Ten Days Before Your Shoot: The Preparation Checklist

Preparation is the part of a session nobody photographs, and the part that decides how the photographs look. This is the list we send after the vision call. Print it, or keep it on your phone next to the mood board.

Ten days out

• Confirm the plan. Re-read the mood board: palette, settings, the three looks. If anything feels wrong, say so now, while there is time to change it.
• Book hair. A trim or color appointment ten to seven days out gives hair time to settle. Avoid a drastic cut; the images should look like you for the next two years.
• Try everything on. All three looks, with the shoes, in daylight, in front of a full-length mirror. Photograph yourself on your phone; the camera sees differently from the mirror. Anything that pulls, gaps or creases goes to the tailor this week or back in the closet.
• Decide on hair and makeup. For the authority look we recommend a professional. ID STUDIO has a private changing room and a dedicated makeup area, so the artist can work on site.

Seven days out

• Skin. Nothing new. No new products, no facial, no peel, no treatment you have not had before. A reaction has nowhere to hide.
• Nails. Neutral and clean for everyone. Hands appear in more frames than people expect.
• Props and objects. If your work involves things (a camera, a notebook, a product, a book), choose the two or three that mean something and bring them. Leave the rest.
• Sleep. Start protecting it now. Retouching can soften shadows under the eyes; it cannot replace a week of rest.

Three days out

• Dry-clean or steam all three looks and hang them in a garment bag, shoes in a separate bag.
• Pack the kit: a lint roller, a backup top in the same palette, an undershirt that will not show, safety pins, blister pads, a hair brush, your own foundation and lip color for touch-ups, and the glasses you actually wear.
• Water. Hydration shows in skin within a couple of days, not a couple of hours.
• Confirm the address and timing. Studio sessions are at 23382 Madero, Unit K, Mission Viejo. Allow time to park and arrive calm.

The night before

• Steam again if anything has creased in the bag.
• Charge your phone; you will want the mood board and a camera for your own behind-the-scenes.
• Eat properly and stop the alcohol. Puffiness is the one thing that does not retouch gracefully.
• Lay out the first look so the morning starts without decisions.
• Sleep early. This is the single highest-value item on the list.

The morning of

• A normal breakfast; nervous and hungry is a bad combination on set.
• Moisturize, and keep makeup light if an artist is meeting you at the studio.
• Arrive in the first look, or in something easy to change out of, with the rest on hangers.
• Bring the mood board and your three words.

On set

You do not need to know how to pose. That is the creative direction, and it is included. Your job is to show up rested, prepared and willing to be directed. The looks are shot in a planned order, usually authority first while energy is highest, then the approachable look, then the one in motion.

After

Within three days of the shoot, choose the images you want professionally edited from your gallery; that window is in the agreement. When the edited set arrives, download and save it the same day. Galleries are not archived permanently.

If something changes

One complimentary reschedule is included with at least 48 hours' notice, as long as the new date falls within 30 days of the original. Less notice than that, or a second reschedule, needs a new deposit, so if a conflict appears on the horizon, say so early.

Most of this list is ordinary care. Its value is that it removes every small worry from the day itself, which leaves room for the only thing that actually matters in a portrait: presence.