When choosing a photographer it is vital that you choose someone who you are comfortable with. In this instance you should understand that not all personalities fit each other. One of the easiest ways to distinguish a photographer who will suit you is to interview photographers from various Minneapolis portrait photography studios. See how you feel and if they make you feel confident that they will make you look and feel your best, as well as if you feel comfortable with them. "Once you have that confidence your portrait session will be more successful" says Minneapolis photographer Bob Dale.

Another thing that is important is to plan ahead. Your photographer should offer to have a meeting with you in order to discuss and plan your portrait. During that meeting you and your photographer will get to know each other a little bit better and they will get your ideas about what you want for your portrait. Some things that you should talk about include color schemes, hair and makeup options and the overall look and feel you want in your portraits. A thorough consultation will also help you to start planning how you can incorporate your portraits with the other furnishings of your home.

It is useful to visualize as this is able to produce very good results and allows benchmarking for the success of your portrait session and the outcome of the photographs. This does require some serious thought as you will need to think about what kind of person or family you are a part of. You should condense your visualization into a couple of brief sentences, and should include items such as your clothes, pose, personality and expression.

Remember, "the clothes make the person" and they also add to your photo's personality and mood. You also need to remember that a person's eyes and face tell you a lot about their personality. So, the goal of your wardrobe is to flatter the subject and influence the mood. This is why it is important for clothes to be relatively subdued. The colors should be muted rather than bright and loud and solid colors are better than prints.

The color of the clothing should be fairly subdued and muted. Solid colors are far more flattering than prints and loud colors are a no no! It should also be said that the clothing worn will set the mood for the portrait so it is not advisable to wear the latest, most hip style. Try to stick to classic lines or the portrait will become easily dated.

A portrait will have the upbeat, illuminating look that you want it to have even if clothing that is light in color is not worn. The one thing it does do is decrease shadows.

Dark clothing does not have to impart a solemn mood; they do have a slimming effect and by intensifying shadow will allow the skin tone to appear deeper.

White or very light clothes can make the skin tone appear to look washed out.