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Nate Woodbury invites Emily London Miller, a professional photographer, to tackle the topic of photoshoot preparation. Here’s a refreshing way to offer products and services regardless of any field, as shared by Ms. Miller. Check it out!
Welcome back. We’re here with Emily London Miller. We’re talking about how to prepare for a photo shoot. And I’m real excited to have you in this episode because I recently did a portrait photo shoot with you and I experienced something in the preparation that I’ve never experienced before with any other photographer. So, she is the perfect person to learn about this. So, I’m real excited for my viewers here to kind of see your process. Both because it’ll help help them prepare if they’re going to go for a photo shoot or a video shoot. But I also really like your model of preparation and in creating an experience. So, kind of the subtle undertone of this video is take notes on how you could create your services or your products or offerings in your business and prepare your clients in a similar way to create that experience. Okay, let’s jump in it. Grab your beauty guide there. I didn’t get this upfront. I was kind of in a hurry and I’m like, “Okay, we got to film but…” But as I look through it, a lot of… You talked to me about a lot of these things. So, I mean, you talked about… Ho would you best… How do you want to introduce this to? -Okay. So, this is a basically a conversational resource for me. So, I can have a consultation with my clients and I can go through all the bullet points on in this guide and then send them home with my client. But at the end of the day, it’s about the conversation. So, I’m not going to just just mail these to somebody and like hope for the best, hope that they read it. They probably won’t. But I’m going to be guiding them. So, one of the things that I tell my clients all the time or that I tell mentoring clients who are also photographers is that one of my main jobs is to hold space for my client. Especially because my transformational, you know, what I’m really selling is the transformation. And so, if I want to give that client a transformation, it starts with the early conversations with telling them to set their intentions. You know, how do you want to see yourself versus… You know, and then holding them through the steps. You know, how would you like to be dressed for the to show those sides of yourself. And then once it gets down to (Okay) the immediate preparation before the shoot, this isn’t about checking off all the things on the checklist. They’re like three things that I always tell them are like, “You must do these 3 things.” But everything else in this checklist which is kind of comprehensive is more about giving permission to invest time and love and attention on yourself for just a few weeks before a photo shoot. And so giving them that opportunity to hold… Like I’m holding space for that time and love and attention. So, at the end of the experience, when they look back on the whole process, a lot of my clients even say like, “Oh, it was the getting ready and all that.” And it’s like, “I wasn’t even there when they were getting ready.” But they associated those good feelings with me. So, they walked out with those feelings. So, yeah. -Yeah, I like that. -So, the 3 things that are essential, you must do: Get your nails done and I even made you do this, right? Like to just have it manicured. I usually recommend to my girl clients that they have a neutral nail polish. And then to have your hair color touched up not something that I had you do. And then and obviously, that only applies if they color their hair. And then the other super critical thing is to create the space for 8 hours of sleep the night before the shoot. And I say it that way specifically because I used to get people who are like, “I couldn’t sleep 8 hours. I was so nervous that I wasn’t sleeping that I stayed up all night being nervous that I couldn’t sleep.” And so I said, “You know, it counts. Just closing your eyes in bed with no electronics on. That counts.” So, the space. As long as you had enough time for the 8 hours of sleep where you were just quietly in bed, that’s good enough. -A couple of things that I want to comment on. So, you talked about getting your nails done or having a manicure. Prior to that, I’ve never had a manicure in my life. And I don’t know that I was really intending on it but then I was…. I was getting smoothie, there’s the nail… I’m like, “I’m right here, I might as well… It’s karma or whatever.” So, I went in and I really… As I look at the photos, I don’t… I’ve never even looked at my hands to see if you could even tell. But one thing that you mentioned earlier is kind of the preparation because I had taken that step and suggestions that you’ve given me, I put more priority on the photoshoot itself. Because I’m like, “Okay, I’m preparing for this. I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this. And I’ve done this, this, this and this.” I show up for the photo shoot and so yeah, I’d had a lot of… Even just mental preparation to be there. That’s kind of interesting. -Very cool. It’s like you’re investing in the experience. Even, you know, on your own time. Whether that’s with the money that it took to do the manicure itself or the time, right? -Okay. But I know our viewers are going to want some of the practical step-by-step things. So, one of them what are some of the main things that you suggest people do to prepare? -Alright. So honestly, the first thing that I tell them to do is that