Urban dancing

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This woman was a contemporary dancer and wanted some photos for her portfolio. We therefore did this photoshoot in two parts.

In the first half we created a range of static portraits that we wanted to look quite dark, urban and cool against a modern set of backgrounds. Then, during the second half of the photoshoot, we created lots of action dance shots in this urban location.

  • urban portrait of a woman
  • dancer in an underpass

Should you have an indoor or an outdoor photoshoot?

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couple together in the park

Introduction

This is a tricky question to answer, as there are so many choices of location where you might have your photoshoot:

  • outdoors, in a natural rural location,
  • outdoors, in an artificial urban setting,
  • indoors, in your home,
  • indoors, in a studio,
  • or indoors in some other venue.

There’s no ‘right answer’ to this question, as so much of it depends on ‘the look’ you’re after, the rooms in which you want to display the photos, as well as your personal preference.

But here are some of the things you might want to consider to help you answer that question…

Your preference

  • do you already have a strong preference, but some other reason is making you doubt taking that option?
  • if so, we’d suggest going with your gut instinct and taking your preferred option – a great photoshoot is so much more about how comfortable you feel than the location you choose.

black and white portrait of a womanWeather

  • this is always a big question – and ‘sunshine’ isn’t always the best answer,
  • the big ‘weather’ consideration is “will you be comfortable for the duration of the photoshoot?”
    you’ll no doubt be thinking ‘rain’ and ‘cold’ are the biggest issues – you’d be right, they definitely are,
  • however, you’ll be just as uncomfortable wearing makeup on a ‘melting’ hot July day while squinting in the bright sunshine,
  • none of these issues are things we can’t solve with shelter or shade, depending on the weather, but if you’re after an outdoor photoshoot, these are the things we should chat about beforehand.

Who is taking part

  • restless young children – if it’s not cold or wet, and they’re mobile, then rural outdoor locations work best, so they also have the chance to run off some energy,
  • families where the children don’t get tired from spending an hour on their feet – outdoors works well (but indoors at home, or in the studio, can also be just as good),
  • elderly people, or those who are less mobile – at home or in a studio are best, to avoid the standing around that’s inevitable at an outdoor location.

Time of day

The one thing we need for great photos is beautiful light for your lovely faces. This becomes much more of an issue outdoors, so we’ve created two more detailed posts to help you work out:

Style

You probably already have a good idea of what style you’d like – a lot of this will depend on where you want to display your artwork, but it might be one or more of these:

  • portrait of a woman on a japanese bridgea contemporary white background – this is best done indoors at home, or in a studio,
  • darker black background – this is also best done indoors at home, or in a studio,
  • natural green backgrounds – outdoor, rural locations,
  • urban backgrounds – ideally outdoors,
  • super informal style – either indoors at home, or outdoors at a rural location. 

More information

Alternatively, we’ve got some more location advice that you might find useful:

Otherwise you might find our urban gallery, our rural gallery, or our indoor gallery useful to see the types of photos we’ve created in these locations.

 

Should I bring along any accessories?

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Of course!

Accessories are great, as they show off your personality and what you’re interested in. These can be the more conventional accessories that you’d wear, such as earrings, necklaces, hats and shawls, to more adventurous accessories related to your interests.

Sunglasses:

Regardless of the season, sunglasses can add that extra touch of variety. It gives you something to play with in some of your photos. Of course, they’ll also make you look extra cool.

  • sunglasses at an urban photoshoot of a woman
  • woman in yellow wearing purple sunglasses
  • summer sunglasses in the park
  • informal urban portrait of a woman in blue
  • woman in red wearing blue sunglasses

Hats:

We LOVE it when people wear hats – they look fantastic, as they add great variety to your photos and are really eye-catching.

  • woman wearing an elegant wide brimmed hat
  • woman wearing a stylish cap
  • laughing woman wearing a straw hat
  • woman wearing a stylish burgundy hat
  • woman wearing a large stylish black hat
  • woman with blue lipstick and a black cap

Jewellery:

Feel free to wear as much jewellery as you’d like – we’ve more tips about jewllery in our Advice for women on what to wear.

  • woman wearing a large necklace
  • lovely earrings in the summer
  • man wearing colourful necklaces
  • urban female photoshoot
  • woman in red wearing a long gold necklace
  • woman wearing a tiara

Other accessories:

  • clothing – shawls and scarves can be great, as you can wear them in different ways – you can also wave them around (sounds strange, but it looks great),
  • interests – accessories don’t just need to be the things you wear – they can also be objects that define your interests. In the past we’ve worked with people who’ve brought along skateboards and guitars as accessories that were important to them,
  • props – such as umbrellas, toys.

