Thank you for choosing Meggan Jacks Photography for your portraits! This section of our website is designed to help you prepare for your session. We hope that you find the below ideas and tips helpful! If you have any questions at any time, please feel free to call us at 602-942-1113 or email us!

Clothing Selection

Clothing choice is an essential part of your portrait session. We recommend simple clothing - jeans, khakis or black pants and solid tops work best. We suggest avoiding stripes and other patterned tops as they have a tendency to pull the attention away from the subject of the portrait. Please avoid white clothing if you are having an outdoor session - white does not photograph well in the AZ sun.

Family Sessions - We suggest that you try to coordinate clothing choices for a family session so that your images have a clean, classical look. Contrasting colors and/or patterns will usually overwhelm the viewer of the portrait. Clothing changes are allowed, so if you’d like to do a family portrait in one set of clothing, and individual portraits in another set of clothing, feel free to bring a few changes of clothing with you. Jeans with solid black tops are always a safe choice for portraits.

Individual Kids - There is more flexibility for clothing choices for individual portraits. This is the time for the fun/trendy clothing that you find in the magazine ads. Our only suggestion is to keep in mind that being too trendy may possibly “date” your portraits down the road.

Maternity session - We recommend that you bring with you a pair of underbelly style jeans or black pants and a few different style of tops. When selecting tops, you want to look for shirts that you feel flatter you in the chest area and through the arms as we will pull the mid-section of the shirt up to show off the belly. Don’t forget to look over your pre-pregnancy tops as you may find one that while you can’t wear while pregnant, looks beautiful in the chest and arm area. Fun and flirty lingerie is another option! Also, we have several cloths available to create “maternity wraps.” If you would like to do this, please bring with you a strapless bra. If you would like to do topless or full nude maternity images, we suggest bringing a robe with you as well. For the guys, we suggest jeans and a solid black top.

***IMPORTANT***

On your way to your session, please wear loose fit clothing and do not let anything clingy rest around your belly as it will leave red marks that take awhile to disappear.

Newborn Session - There is nothing more beautiful than the skin of a newborn baby, so we generally photograph newborns in their birthday suits. For parents and siblings, we recommend the classic clothing choice of jeans with black tops. If you would like to have a family portrait done with a different color top, please still bring with you a black or other solid, dark colored top. (For additional information on tips for a successful newborn session, please see HERE)

General tips for all types of sessions

1. Hair cuts - We recommend NOT having your hair cut/colored any earlier than two weeks prior to your session.

2. Nail polish - please avoid pastel colors. They turn an odd shade of gray in black & white images. Also, if you do have polished nails, please make sure there are no obvious chips to the polish. This is especially important for maternity and newborn sessions where the hands are more visible.

3. Shoes - If you would like to wear shoes for your session, we recommend dark shoes. Please note that for the babies that are not walking/standing, usually the only part of the shoe you will see is the sole, so we don’t recommend shoes for this age. If you must have shoes for a particular outfit, please make sure that the shoes are new/never walked in so that the sole is as “clean” as possible.

4. Snacks - It’s okay to bring snacks with you for your toddlers and younger kids. We just ask that you avoid dark colored juices and snacks that are super messy so that your child’s clothes (and our carpet!) don’t get too dirty.

5. Relax - Your kids will pick up on your stress levels, so we suggest making sure that you *try* to be calm, cool, and collect as you prepare for the session (and during the session too!) Meggan is a mom of two and has definitely “been there, done that” for nearly anything a baby or toddler can do.

All information copyright 2007 by Meggan Jacks Photography