How to Choose the Right Background for your Portrait

The right backdrop for a portrait is as important as the harmony to music or the right side dish to a great entrée.  You may not notice a backdrop but something about the subject of the portrait will be enhanced when you select the right color for the background of the photograph.

Your professional portrait photographer should offer several selections and work with you to pick the right backdrop.

For example, a black background may seem very neutral but in fact says a lot about the person in the photograph.  This color can lend an air of mystery and elegance.  Lighting will be important to ensure that hair color does not disappear into the background (brunettes, this is meant for you) and that clothing will pop against the darkness.

Grey backgrounds will actually be more neutral than black and draw the eye to the portrait subject.  Juxtapose this with brown, also a good neutral, but with a more casual feel than grey.

At the other end of the scale, red is a color that does not hide.  Think of how it can warm as subject dressed all in white or bring fire to rosy cheeks.  A strong color choice can reflect the personality or character of the portrait subject, expressing energy and vibrancy.

Again, a portrait is about light and colors like blue can make blue eyes bluer.  It’s difficult to say how a particular color will impact a picture because the photographer’s skill with lighting equipment and his camera can make a very big difference.  Again, a professional photographer can use all the tricks of the trade to bring out the physical and spiritual characteristics of the portrait subject.

For example, pink may be associated with women but men can benefit from the way that particular color highlights their skin tone, perhaps making them seem younger or more vital.  At Premier Portraits Studio, we've often received compliments that focus on the subject and, when someone points out the background, heard, “I didn't realize that it was pink!”

Call Premier Portraits Studio today and learn what color can do for your portrait.  We have the largest selection of backgrounds in Connecticut.

What Should A Good Portrait Cost?

Parents know that it’s expensive to raise a child.  It seems there is another thing to buy every day and, after a while, mom and dad can become a bit numb to the reality of how those numbers add up.  If the kid needs it, the kid needs it.

Raising children also leaves little free time and who wants to use those precious moments to compare prices?  Especially when you might be price shopping for something that you won’t pay for on a regular basis, like a school portrait package.  Parents can easily justify turning a blind eye to the cost of a school portrait, or any other formal photograph for that matter, just to get that task done.

PremierPortraits Studio wants to help by giving you a guideline.  If you are paying $15 or more for the lowest portrait package, you are paying too much.

We recommend that you pay $8 to 10 for a package that includes one 5x7 portrait, four wallet pictures, and one class photo.

Price can change depending on special requests such as background.  Premier Portraits Studio offers 16 different backgrounds.  We can also offer specialservices such as retouching.

When you select your formal portrait photographer, look for the quality of work in both the picture and the session.  Will you receive individualized attention during a photo shoot?  Is the photographer relaxed and confident in her or her skill set?  That sort of rapport translates into an ability to put a subject at ease and therefore get a better facial expression.

Will the professional photographer charge extra for accommodating special requests such as including personal objects in a photo?  It takes a few moments to set up a shot with more items in it and, if your son or daughter is a star athlete, a ball might be the perfect expression of his or her personality.  That should be a fun aspect, not an additional expense when creating a professional portrait.

Hopefully, this guideline and tips will help you select the right photographer for your family and student portraits.

Warm Up Your Winter Portraits

Quick.  Imagine a wedding portrait.  Those shots taken between the ceremony and before the reception.

Did you picture the bridge and groom standing in a garden with colorful flowers?  A gazebo?  Most of us do because that’s what most of us are programmed to think makes a good portrait – a colorful and warm background.

Truth is, you can have unique pictures at any time of the year and the richness of your imagery doesn’t have to come from flowers.  Winter is a great time to find just the right light and composition to make your loved ones look their best in a formal portrait.

This is Connecticut so you’ll need to be flexible on timing.  However, you won’t have to wait long for the weather to go from warm to cold to wet to dry.  Nor will you have to drive far to find the background you want.  How about a waterfall with icy edges leftover from one of those cold nights, while the afternoon sun is warming up the park to a seemingly impossible 60 degrees?  Drop the coats off on an unused picnic table and shoot!

