How to Prepare Your Home for a Photoshoot
By Kate Longley • Kate Longley Designs
There is a specific kind of panic that sets in the morning of a photoshoot.
You’ve spent months, sometimes years, on a project. The design is done. Everything is in place. And then the photographer arrives and suddenly you’re seeing every surface with fresh eyes, and nothing looks quite the way you thought it did.
I’ve been through enough of these to know that the panic is almost always avoidable.
The most important thing you can do before a photoshoot has nothing to do with styling or flowers or last-minute shopping.
It’s editing.
Walk through every room and take out anything that doesn’t need to be there. The charger on the kitchen counter. The stack of mail on the entry table. The candle that’s burned down too far to look intentional. These things disappear from our everyday vision because we stop seeing them. A camera sees all of them.
The goal isn’t a home that looks unlived in. It’s a home where everything visible is there on purpose.
Once you’ve edited, then you style. And styling is just making the things that are already there look their best. Fluff the pillows and push them slightly askew so they don’t look like a hotel. Put a single stem in a vessel you already own rather than buying an elaborate arrangement that looks like it belongs somewhere else.
The homes that photograph most beautifully are seldom the ones where someone went out and bought a lot of new things. They’re the ones where someone paid close attention to what was already there.
Light is everything. Turn off overhead lighting and let the natural light do the work. Overhead lights flatten the room in photographs. Lamps are better. And if you can, shoot in the morning when the light is softer. South-facing rooms in Arizona can be tricky in the afternoon, so knowing which rooms you’re shooting at what time of day matters more than most people expect.
The last thing I’d say is to give yourself more time than you think you need. Editing and styling always take longer than they look like they will. Build that in.
The shoot itself is the easy part. Everything before it is where real work happens. And when the images come back, and the home looks exactly the way you always hoped it would, that work will have been completely worth it.
If you’re thinking about a bigger project and want it ready for the holidays or the new year, I’d love to talk. I work with a small number of clients at a time, and I’m thoughtful about fit.
KATE LONGLEY DESIGNS
Paradise Valley · Scottsdale, Arizona