Five Things To Bring To Your Senior Portrait Session

Preparing For Senior Portraits: Five Things to Bring to Your Senior Portrait Session

Senior portraits should be a fun way to celebrate an important milestone in a young person’s life. What better way to celebrate this than taking portraits :)? Although this is a REALLY important and fun time, it may also be one of the first time that you or your child have taken professional portraits. Being prepared will ensure that you or your child is confident and eager to have their portraits taken. Here are five things to bring to your senior portrait session to make sure you feel prepared and confident!

1. A Parent, Family Member, or Friend

things to bring to your senior portraits

One of the best things I recommend bringing to the session is a parent, family member, or a friend. Having someone you are close with will ensure that you feel comfortable. But they also can play a REALLY important role. For example, they can make sure that your hair, makeup and outfit are in order. They can also help carry any extra outfits or props. But perhaps most important, I like to use them to get natural reactions 🙂 For most of the portraits I shoot, I like to ask questions and keep the poses and the session conversational. For example, I might ask your parent to tell me something about you. This will get a reaction out of you that I may not otherwise be able to get by just putting you into a pose and having you smile 😉 Candid and conversational poses are some of my favorite poses to keep things fun and light.

2. Comfortable Shoes To Walk In

Another one of the most important things to bring to your senior portrait session is a comfortable pair of shoes to walk in. This is especially the case if you plan on wearing heels. Depending on the location, there might be a little walking involved. Having a pair of shoes you can quickly change into, when you are not posing, will make sure you are comfortable throughout the session.

3. Something You Love Doing

Number three on the list of important things to bring to your senior portrait session is something you LOVE doing. This can be something related to an extracurricular activity you do. For example, an instrument, something sports related, or even books – if you enjoy reading. Using these items in some of the pictures can help tell a story about this time in your life.

4. A Change of Clothes

Most senior portraits involve pictures in a casual outfit and pictures in more formal attire. However, this does not have to be the case. Whatever works best for the types of pictures you want to capture 😉 If you do plan on changing outfits, make sure to mention this to your Photographer before the session. Some locations do not have dedicated restrooms and changing to a second outfit may be difficult. By letting your Photographer know that you plan on changing, they can plan on starting the session at a specific place that makes it easy to change halfway through the session 😉

5. Cap & Gown – If You Have One

The final of the five things to bring to your senior portrait session is a cap & gown. Depending on when you take your senior portraits, this may be something that is provided to you by your school. If this is not the case, you may need to look into ordering your cap & gown several weeks before your senior portrait session.

Hopefully these five tips have given you ideas for your own senior portraits. Thanks!