Mood boards can really help you to solidify your photoshoot concept. While you might have the perfect photoshoot setup in your mind, translating that to other people in order to get the photo can be dificult if you’re only trying to explain through words.

As I’ve begun working on more themed photoshoots, I’ve realized how helpful mood boards can be. Not only does it give me a more solid idea of what the photoshoot might look like, but it also helps me plan: What do I need to buy or make in order to make this idea come to life? Curating a mood board for your photoshoot can help you decide upon realistic backdrops, locations, styling, and lighting. In addition, you can often find even more inspiration for your photoshoot by seeing how other photographers have captured concepts similar to yours.

I’m a fan of simply going through Google Images and searching keywords for each element of a photoshoot concept and then saving them to folders on my computer, but there are a bunch of other ways to do it as well. Pinterest can be great, as it will also suggest similar images to those you’ve already pinned. I love saving images on Instagram or screenshotting them to folders in order to pull posing inspiration, especially for new models. Tumblr can also be super great, and I like using it to find more inspiration. You can even print out images or take magazine clippings and make an actual mood board if that helps you visualize better.

Whatever method works best for you, you should definitely try this out. Not only will it make your life easier, but it will also make the life of your model, hair stylist, makeup artist, or anyone else working with you on your project easier.

This is definitely a shorter post, but I wanted to preface some of my upcoming posts with this little spiel. I’ll be sharing some mood boards of my future photoshoot concepts under the “mood board” tag. If I write a post about that specific concept, I’ll also make sure to link back to the mood board so you can see how I used the inspiration to create my actual shoot! And because this post is so short, later today I’ll also be posting my first mood board, so stay tuned for that.

Happy photographing, everybody!