What a portrait session covers
A portrait session photographs one person, or two, somewhere that suits them, with lighting built around flattering rather than flattening. That covers more ground than most people expect when they first message me.
- Personal and individual portraits
- Creative and editorial portraits
- Portraits for a website, book jacket or profile
- Couples and milestone sessions: anniversaries, graduations, significant birthdays
Personal and creative work
Most bookings are personal. Someone wants a set of images that look like them, and hasn’t had a proper photograph taken in years. Creative and editorial portraits sit alongside that: stronger lighting, a clearer concept, built around one idea rather than a straightforward likeness. If you need a full set of images for a business rather than yourself, that is a full branding shoot, worth booking as its own job.
What this session does not cover
Two enquiries land in my inbox that belong elsewhere. If the whole family is coming along, family sessions from £250 are built for that. If you are expecting, maternity photography uses a different set of poses and timing than a standard portrait sitting.
Portrait photography prices
| Session | Price |
|---|---|
| 45-minute session (from) | £200 |
| 90-minute session, two locations | £350 |
| Couples / milestone session | £250 |
| Extra edited images, each | £15 |
| Print, 8×10 | £25 |
| Travel beyond Zone 3 | £30 |
Three things move the price: how long we shoot, how many locations, and how many final images you want. A 45-minute session at one location covers most personal portraits comfortably. Two locations need the extra 45 minutes, since travel between them, even a five-minute walk, eats more time than people assume.
Extra edited images beyond the included set are charged individually rather than bundled, so you are not paying for a bigger package you do not need. Full details, including every other service I shoot, sit on the full pricing across every service page.
Portrait or headshot: the difference
A headshot has one job. It goes on a bio page, a casting profile, a LinkedIn photo, and it needs to do that job in half a second of someone’s attention: tight crop, flat even light, minimal background. A portrait is allowed to be about you rather than your job title. Looser crop, more of the room, lighting that says something about mood rather than just showing your face clearly.
Here’s my honest take: most people who ask for “a portrait” actually want headshots from £150, and most people who ask for “a headshot” would be better served by a portrait session. Ask yourself where the image is going. One platform, one crop, one use: book a headshot. Multiple uses, or none in mind yet beyond wanting a good photograph of yourself: book a portrait. I’ve written more on the difference between a portrait and a headshot if you are still not sure which one you need.
The first ten minutes, and why they’re wasted
Almost nobody photographs well the moment a camera comes up. Shoulders lock, smiles go flat, hands don’t know where to go. That is normal, and it is the reason I never book a session shorter than 45 minutes. A 20-minute slot is a false economy, because roughly ten of those minutes produce images nobody will choose.
What happens in that first stretch is small talk with a camera pointed vaguely in your direction, not “look here, chin down, hold it.” I’ll ask what you had for breakfast, whether the walk over was annoying, anything that gets a real reaction on your face rather than a held one. By minute fifteen most people have stopped performing and started existing in front of the lens, which is when the usable images start.
An opinion the industry doesn’t say out loud often enough: the most “natural” portraits on anyone’s portfolio are usually the most heavily directed ones. Nothing in a good portrait happens by accident. The angle, the light, the moment you stopped noticing the camera, all built, just built to look like it was not.
Studio, your home, or a London location
Each option trades off differently. The studio gives consistent light whatever the weather is doing outside, which matters more than people think in a city where September light is gone by 7pm and October is mostly rain. Your home puts you somewhere you are already comfortable, which shows on camera faster than any amount of small talk. A London location adds a real backdrop, at the cost of depending on the weather and whoever else is using the space that day.
For locations, I keep coming back to a handful of spots: Victoria Park for open ground and even shade under the trees, the South Bank for texture without it overwhelming the frame, Columbia Road for colour on a market morning, and Hackney’s quieter backstreets when you want brick and nothing else competing with the portrait.
All of them share the same two things a location needs: a wall or backdrop that does not distract, and enough room to stand back thirty feet with a longer lens. You can see how they turn out in portraits from across London.
Looking like yourself in photographs
The instruction “chin forward, then down” gets given constantly and looks ridiculous the moment you try it consciously. It works because it removes a double chin, not because it looks natural held on its own. I’ll give you the physical adjustment and then talk you out of thinking about it, which is the part that makes it read as normal.
- Bring two outfit options: one plainer, one with more texture or colour
- Solid colours photograph more cleanly than busy patterns
- Avoid anything brand new; slightly worn-in clothing sits better on camera
- Hands need a job: holding something, resting on a surface, never just hanging
The thing everybody worries about (a spot, tired eyes, one “bad side”) almost never shows once the light and angle are right. The thing nobody thinks to worry about, a stiff jaw held for the camera, shows in nearly every portrait that doesn’t work. More detail on this in how to look like yourself in photographs.
When a portrait session isn’t the right booking
If you need one image for LinkedIn and nothing else, a portrait session is more time and money than the job needs. Book a headshot at £150 instead. If you want the whole family in frame, book a family session rather than trying to fit everyone into a slot built for one or two people.
If you are photographing a product, a space or a brand rather than a person, that is a different service entirely. A portrait session earns its price when the photograph needs to be about you specifically, not when any competent image would do.
Send me a message and tell me what the portrait is for. I will reply within one working day with dates and honest advice on which session fits you.