With Clothing Guidelines, Simplicity is the key! We want your faces to be the focal point of the portrait. Solid colors are best. Avoid large or bold patterns and bright colors - they draw attention away from the face. Save patterns for accent items like scarves or neckties. Unless of course this portrait is taken for travel, showing tropical locations and vivid colors.
Coordinate your attire from head to toe as our photographer may portray you in full length pose. And remember to check for clean socks that match the clothing!

Most important of all, choose clothing you like! If you obey all the rules but wear something you dislike, you won't like the portrait. To ensure a successful portrait, you are welcome to bring several clothing options from which to choose. This could either be done the day of the session or can be selected in a consultation.

And one more important aspect of clothing to keep in mind! Will what you wear fit the surroundings? If you are having you pictures taken in front of a cottage you would not be wearing formal attire. Or if you are having your pictures taken in the dunes making sandcastles you would wear appropriate clothing. In other word wear appropriate clothing to fit the setting.

Keep in mind the children as well. As a rule they will feel better casual, and if they feel better about what they wear, the photographs will look better. For more information on children portraiture have a look at fredsphoto.on.ca/children.htm

The more we plan your portrait in advance, the more successful your finished portrait will be. A complimentary consultation before your portrait session will help you consider the available range of portrait possibilities and help us understand your preferences and concerns. Together, we will decide on the location, clothing, and mood that are best for your portrait.

There's literally no end to the possibilities for your portrait, and considering the choices is part of the fun. You may prefer to be portrayed in the classic simplicity of a studio setting, relaxing at home, or actively enjoying your favorite recreational activity outdoors. Maybe you enjoy the elegance of being formally dressed, or you might feel that jeans and sweaters would bring out the real you. But whatever you decide to wear, a free consultation will help in creating a better portrait.

You may have your portrait taken at our studio, in the park, or to make the portrait more personal, at your home. Whatever you choice, we can create a portrait that will bring out your personality and lifestyle!

Our job is to create the posing and lighting, to put you at ease, and to make the exposure at the perfect moment. All you need to do is relax and be yourself - that's what your portrait is all about. You are welcome to bring clothing changes and any special props that may be meaningful to you. We will take enough pictures to offer you a good variety of poses and expressions to choose from.

For optimum quality in your finished portrait, we use digital photography, for all of our family and children's portraits. Digital photography has opened up a whole new window of creativity not available or affordable with conventional film. With professional computer enhancing, we can easily remove blemishes, unwanted wrinkles, move heads or unwanted objects and the list goes on. Up to just a few years ago; film was still the way to go, but with the advancement of professional digital cameras that capture large sharp files, things have changed for the better.

We have tried many ways to make it easier for you to see your previews. We have tried projection, TV screen and so on. We have found that the best way is still paper previews that you can take home and decide at your leisure. Of course if you can't decide between certain photographs and you would like to see it larger on the screen, please don't hesitate to ask as we will be more than pleased to project or enlarge your photographs on the computer monitor.

We also offer the option of placing the photographs online for families with members who live out of town or even the country. That way all they need to do is get the web site address from you and they can view the pictures half way around the world.

We retouch and enhance all of our portraits here in the studio before they go to the lab for printing. With our professional retouching and enhancement, shadows and wrinkles around eyes and mouth, and the little blemishes that sometimes appear on picture day, will be smoothed and blended in a way that leaves each face looking natural and fresh.

Here is another plus for digital photography. Because every image is professionally retouched on the actual image and not on the finished photograph, the problems associated with conventional retouching have been eliminated. Adjustments made the old way with brush and pencil may show up in just a few years on photographs. And the cost is so much less with digital retouching. Our cost for retouching is a one time charge of $5.00 per image (not per print as is the case with film). See an example of retouching here.

When we are satisfied with the retouching and know that you will also be pleased with the finished portraits it's off to the printers. We use several custom as well as conventional labs depending on the size and how the portrait is to be finished. We offer two different finishes on our photographs.

1. The Gift Portraits
This is a fine quality print for the budget minded and for gift giving. This portrait is presented in a mount. To keep the cost competitive, mounting and laminating is not included in this finish.

2. The Craftsman
Each portrait is carefully printed, colour balanced for rich natural tones, skillfully retouched, signed and dated, and finally laminated and mounted for framing without glass. A quality Portrait for the quality conscious client!

(1) See about borrowing a pair of rims (no lenses), from whomever you purchased the glasses.

(2) Can you easily remove and later replace the lenses from the glasses yourself? If you don't want to do this yourself, sometimes the place you bought them from will do this for you for free - they take them out, you have your session, then they put them back in for you.

(3) If neither of the above is possible, we will take a look at your glasses and see what type of reflections we are likely to get. If you do not wear glasses all the time, don't wear them for the photo. The reverse is also true. If people are used to seeing you in glasses you will look completely different without them. > Please note: Glasses that turn dark outside or under artificial light are a BIG Problem as they now look like sunglasses and your eyes cannot be seen. Here is where you really need to think about the suggestions given above.

On the other hand people are used to seeing reflections on glasses so small reflections may not be objectionable. In most cases we can retouch the glare out, but there may be an extra charge depending on the amount of work involved.

The tendency is to get a brand new 3 blade razor and get that perfect clean shave! But wait; unless you do it this carefully every day and your skin never reacts to it, this is not a good idea.

A better idea is to start with a new blade 2 or 3 days ahead (3 or 4 days ahead for those of you with beards - you don't wear a blade out as fast because you don't shave as much (unless you shave your whole head). On the day of the photo shoot, just do a good job with the slightly dull blade.

Now if you shave in the morning and your appointment is not until 5:00 O'clock, remember the 5:00 O'clock shadow. You might want to do a touchup about an hour or so before the session.

If you shave with an electric razor there is not usually any problem, test aggressively shaving a week or so ahead of time to avoid problems on the day of the shoot. If you have a beard or moustache that you are going to remove for the photos, please remove it a week or so ahead and gently shave each day including the morning of the shave.

Let your imagination run wild! Do you or anyone have favorite fun hats or other headwear? What about favorite hobbies, old or new cars, or how about a musical instrument? Did grandpa or another relative make you a favorite chair, rocking horse or other toy? How about work clothing/props - especially if you have a smaller children's version - this can be so effective. Children love to play dress-up, why not bring some of their favorite dress-up clothing. Get the picture! Create a portrait that says “this truly captures our family's lifestyle”!

There are many corporate services that we provide. These include all photography for:
Advertising
Annual Reports
Architectural
Calendars
Magazine covers/Magazine articles
Manuals/Instruction sheets/CD/DVD's and inserts
Packaging
Promotional event recording
Staff photos for magazines, newspapers, business cards
Still art photography
See below for more details on each of these.

What about your business cards, letterheads, flyers and your website, the list goes on! Are your photographs up to date? Do you need new pictures of your establishment? Do you have any new products?

Do you do special community services? Do you want to have professional photography that you can proudly display on your reception walls and web site? Are you doing a display at the local fair or community service or other event? Just think about how much more effective the display would be with professional photographs of your business, products or employees at work.

Does your company sponsor a golf tournament for your employees and clients? How about photographs with your logo for them to take home; they will display these for many years to come.

How about a gift certificate for your employees and clients! If you want to show your employees you really care - what better way than a family portrait gift certificate that will bring memories for years to come. This could be a gift for any occasion or company “bonus”. How about a Secretaries' Day gift, or Anniversary gift they will both enjoy and treasure literally for years!

From the staff at Fred's Photography.