Do you have a favorite site where you’d like to pose your family?  Maybe an historic building such as the Mark Twain House?  Sure, landscaping can be great for background but, if you pose yourselves in the right way and put the emphasis on the manmade portions of the scene, the lack of greenery may offer you just the composition you need, making the family portrait sharper and cleaner.  After all, the whole point of a portrait is not to see leaves but to see faces.

One of the advantages of a formal family portrait in winter is the need to be quick about it.  You can plan for some hot chocolate after the pictures are done but there is a sense of motivation if your portrait subjects want to put their coats back on.

There can also be a sense of fun and adventure in finding a new spot, something different for the annual ritual of lining up the loved ones to share pictures with family and friends.  By getting the level of excitement up, you can increase the likelihood of beaming expressions on your subjects.

You will also love the rosy cheeks!

If you want more tips on how to take a good winter family portrait, give us a call at Premier Portraits Studio.  We’ll even tell you how we love the way any photo can be made black and white but winter shots really are crisp in that conversion.

Professional Photography as Art and Business

How does Premier Portraits Studio offer the best portraits at the best prices?  Really, it comes down to knowing the dual nature that is the art and business of professional photography.

Over many years we’ve refined the business to be more efficient and easier not only for our portrait customers but for ourselves.  Take setup and breakdown for example.  We’re in control of that equipment at all times.  Our portrait cameras and wide selection of backgrounds goes up in the right order so that we focus on our students and taking the best school picture possible.  There’s no confusion during our portrait sittings and, when a portrait photographer is relaxed, the portrait subjects relax.  We get better photos.

Customers also appreciate, and often share their surprise, when we’re out of the school quickly and cleanly.  We know we’re guests at your school and we appreciate the honor of your invitation to take your school portraits.

We’re proud of our equipment.  That’s really an area where the lines of art and business blur.  It’s important to use the latest photographic technology to ensure the best product for our customers but, frankly, as professional photographers, we’re delighted with the equipment ability to really capture the spirit of our subjects.  We feel great when parents tell us that we were able to portray what makes each child unique.

Pricing is another area in which we excel.  We guarantee to price match our competition.  We offer multiple ordering methods, all of which are easy to use and accurate so you get the photographic packages you want.  Orders come out right and our customers are very happy.  We can even offer individual photo ordering!

If you ask us whether Premier Portraits Studio is a business or an art studio, we’ll proudly answer, “Yes.  We are both.”

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Buy Local School Portraits!

Premier Portraits Studio is locally owned and operated.

Those words may be a bit overused lately but the studio puts a great deal of meaning behind them.  They’re not buzzwords to us.  As a part of the community, we take our commitment to our neighbors and friends very seriously.

The day of your portrait sitting is just as important to us as it is to you.  We love the work we do and want that passion to show through in the quality of the results.  That means we want you to be comfortable because when you feel good, you look good.  We also want you to feel confident in our skills behind the camera.  Years of experience have taught us how to run a shoot smoothly and efficiently.  Frazzle just doesn’t show up well in a picture!

We live in the 21^st century, just as you do, and we want to give parents as many ordering options as possible.  That translates to convenience.  If you want to talk to someone in person, we’re here.  If you prefer ordering online late at night in your jammies, we offer that feature.  What works for you is what will work for us.

The same flexibility and range of options applies to our portrait backgrounds.  There is no one-size-fits-all at Premier Portraits Studio.  Every person is unique and the background might blend into, well, the background, but it also plays a vital part to the overall impression that the portrait has when viewed.  We’re happy to offer expert advice but, the decision is yours and you have many choices with us.

When you work with a small company such as ours, you work directly with the owners.  You know we’re invested in the future of our business and you also know that we are only as successful as our customers are happy.

Speaking of happy, we realize price is a serious concern.  We offer the most competitive pricing in the state in addition to the highest quality skills and materials.  You get the best portrait for a cost that will make you feel good about your purchase.  In fact, we’re offering a special discount now; schools that sign up for portraits with Premier Portraits Studio will receive our guarantee that the price will beat last year’s commission check!

When you are selecting a portrait photographer, consider the advantages of a local company.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Get the Most from Your School Portraits

What should you expect from a school portrait?  Today’s answer is… a lot.

