In my last blog about natural makeup in photos, I talked about my personal philosophy about make-up and lighting and what really matters when getting your picture taken. When it comes to great online dating photos or executive headshots, looking like yourself is really important and will make a difference whether you are trying to get the job or get the date. But many of my clients seem to still want a little more support. So I recently decided to investigate getting makeup done professionally for a shoot.

I do a lot of my sessions at Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown SF and recently I was taking a short department store detour on the way home from a shoot. As I wandered through the cosmetics section of Bloomingdales, I decided to stop in and ask a few make-up artists what their take was on natural make-up for photos. Obviously, since they are in the business of selling make-up, nearly everyone said it’s really important to wear makeup and people should always wear more make-up in photos then on a regular day. Given that I’ve taken thousands of beautiful photos of people in natural light with very little make-up on, I wasn’t convinced, but I started understanding the kinds of things that my clients are probably hearing on a regular basis.

I met make-up artist Stacey Fusaro, who understood my concerns about looking too made up. I decided to give it a try and have my make-up done right in the middle of Bloomingdale’s. It was fun, and she gave me tips throughout the process, keeping the focus on looking natural.

At the end of this experiment I felt good. Even though I don’t usually wear lots of makeup, I did feel a bit more confident than usual.  And that’s when I realized: It’s not so much about how much make-up you wear or certain techniques for photos, but that it feels good to put some focus and attention on the way we are presenting ourselves to the world. At the end of the day, if you feel good you look even better- and now, that’s the advice I give my clients.