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John DeMato Blog

Welcome to the Deliver Magic blog, where experts who speak, coach, train, consult, and write books will find actionable insights to elevate their personal brands through visual storytelling. From strategy tips and branding photography to live event coverage and storytelling techniques, discover step-by-step guides designed to help you align what you say with how you show up in photos. Get ready to unlock the magic behind creating a cohesive visual identity that drives engagement, builds credibility, and inspires your audience. #DeliverMagic

A must-"do" during your next photo session

 

One way to eliminate buyer’s remorse after your next lifestyle portrait session?

 
 

Double check what you’re lookin’ like before the photographer hits the shutter button.

 

On more than one occasion, I’ve heard horror stories from clients who had to trash entire photo sessions because they couldn’t stand to look at the photos. 

Now, there are many, MANY reasons why this can happen, but several of these situations involved one thing:

Their hair.

And I get it. 

For most folks, their hair is a big deal to them and they want to present it in a very specific way. It’s why they get their hair done along with their makeup before their sessions. 

But, here’s the thing:

The way the hair looks in the makeup chair before the session is not the same hair by the end of it. 

  • The hold from the spray/gel starts to loosen, which creates more flyaways 

  • The person moves their hair out of their face and runs their hand through it from time to time, which affects the overall shape

  • Changing clothes ruffles it up a bit, too

Long story short, your hair moves and shakes throughout the session. 

And in some cases, the client has no idea what’s going on up there as they’re too busy looking into a camera and not at themselves. 

And what happens next?

They look at the photos, and basically hate everything except the photos taken when the hair was in pristine condition. 

That’s just not gonna work. 

You invested in an entire branded lifestyle portrait session, not just a portion of it, so you need to be able to use the photos taken at any point while you’re in front of the camera.

So what do you do?

As your photographer sets up their next series of shots of you, whether it’s a headshot, wider portrait, or lifestyle portrait, ask for a mirror to be put right in front of you so you can spot check it yourself. 

During my sessions, I keep my phone handy at all times, and the moment we’re about to shoot something different, I get them into the position I want and then open up my phone’s front facing camera and let them have a look. 

I’ve been told, “oh that’s okay, I trust you…”

And yet, I do the phone-as-a-mirror thing, regardless. 

Since I’m not sure of what their hair preferences are - by the way, you all have different preferences - I want them to give the seal of approval BEFORE we start capturing images. 

It’s an extremely simple way to save a lot of headaches and time in post-production, which ultimately delays your ability to use these photos for what they’re intended. 

Keep this in mind the next time you’re gearing up for a branded lifestyle portrait session. Bring it up during the pre-session strategy call to prep the photographer in case they don’t already have this as part of their sessions. 

It’s better to know what you’re getting rather than be horrified looking at the results afterwards… 

…and resentful knowing that you now need to do another shoot to replace all the bad hair shots.