipstick over her upper eye lids for eye shade. Foundation (that was two shades too light) was visible even when the photo was zoomed out. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t do much about it without making her skin look airbrushed (which she didn't want). She said nothing – either she internalized that that's how she looked or silently blamed me.

Do you want to go there? I guess not.

Please prepare, ask questions, don’t assume anything.  

You don’t need to look like someone else; you just need to look like yourself, a confident, comfortable self and grooming is the way to get there.

Recall how you felt when you were wearing a nice suit/dress that you look good in. It is the attire that made you feel good, feel confident and happy, right? Psychologists call this feeling 'Enclothed Cognition'.

Researchers noticed that volunteers wearing lab coats and stethoscopes behaved like doctors, even though they weren't doctors. Those who dressed like the police behaved like police and started wielding their batons. (Ref: You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely)

You CANNOT feel confident in a shoot while wearing worn-out, ill-fitting clothes. A piece of attire which has seen the inside of a washing machine two dozen times is fit for donation not for a photoshoot. Put on the best attire you got, groom the best you can as if it is your wedding day, don't slack off or cut corners, put your best foot forward! If you are in doubt as to what can be fixed and what can’t be fixed in Photoshop, please check with me - don’t assume anything.

A photoshoot is an act of self-care, self-love, totally legitimate, totally deserved. Give it all you can.

Mistake No. 2: Not giving enough time for the shoot

It only takes 125th part of a second to take a photo. But obviously that’s not enough time to get you a great headshot. Because many things need to fall in place for that and it takes time to do make sure, they do.

• The setup needs to be done and ready

• You need to look and feel comfortable

• We need to try different looks, different lighting to see what works best

  
  

Hurrying through the shoot is a very bad idea. You are putting the photographer to stress test and setting yourself up for failure – meaning you won’t get the results you were looking for. You need to give it time and be patient.

Please don’t plan anything big on the day of the shoot – that will stress you out.

A gentleman client wanted outdoor headshots for himself and his wife (both practicing chartered accountants). They turned up 1 hour late for the photoshoot carrying 3 suitcases and their 4-year-old son. It was a hot and humid July day and his shirt was drenched in his sweat after one-and-a-half-hour cab ride from Noida – it was a small cab so he had to put a suitcase in his lap the whole journey. He was planning to catch a train to Amritsar after the shoot (from old Delhi station) - that means a 1.5-hour cab ride from Gurgaon ahead of them. They were eager not to miss that train and anxious to get the photoshoot over with. This is the best recipe for ruining a photoshoot and surely that's what they did.

They were understandably tired, stressed, anxious, grumpy, uncomfortable and consequently didn't cooperate with me. The child was upset that he wasn't in the photos. They all resented me for asking them do this and that. I wish I didn't take up that shoot. I blamed myself for not writing a blog post like this, warning them beforehand like I am doing to you now.

Another family has a wedding to attend after the shoot - to which they turned up late after a 3 hour shopping trip which was after a return trip from Agra and just 3 hours of sleep the night before. Everything that could go wrong did. He couldn't stand owing to back pain and we had to hurry through the shoot. He was happy with the photos but I wasn't.

If you need to travel on the day of the shoot, schedule the shoot for some other day or leave a big buffer between the shoot and your travel. If something comes up and as a result you can’t give enough time, I am happy to reschedule the shoot.

Please don’t think of just getting it done quickly - that'd be a disaster in making.

Sometimes there is no option but to get through with it - when that's your situation, accept that you are NOT setting yourself up for best possible outcome; adjust your expectations downwards for I am no magician with a camera.

Mistake No. 3: Bringing along a shoot director

This is not a studio-for-hire or camera-for-hire or cameraman-for-hire scenario. I handle all creative direction and guidance during the shoot. I DO NOT take creative direction from third parties (other than you) while shooting.

You are welcome to bring a friend, spouse, or family member along (no more than one person other than you) if it helps you feel more comfortable during the session. But I can't entertain or accommodate more than 2 people (including you) either inside the studio or outside. It is just not possible because of space constraints.

Mistake No. 4: Not taking my suggestions

I understand you have certain idea how you want your photos to be, share them with me, I am happy to hear your thoughts and ideas.

If you need to make it happen for you, you need to take my suggestions, work with me. In the same manner that you trust a doctor to prescribe you right medicines, you need to trust me to do the right thing for you. I am invested in my work many times more than any of my clients because this is the only thing I do; I do this for a living. Each headshot I produce adds or subtracts from the reputation I painstakingly built.

A few clients thought they knew, they were adamant about certain ways of posing, certain ways of composing my shots and they were not as happy as they could be had they followed my lead.

They thought they knew better about how they look good. They do, in a mirror not in a headshot – now they know.

I hope this helps you get a picture about what NOT to do before and during the photoshoot. If anything is not clear please message me or call me and I am happy to clarify.

See you!