Frequently Asked Questions - What is the timeline for a Siesta Key beach portrait session?

Interested in booking a family beach portrait session on Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Englewood Beach, or Venice Beach but not sure what it entails? The purpose of this blog post is to help demystify the process of booking, participating in, and viewing your beach portraits. 

Before your session:

You've viewed our sample gallery, read our blog, and read up on our Siesta Key beach portrait package. Ready to book? Have your date ready and contact us. We'll help you iron out all the details - date, sunset time, location... 

Once your date is locked in, get your family organized and figure out what you plan to wear for your beach portraits. Read our Beach Portrait FAQ to make sure you know all the important details about your session. 

Then, wait for the big day!

During the session:

Because most people want their Siesta Key beach portraits taken at sunset (And why not? It's beautiful!), we have limited time and rapidly changing light to work with.

Here's how we make it work:

We start our beach portrait sessions about 45 minutes before sunset. Since the sun is still a bit too high and bright for formal portraits at that time, we take families down to the beach for a "stroll." Although it probably feels pretty cheesy at the time, these photos look great and feel like "candids" even though they are set up more like posed photos. We think they make great casual family portraits. If you have kids, we guarantee you'll LOVE these running photos of your kids together! (We certainly do!)

As the sun dips slightly lower in the sky, we turn to the dune grass. Usually these photos do not have the sun in the background because it's still not low enough. We take a variety of posed family portraits sitting and/or standing in front of the sea oats. Sea oats make a great backdrop and look great with the outfits we typically recommend for beach portraits.

As the sun approaches the horizon, we bring the family back to the shoreline to take a few shots with the setting sun in the background. 

Overall, we get a great variety of photos during a beach portrait session. You'll have several poses to choose from with different backdrops. If you have a big, extended family group together, you'll have dozens of groupings, poses, backdrops, etc when all is said and done. 

After the session:

We work quickly - usually your photos will be online by the following day (we guarantee them online within a week). The proofs you will see that day will have been edited for color and lighting only. In order to get your album out to you quickly, we don't photoshop every photo, only the ones you select for printing. 

Once you place an order there is a "proof delay" during which time we edit the photos more specifically and replace the ones you see online with the edited versions so that your print order looks just right. We will remove people walking around in the background and any beach debris, clean up stray hairs, and remove excessive redness/shine from faces and skin. If there is anything else specific you want done, you can just let us know when you place your order. 

More information about print pricing and ordering.

We hope this helps clarify the timeline of events for a typical beach portrait session. If you have other questions about Siesta Key Beach Portraits, please read our Beach Portrait FAQ or contact us with your specific questions!

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