This has to be the biggest question in the history of pictures – ever.
I’m not sure how old you, my amazing reader, is…but I remember back to the glory days of having your picture taken and we had several options: Glamour Shots, in studio portraits or school pictures. While each of those different in their own right, they all required a certain – flair….basic awesomeness, am I right? With the exception of Glamour Shots – we were still required to really ponder this age old mystery of what do I wear?
While we have come a long way since those days, the question still remains. That’s why I have worked really hard to bring it all full circle for you and let you know – I’ve got this handled!
Overall, the most important aspect to whatever you choose to wear for your session is that you feel comfortable in your clothing. Now, I’m not referring to whether or not you choose to wear that alpaca hair sweater your Aunt Midge knitted for you – although I’d love to see that! – I’m talking simply about, when you put that outfit on, do you feel like you’re looking back at your own self? Do you constantly have to pull the clothing up or down to position it correctly or cover areas you didn’t want to be exposed? How is the fit of the garment you’re wearing? Do you and your significant other never dress up, but you’ve decided to do that for this and you feel completely uncomfortable in a dress and slacks? Because if you’re constantly worried about how your clothes look, you will feel and look uncomfortable during your session.
The next important thing to think about is, where are we having our images taken? Desert vs City will have their own looks that are great to highlight and take into account! For a desert session it would be better to have a more neutral color palette versus the city where you can get away with those bolder, darker colors that will blend so well with your location!
“But, Caitlin, are you saying I can’t wear that burgundy dress I’ve always wanted to wear in the desert?” Absolutely not! You wear what you LOVE and you rock it all the way!
Thirdly, when you think about the images and prints you will put up on your walls – where are you putting them? This may seem to be like an odd thing to think about, however, matching your color scheme to the location in your home that your images will be displayed is a big one – because you aren’t getting images to hide them on your hard drive or Facebook forever are you. Thinking about whether or not your clothing will be cohesive (not match, we’ll talk about this more a bit further down!) with your living space is a big deal! Hot pink + forest green may not be the color scheme you’re going for!
I said I’d talk about matching and this is a big one! I want you to take a second and say this with me – cohesive NOT matching. Ok, one more time for good measure – cohesive NOT matching. So, what do I mean? If we take it all the way back to the color wheel and elementary school and remember the color wheel and colors that complimented one another, it still relates to everyday life! There is a reason that Christmas colors are green & red, because they are across from each other on that color wheel, they compliment each other extremely well! Further, when it comes to adding pattern into your clothing, I highly recommend picking small pattern to incorporate and limiting it to no more than 2 people with pattern in their outfits. If there are only 2 of you involved in your session, the best plan would be to find colors for the other party out of the pattern colors in the main outfit. Small patterns photograph incredibly well also and making sure that the most important things, your beautiful, happy faces aren’t distracted from is such a big part of this!
At the end of the day, however, I make sure to spend as much time as I’m available to helping each of you feel successful in the area of outfits. Each of my clients has access to an in depth style guide, Pinterest boards, maternity sessions get access to my closet of gowns and I open myself up to client styling in either appointment style or via text message.
I am on your team – so do not feel dismayed or alone!
-Caitlin