It starts with the image itself.  Premier Portrait Studio offers 16 different backgrounds and that can make a big difference in how your child appears in the picture.  While most professional photographers can do retouching, doing it well is an art and the final effect should flatter your child without ever being noticed.  Don’t forget, Murphy’s Law will be strictly enforced on portrait day.  If your child eats a leafy green thing only one day of the year, that day will be the same day as the official school portrait and the veg will stick to a front tooth.

But, what about the other aspects of school portraits?  The ordering process should be easy and flexible.  Premier Portraits Studio offers a Second Chance form.  If you are busy and forget to order by picture day, or even just change your mind and decide you want copies, you can use the same two methods of ordering as if you elect to buy portraits before they’re taken – with the form or online.

As for products… picture options are no longer just about size.  Sure, you can decide on 5x7 or bigger or make sure that there are enough wallet size copies for everyone in the family to carry and display at will.  But, you can also order unique items that make great gifts, such as magnets that allow grandparents to enjoy their grandchildren in a different way than the traditional picture.

Display isn’t the only purpose of a good picture of your child.  Premier Portraits Studio provides two child safe cards for the parents of every student.  The cards describe what to do if the child goes missing and includes a random password.  Parents can access their children’s photos 24/7 from our secure web site; all passwords are randomly generated and names are not attached to photos.

Finally, Premier Portraits Studio never forgets that your student is part of a class.  We provide programs to help with fundraising for school events, such as panoramic photos of the graduating class, family portrait night, holiday portrait night, and spring time family portrait night.  Imagine the fun as you view, choose, and receive your pictures during those special nights.

So, expect a lot from your school portrait experience and let Premier Portraits Studio be part of this memorable time in your child’s life.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303

Tips for Getting the Best Back to School Shots

Photographs help us go back in time to the big moments in life, such as starting a new school year.  Of course, age grants adults a perspective that children simply do not have so it’s important to get everyone on board for the ritual of taking back to school photos in order to get the best portraits possible.

Take Your Time

For most of us, days are flying by and didn’t these kids just get out of school?!  One of the tricks to slowing down time is doing the opposite of what we think we should do… take more time to enjoy moments.  So, grab an afternoon or warm summer evening and show the kids your own back to school pictures.  Talk about how you felt or what you remember and get their input on what they’d like to see in their own school portraits.  You might be surprised at just how interested children can become in photographic portraits.

Pick a Good Backdrop

Most people don’t give much thought to backgrounds… it’s the background and the people are the important part, no?  No.  You’ll get a better portrait of your child if you think about how the colors behind him or her will react to flash.  A white house that faces east may be too bright in the early morning sun and you won’t have much time to adjust if the bus is on its way.

There’s no rule that the back to school portrait has to be taken on the first day of school.  Or that you can’t do a dry run.  Visit a local park or do a garden tour and get some of the colors of summer in your shot.  Digital cameras give everyone the freedom to take experimental shots without the expense formerly associated with developing film.  Try different flash settings on your camera.

Shoot the Right Height

Your kids are probably shorter than you are.  At least, until high school so don’t shoot the camera from your eye level unless you love the tops of heads.  Get down on one knee and see what a difference that can make when photographing children.

Relax

If you’re tense and nervous about getting the right shot… especially if you want to do this on a busy first day of school morning… do not expect your kids to look cool and confident.  Portrait subjects often reflect the mood of the person behind the camera.  So, breathe deeply and suggest the children do something other than line up against the front door of your house.  Ask the child to turn a bit and consider shooting more of the face and not the whole body.

Use Props

Just as Premier Portraits Studio uses props in formal school portraits, you can use them in your home photographs.  Your child may be carrying a book bag but maybe can hold a book or even something from mom or dad’s old school days.

The important thing to remember with any back to school portrait is that this shot should mirror a special day when everything is possible and children are excited to begin anew.  Enjoy that feeling with them and you’ll get a better photograph.

PremierPortraits Studio is locally owned and operated at 260 East St in Plainville, CT and is committed to supporting the community with quality service and portraits. 860.410.4303