More information

Dancing in the streets

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In this photoshoot this lady was a singer who wanted to create a portfolio of photos that she would use over the coming months to promote herself across her website and social media accounts. We used this particular location because the dark backgrounds really let her outfits show off and become the centre of attention.

  • woman wearing a yellow coat leaning against a black door
  • woman dancing in an orange dress
  • woman in an orange dress and yellow coat

Spring blossom in the park

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If you time things right, and are lucky with the weather, springtime brings blossom on the trees, which looks like a confetti-covered backdrop. The pinks of the blossom work well against the red tones in this woman’s coat. And isn’t that hat fabulous?! If you’ve got a hat and love wearing it, whatever the type, do bring it along. 

  • photo of a woman in the cherry blossom
  • woman in a large straw hat

Earliest start times for an outdoor photoshoot

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MONTH SUNRISE FAMILY PETS ADULTS
Jan 7.45-8am 8.45am 8.45am 8.45am
Feb 6.45-7.45am 8.30am 8.30am 8.30am
Mar 6.30-6.45am 7.30am 7.30am 7.30am
Apr 5.30-6.30am 7.30am 7.30am 7.15am
May 5-5.30am 7.30am 6.15am 6.15am
Jun 5am 7.30am 6am 6am
Jul 5-5.30am 7.30am 6.15am 6.15am
Aug 5.30-6.15am 7.30am 6.30am 7am
Sep 6.15-7am 7.45am 7.30am 7.45am
Oct (BST) 7-7.45am 8.30am 8.15am 8.30am
Oct (GMT) 6.45am 7.30am 7.30am 7.30am
Nov 6.45-7.45am 8.30am 8.30am 8.30am
Dec 7.45-8am 8.45am 8.45am 8.45am
Earliest start times for outdoor photoshoots

Standard photoshoots

  • you might think we’re mad, suggesting an early morning photoshoot, however these can be lovely moments in the day for two reasons:  the scenery and weather can be simply stunning – but also, the early start means there are less people about to watch you during your photoshoot,
  • we have professional mobile studio lighting that we can bring to any location, indoors or outdoors, which will make you look fabulous wherever you are, however, there’s only so much that artificial lighting can do,
  • if you’re after an outdoor photoshoot, and you don’t mind having dark backgrounds, then you can choose any time of day for your photoshoot,
  • however, if you want an outdoor photoshoot with lighter, naturally-lit backgrounds, like most people do, then we’ll need to make sure there’s sufficient light before we start an early morning photoshoot, usually no earlier than 30-45 minutes after sunrise,
  • for example, in April and late August the sun rises around 6-6.30am in the south of the UK, so we would aim to start a photoshoot no earlier than around 7.15am,
  • whereas in late June the sun rises around 5am in the UK so we could start earlier, but not before 6am – though we’re not realistically expecting you’d want to be up that early in the morning! (but if you are, that’s great – you’ll get some gorgeous summery photos with some beautiful morning light),
  • the table on the right shows the earliest start times for outdoor photoshoots, with different times for families, pets and adults.

Sunrise photoshoots

  • for photoshoots where you want to see the sunrise, these must start a lot earlier – often 30 minutes before the actual sunrise,
  • however, if the area is surrounded by trees or tall buildings, these times can vary.

More information

A mix of bright and dark photos

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On this summer’s day the backgrounds in the park were a beautiful vibrant green, which worked really well against the blues of this woman’s outfit. With our professional mobile studio we’re able to make a dark day look like a light one, as well as transform a light summer’s day into a much darker and more moody look. All of these portraits were created on a bright sunny afternoon, in the same place in the park. 

  • photo of a woman in the park
  • dark daytime female portrait
  • photoshoot of a woman wearing navy in the park

A girl wearing a red dress in a field of yellow flowers

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During the summer months these fields of yellow rapeseed look fabulous, so for this family photoshoot we suggested a red dress would be a great colour to contrast against the field of bright yellow. Not only does it look great, but we had a lot of fun throughout this photoshoot.

  • girl in a red dress in a field of yellow flowers
  • a red dress in a field of yellow flowers

What you can’t see, however, is the small stepladder that we used to get to a higher position than this young girl who was waist-high in the bright yellow flowers, which really made a difference.

A young girl walking through a cornfield

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This style of photoshoot was one of our Experience Photoshoots, where we work with a family for a longer period of time. These photoshoots work best in outdoor locations. During one of these Experience Photoshoots we try to blend into the background to capture the very real memories that happen as the family experiences part of their everyday life.

  • young girl wallking through a cornfield
  • young girl picking a piece of corn
  • young girl wallking through a cornfield in a green dress

For this photoshoot we went for a walk together in a lovely green nearby cornfield. Although we will do some posed photos, many of the photos from this type of photoshoot are more likely to be candid, informal photos where the family aren’t looking onto the camera.

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