It's important to prep before a shoot. Here's my list of top 5 things to do before a shoot.
1. Plan your location and time. Consider weather, Time of day, and limitations to your shooting area. We shot the above portrait in a Industrial area of Kansas City. Though quite trendy, it can be dangerous with trains, rust and dirt.
2. Have your model bring several outfits so you have choices during final edits.
3. Make sure your equipment batteries and memory are ready and backups are available.
4. Have some idea about what poses to consider for your model. This will help them to feel more at ease, if you have ideas on how to pose them.
5. Prepare for the unexpected. Well what the heck does that mean? Exactly, your client is expecting you to have all bases covered so you can be creative and make them an artistic image. Anybody can point a camera nowadays and shoot. But as a artist, to be comfortable and in the creative zone you must be relaxed and that can only occur if you are ready to go and have gone over your pre-shoot game prep.
Get out there and Shoot!