From Beginning to End: The Family Portrait Session Process

“How does the family session work?” is right up there with “what should we wear for our session?” for the most frequent questions I get asked.

Were you just about to ask that?

No worries, it’s all below.

Here is what you can expect if you book a family portrait session with Doug Burke Photography.

1. Book Your Date

 

First things first, let’s get that date booked for the shoot. 

 

Contact me via email, phone, or the contact form right here on my website. 

 

There is no obligation to book a session at that point so feel free to contact me and ask questions about whatever you want to know from locations to pricing to print products that I offer. I try to put as much info as I can here on the website but there are always new questions that I have not thought of and I am happy to answer them.

 

I you decide to go forward and book a session, we can work out a date right then and there. I do most of my outdoor sessions within a couple hours of sunset so that you can have the best possible lighting conditions. Because I want to make sure every client can get great conditions, I rarely book more than two family portrait sessions in a day.

 

Not all family sessions have to be outside at sunset though. I work with flash and strobes as well to ensure you get the best photos in any condition. If you had something else in mind, I’m all ears.

 

Most clients normally book on the weekend, so those dates tend to go faster.

 

After you choose a date, I’ll send you an email with confirmation of date, time and location.

The family session fee is due at the end of the session. You can pay with cash, credit card, check or I can send an invoice to pay through Square Pay.

 

2. Pre-shoot Design Session

 

Not many photographers do this, but I think it’s the most important part.

 

Every client and every family session are unique. When we have the pre-shoot consult, we will talk about your expectations, and the type of images you want to create (as well as any other questions you might have).

 

I want to make sure we create the kind of images you had in mind. We will talk about locations for your shoot, wardrobe choices, poses, the style of images you want to create, and anything else that we can do to make your images just the way you want them.

 

At this point, we can also schedule a time after the shoot for me to show you the photos. More about that later…

 

3. Portrait Session

 

This is the fun part.

 

At this point, we’ve figured out a great plan for the shoot so all you have to do is show up.

 

Most portrait sessions take 45-90 minutes (mostly depending on the attention spans of the kids…or the adults), but I block off two hours for every portrait shoot. If we are doing the shoot in the evening for that great sunset light, I only book one shoot per evening.

 

If you think you need more time, we can always work that out ahead of time.

 

We will meet at the location we decided on and take a few minutes to go over what we are going to do. I will point out the spots that we are going to go to first, the general plan. Depending on the location, we may stay in one smaller area or we may be covering a lot of ground, but you will know all that ahead of time. I always encourage input any ideas you may have as we go along.

 

Young children have noticeably short attention spans, so I’ll get all the shots that involve posing done first, after that it’s best to let the kids have some fun and get those candid photos that everyone loves. I work very well with children and they respond great (95% of the time).

4. View & Download Your Photos and Purchase Wall Art Pieces and Prints

 

The shoot is the fun part, but this is the exciting part. Delivery of images will be in a private password protected gallery that you can download the 30+ images provided from the session. We encourage you print your favorite images, whether it’s through the gallery or on your own. Either way, there is no replacement for having your favorite photos hanging on the wall.

 

 

 

5. Enjoy Your Photos for Many Years

 

If I did everything right then this part will be easy!

 

I use a high-quality professional photo lab to create all my prints and wall art. This ensures that you get the best quality available to pro photographers and prints and wall art created by highly skilled print lab technicians. These prints are great quality and will last long enough to pass down to future generations.