Once upon a time, senior portrait sessions used to just be a studio session with very formal attire or one chosen outfit and possibly even a black draped fabric to look like a cap and gown, posing awkwardly for the camera. Nowadays, there is so much more that goes into a senior portrait session and the best part is that your senior portrait session can be as much or as little as you want it to – it’s all about you! I wanted to share with you some of my top reasons that you should consider having a senior portrait session both for graduating from High School or College!

The Importance of a Senior Portrait Session

Reflect Your Style

Today, senior portrait sessions are a whole experience! You will often have multiple outfits, visit different locations that provide a more unique atmosphere or vibe that fits your personality, and can also capture extracurriculars of high school, if you were involved in sports, theatre, band, or more. You can also still choose to include cap and gown shots in a more natural way with various backgrounds for your photos.

Capture Your Memories

The reason that a senior portrait session is so important is that graduating from high school marks a whole bunch of milestones for teens! It’s super important to look back and capture those memories. You’re ending a major chapter of your life and looking ahead to a brand new one – completing your childhood and heading into adulthood. That’s a lot of life change all at once and capturing your personality and passions during this time in a senior portrait session can provide a precious keepsake for you and your family for years to come and is just super fun to do! It’s time to send off your childhood and say a big “hello!” to your future!

Build Confidence

It’s also important to have fun! A senior portrait session is a great opportunity for seniors to build some confidence in themselves. As a photographer, I am taking images of these individuals and showing them what the world sees when they look at them! Being able to know how to pose students properly and make them feel confident in their own skin and feel empowered is something that gets me really excited! Honestly, 99% of the time that I take a senior portrait session, a student will show up and say they don’t feel like they photograph well or they are nervous about the session and the end result of images, and when I show them a sneak peek of the images on the back of my camera, they often say “wow – I can’t believe that’s me!” This is a great opportunity to have fun and be excited about who they are and the future they have ahead of themselves.

Students have worked really hard to graduate from high school and a senior portrait session is a great way to celebrate that huge milestone and make this session a really special event! It can be a lot of fun to get all dressed up, for girls they often like to get their nails and makeup done and have their hair styled just for this session. For guys, let’s be honest, they usually have a senior portrait session to satisfy mom (hah!) but they often still have a lot of fun in the process and it’s great to be able to capture memories from their high school experience.

Seniors are also now at a place in their life where social media is a big part of their world – especially as they are now preparing for college or the next stage of their life after high school and meeting tons of new people and making a whole new group of friends! A new set of professional images just helps to continue to showcase their personality and be able to show themselves off with confidence in a way that is uniquely them.

Great for Announcements and Gifts

Senior portrait sessions are fabulous because your are able to use those images to create custom graduation announcements to let your family and friends know that you are graduating, or as a parent, to announce that your child is graduating. You can also use your photos for custom graduation party invitations, which is a big deal!

You can also use photos from your senior portrait session to give gifts to your family! Grandparents especially love getting a newly framed headshot of their grandkids to add to their bookshelf or place on the wall.

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At the end of the day, the most important part about a senior portrait session is that it should reflect YOU! If a formal studio setting will offer you the truest form of yourself and your personality, look for a photographer who can offer that to you! If you have a favorite location or place that is meaningful to you, suggest that location to a photographer that shoots portrait sessions in different locations and show up to your senior portrait session with all of your ideas! And if you feel confused or unsure about what you want your session to look like, speak up and mention that to your photographer! They are the professional and will often have lots of great ideas for you and can help to bring that inspiration.

If you want to learn more about Senior Portrait Sessions with Kate Martin Photography, click on the button below to visit our website!