W E L C O M E
To your “what to wear guide” for your upcoming photography session! This guide will help you to understand the relationship between the environment and your outfit choices and how they impact your overall images. You pay me a good amount of money for your session, and I want you to get the most out of everything this experience has to offer.
This guides lay out is best viewed by computer, laptop or ipad.
WHY IT MATTERS
T H I N G S T O C O N S I D E R
For me, I’m always aiming to keep the main focus on your faces and the emotions of your face and body. If there is a lot of noise or a lot gong on in the frame at the same time, I believe that noise will pull away from you and your family as the subject and we loose the interpretation of emotion through what you’re doing with your hands, or with your face. The goal is to remove any unnecessary distractions. We do this through choosing outfits that are either compliment or stand out from the environments tones and colors.
COLOR CHOICES + TONES
I typically recommend that my clients choose neutral, earthy tones and metallics and stay away from neon or bright colors. This in no way means only choosing creams or browns though! There are actually neutral color variations for every single color! So for example instead of choosing to wear green, I would opt for a forest green or olive color. Instead of red, go with a deep maroon color. Instead of yellow, a mustard or burnt yellow and so on.
SKIN COLOR
A quick google search should help you to understand your skin tone a little big or undertones. Are they golden? Pink? Typically you can achieve this knowledge by looking at the color of your veins. Uless you are olive skin toned or darker, try to stay away from reds, oranges and bright pinks. Your skin tone naturally has elements of these colors in it, so if I have to edit the color of your clothing it will naturally also edit your skin which will make it look grey or green ! We DONT WANT that. Keep in mind that light refracts and bounces about so what you are wearing can act as a natural reflector onto your significant other.
To give you an understanding of how I aim to have your clothing compliment your locations, I paired this dress to the lighting of the grass and weeds, and the boys were paired with the dark shadows of the trees the overcast day created. Their jeans were paired to the blue hues of the sky and Daddy’s shirt was paired to the green tones in the trees.
Starting To Make Sense Right?!
BRING OPTIONS
First off, I always recommend that you bring a hand full of options. 3 or 4 pairs of bottoms, 4 or 5 tops each, then you can bring skirts, dresses and accessories like jackets, hats and so on. To get the best results I can pick and pull from the options you bring and we can even change again if we have time as we move through our location and feel that maybe one of the other options might look best. Doing it this way also gives us more control over making sure you compliment or stand out from your environments tones and colors. Also, just make sure you know that depending on where we are, you’ll probably be changing on the side of the road or in your car so, if you aren’t down for that that, that’s totally fine! Just come in the outfit that you are most comfortable in.
Make sure it makes sense
Think about the conditions and locations we are going to be shooting in and make sure you plan around that. If we are going to be hiking around in the mountains make sure you bring shoes that you are able to hike in (just put the heels in a back pack lol) If we are shooting in the fridged cold, bring lots of layer options like jackets, sweaters and beanies, wool or warm socks, boots or even cute props like blankets. If you know it’s going to be really hot, bring cloths that you can breath in. I can edit out some things but pit stains are always the worst!
PATTERNS + TEXTURES
Speaking on patterns, these photos here ae a perfect example of how SIMPLE AND SMALL patterns can be used to draw the viewers’ attention into your group. I’m always a fan of these country flower patterns but notice how the color scheme and overall look of this beautiful little girls dress compliments the tones and even feel of the environment around her. AVOID large, chunky and crazy patterns. Flannels are always a yes in my book! Also, you want to make sure that you avoid to many people in your group wearing patterns even if the patterns are not the same. They can end up making your photos feel very chaotic and distracting which, you guessed it, takes the eye away from the emotion and joy happening in the frame.
TEXTURES are similar in thought to patterns. If you location has a lot of texture through loads of trees, brush, rocks and so forth, adding to much texture to your outfit might cause you to blend in a little to much loosing the shape of your bodies against the background. Like wise if to many members of the group have textures and patterns, you’ll blend into each other making you look like a giant blob! HOWEVER, if your locations is calm and quiet lacking texture such as a beach, you could pair that with chunky knit sweaters, a patterned article of clothing etc. You could stand out in a beach setting with either louder clothing or contrast colored clothing.
In this BELOW photo here, the couple nails the use of patterns in the sense that the pattern colors in his flannel (brown, cream. grey and black) tone match not only her dress, but also the shadows and lights around them in their location!
movement.
PROPS
When bringing props to use, there are certain ones that are going to be timeless and age well, and then there are the Pinterest chalk boards that tend to go out of trend but unfortunately, have been immortalized by the photo. Some yes props I love are going to be your dogs, blankets and sheets, and sometimes depending on the location we can set up a little mini scene like in the historical photos below.
When choosing outfits, props to bring or even accessories, I always encourage folks to bring items that create energy through movement. These elements always, always, always enhances the look and feel of your photos. Stiffer materials in your outfits might hinder your movement and make you super uncomfortable anyways. In this photo example you can see how the movement of her dress really brings a sense of realness and understanding of the scene in her image.
LOGOS AND GRAPHIC TEES
I love a good graphic tee, especially if it complements your couple style and personality but, logos can go very, very wrong and just look a bit out of place so I usually recommend staying away from logoed clothing.
Q U E S T I O N S
I am available any time to answer any questions should you have them. I know this was probably extraordinarily overwhelming for you, but I promise no matter what, you’re going to have a good time and come out amazing. REMEMBER, these aren’t hard and fast rules, sometimes clients break the rules and it comes out great. Just know that these photos aren’t about perfection either. It’s about capturing your relationship with one another exactly as you are now.