We don’t want to look at children with a booger under the nose, dirt in the creeks of the eyes or the mouth, or leftovers between the teeth. Even less do we want to look at it for decades on the wall. Most parents take care of these things before going to the photographer, but some don’t. Don’t be embarrassed to take a closer look at the face and fix such things – or make the parents fix it. Most of it can be corrected in your postprocessing, but it’s always better to fix the real problem and not waste time on tedious retouching that could easily be avoided.
Consider having the right tools in your studio so you, the children or parents can fix these things. Even consider having some extra clothes around – it happens that a shirt gets stained on the way to the studio.
One of the most annoying things to correct afterwards are dry and cracked lips. It’s almost impossible to fix completely on a closeup portrait. You should really look out for this – especially at winter time where it’s most common. Do what you can to fix it with lip balm. It’s also one of the things I ask parents to take care of in the days before the shoot.
Also take a closer look at the clothes. Remove hairs, dandruff and other stuff that shouldn’t be there.
When you are taking the pictures watch out for single strands of hair hanging down in the middle of the face – especially on girls with long hair of course. Removing a hair in postprocessing can also be a very tedious task and do what you can to avoid the need for it.
