Today’s post is from a reader and featured photographer, Maya Laurent of Such Great Heights Seniors.  She shares her thoughts on making your client feel confident, look confident and experience a senior photo shoot that they will remember.  And she gives you the steps that have helped her build confidence in both her clients and in herself as the photographer!

Do you remember what it felt like to be a high school senior? For most seniors it is a fresh mix of anticipation, nervousness and confidence boosts and drops. As senior photographers we add to their senior experience. We can either be a time that they remember or be lost in the memory bank because we didn’t leave a lasting impression on them. I personally prefer the first option!

My number one goal in each senior session is to make my subject feel confident. Yes, it’s important to get the photos that will sell and the creative photos that the seniors love, but in my opinion, I want them to leave the session with a bit more bounce in their step and a big, confident smile. The majority of the girls I photograph (and the occasional guys) lack some kind of confidence, even the ones that try to pretend they have it all together. Again, you remember being a teenager and I’m sure you remember that feeling of being self-conscious of so much as you compared yourself to others. It’s ingrained in all of us and comes out in fullness as a teenager.

We have such an amazing opportunity as photographers to give these teenagers at least a couple of hours that they feel on cloud nine about how they look and feel. Building up their confidence doesn’t just happen automatically, it takes some work. Here are some of the ways that you can get to know your clients and help take their confidence to a new level during their session.

Get To Know Them Before

I ask all of my clients to fill out a questionnaire before their client consultation with me. I have a wide range of questions to get to know them and gather their information. This gives me great topics to chat about during the session and helps me identify some confidence boosters. A couple questions that help me with this are:

-How would you describe your fashion style? The answer to this question helps me direct the location of their session and to help guide them on what type of clothes/accessories/props to bring. The more they feel comfortable, the more confidence will come out.

-Your favorite magazine wants to do a full feature on you. How do you picture the look and feel of your photos? I love the answers to this question! Some are a simple answer such as “colorful” and others go into detail about an exact setting, what they are wearing, etc. This information is like gold and if I can somehow recreate even a simple part of what they have envisioned, I know they will love the experience.

Client Consultation: Wear Your Confidence

I meet with all of my clients before their session, anywhere from a month to a week before their scheduled time. This is a great time to chat with the senior and their parent to get to know them as well as give them tips that will help with their confidence level. These meetings help the senior feel more comfortable with me so they aren’t nervous meeting me for the first time at their session. We talk about the outfits they are thinking about and some seniors will even bring a pile of clothes for us to choose. I stress over and over that the senior should pick only the outfits they feel confident wearing. It should be the outfits that they look in the mirror and say “I look good in this.” If they only kind of a like an outfit, they will only kind of like a photo of themselves in it. I also tell them to pick their least favorite outfit out of the group and wear it first. No matter how many times I have met the senior, the first 10-15 minutes of the session are still a bit of them getting used to being in front of the camera. If they are wearing their all-time favorite outfit during this time, that’s no good. They feel more natural as the session goes on so I try to help them select their outfits in the order that I know their confidence will start to unearth.

Ask: What Don’t You Like

It might seem strange to ask someone “What don’t you like about yourself when you have your photo taken?” but it helps clear up anything they might be feeling self-conscious about. I learned this from having my own photos taken, and the photographer asked me and my husband this as the session started. I immediately felt at ease knowing she would be watching out for my “problem” areas. After the senior shares their thing they don’t like (if they have one), I reassure them I’ll be watching out for it the whole session and they don’t have to worry.

Find The Beauty

When you first meet with your client, start to study them. Figure out what makes them unique. For some girls, it’s their eyes, the cute way their nose curls when they smile or their unique hairstyle. This can be harder as a woman photographing senior guys, but I still look for something in them. A lot of times I will think of a famous person that they look similar to (and I know the girls like) and telling them this during the beginning of the session. It builds their confidence immediately. I’ve seen guys go from slouching to shoulders back and a natural smile from just hearing this. As I photograph senior girls, I am constantly complimenting them on the unique features they have, the way they are moving so naturally or the way they put together such a fun outfit. I never stop talking. Silence offers a time for nervousness and I don’t want that in a session. The part I love about this is I’m not making the compliments up, I truly see these amazing things in the seniors and want them to be aware of how they have been beautifully created.

Stop if They Need to Talk

Sometimes a senior is having a rough day and they just need to talk. I recently asked a senior how applying to colleges was going and I saw tears well up in her eyes. I put my cameras to the side, stepped in close to her and told her to tell me about it. She just was stressed and needed to talk about it. It took only ten minutes of the session to let her vent and me to reassure her, and then she blossomed into a total different girl in front of the camera.

Keep the Confidence After The Shoot

I edit all of my photos before a senior sees them. I know there are all sorts of different methods of showing photos to clients but to me, I want them to see their best images with them looking the best. I outsource my editing and the company has tailored the editing to my look with a natural edit, cleaning up blemishes that might make a senior feel less confident. I tell the seniors ahead of time to not worry about a major zit that shows up, we can take care of that and make them look like they are having an awesome skin day. They should see their final photos and feel that surge of confidence again.

Once you start to work some of these items into your workflow and sessions it just becomes natural. You never know what a small confidence boost will do for the senior you’re photographing.