they really need to set their appointments with anybody that they’re going to be doing any kind of beauty treatment with. Right? So for women, it’s a little bit different than men. That looks like we’re, you know… Are you going to get your brows done? The timing is kind of important for that kind of stuff, right? If you do it too early then your brows are hairy again. And if you do it too close to the shoot then you might have redness or swelling. So, I do give an outline of timing that basically says the first thing that we take care of can be about 3 weeks ahead of time. That’s where you start drinking lots of water regularly. Start getting really refreshed on your own skincare routine that you know you should be doing or I already do. And to set your intentions for how you’re going to show up for your shoot and make your appointments. Okay? The 3 week mark is where you have your deadlines for your shopping. Especially for shopping online. And where I started asking people to stay out of the Sun. Red skin can be really, really horrible on camera because it kind of makes your hair look green on camera. The camera has to choose which is correct. And so if it’s going to choose your skin as correct then your hair will look green. So, that’s one thing I say. No sunburns, stay out of the sun the 3 weeks before the shoot. And just start stretching but that’s not necessarily the case for every photo shoot. It’s… I do recommend it for my shoots because I do a lot of head back neck and lower lumbar region. Kind of stretching with my shoots so I don’t want my clients to be uncomfortable beforehand. Obviously that’s… It’s more for the self-care aspect of taking the time to stretch for 20 minutes everyday. Okay? One week before the shoot is when we start getting into that’s when you want to have your brows waxed. Maybe your upper lip waxed. Any body hair that you’re going to be removed. Don’t wax yours. With women, depending on how revealing their clothing is. They may want their legs to be waxed or their underarms or it depends on the woman. And then at the one-week mark, I do tell people to cut off spray tans. For me, a lot of people with spray tans will get crud in their knuckles and knees and stuff like that. So, that gives enough time for all that to kind of wipe off or wash off. 3 to 5 days before the shoot. That’s where we talked about getting your hair color refreshed. While you’re there, you might as well get a little trim in your haircut. And you can have your hairstylist do a gloss treatment or you know, a deep conditioning treatment on your hair. Which is going to make it look really fabulous during the shoot, okay? In Utah, it’s really popular to have false or lash extensions. And so, if you already have them, I always tell my clients to make sure to get them refreshed that 3 to 5 days before the shoot. And if they don’t already have them, I usually don’t encourage them to because we used to fake lashes in the studio, okay? The day before the shoot and the photo shoot day probably have the most intensive instructions. And that’s where I, you know, I’m talking to my clients about cleaning your wedding ring and making sure that you have your manicure, your brows are tweezed, you could… You’re going to get a blowout for your hair. And then the morning of the shoot, it’s like I want them to show up with a fresh face. So, clean, moisturized skin. Clean dry hair. We do the styling for them in the studio but if you weren’t going to have a hair makeup artist on set in your own photo shoot then obviously, I would recommend styling your hair completely to the point that you’d like for your photos with maybe a little extra volume. And then to do your makeup. One of the things with makeup. If you’re doing it on your own that I always tell my makeup artist as a rule is to never use shimmer. Because shimmer on camera translates not as well as you might think. Certainly glitter is terrible. But shimmer for anybody who’s over probably 30 is going to emphasize everything that maybe you don’t want emphasized. So, I would say use matte products for your skin. And then… -Quick question: You mentioned jewelry. And I remember I did something. You had me do something… -You can use a toothbrush and toothpaste in cleaning your wedding ring. -Brushed my ring. -And and in fact, like I did last night. I know I was going to be doing the shoot. I took it off, I cleaned it and then I put it in a pouch to bring with me on the day off because the morning of the shoot, you’re also going to be like moisturizing your entire body. Anything that’s going to be visible at least. And so, I didn’t want to put lotion back in my ring. So, I saved it for when I right before we got here. So yeah. Basically, the the key things for the morning of they’ve had they’re sleep, you have a really good breakfast. And that you are going to arrive on time to your photo shoot. Because lighting is a big deal and if your photographer uses natural light, that’s going to be pretty important. -Awesome. So, I hope that’s given you a lot of practical advice on how you could prepare for your photo shoot. Thanks Emily. -Thank you. -So, after watching an episode like this, I’m sure everyone wants to work with you now as a photographer. So, where do they go? -So, I’m at Emilylondonportraits.com or you can find me on instagram at emilylondonportraits. -And you’re going to really love her portfolio. Seeing the work that you’ve done. Pretty amazing. Be sure to subscribe if you’re on YouTube. Or if you’re on LinkedIn, go ahead and follow me because I’m posting out regular videos like this every day.