Caring, award-winning family portrait and lifestyle photographer, offering studio or location photography at an affordable price.
Ever have that feeling of “I have no clothes to wear!”?
Never will it feel more appropriate than as you decide what to wear, or put your children in, for a photo shoot.
But actually, we probably worry too much about this. After all, the photographs are meant to be of you (or them), not your clothes. If all else fails, keep it simple.
Saying that, there are some simple golden rules to get the best results from your lifestyle photography. Here are our 5 top tips for making your clothing work for you.
If you’re in the photography studio, you aren’t going to need to worry about keeping warm or dry, whereas outdoors you may need to layer up.
Whilst for both you’ll need to avoid clashing with your surroundings, a backdrop in the studio is likely to be less ‘busy’ and therefore more flexible towards patterns or colours that may over-contrast when on location - you probably want to avoid wearing green if you’re shooting in a woodland park for example, unless you want to blend in!
Very carefully.
I always recommend to our visitors to avoid wearing bright colours, as this will naturally distract the eye away from your face in any photographs. Particularly in the studio, wear more subdued colours and, for shoots with multiple people, try to wear complementary colours without stark contrasts.
Where bright colours work exceptionally well are outdoor photo shoots. Imagine a bright yellow coat in a forest of green, red wellies in the autumn leaves or a blue shirt on golden sands at the beach.
Understand what colours and props are being used in your photo shoot and coordinate accordingly. Quite an easy task on, for example, a Christmas shoot, but we recommend always checking, or asking for recommendations, to make sure you get the best results.
If they’re using a white backdrop, you’re best avoiding wearing a white dress as you might fade into the background (imagine a floating head!).
By this, we mean avoid fashion trends, obvious brand logos or anything that will have a time limit. You want your images to last more than a season and particularly with children who may find an outfit uncool or embarrassing within a short time frame.
Remember, black tones can be slenderising, and light colours (particularly white) can bring a fresh feel to your images; sometimes the most simple are the most effective.
Not exactly clothing, but very important all the same.
With lifestyle photography, you want to appear as natural and close to the ‘real you’ as possible, so if you would normally wear a lot of makeup then by all means stick to it, but avoid vividly distracting colours that could detract from the overall image.
Also bear in mind that fake tan, or colour-changing makeup in browns or oranges will stand out 10 times more than usual - particularly if your photo shoot is light, bright and airy - so try to dull it down. Avoid hairstyles that cover your face or prevent you from freely moving and keep accessories subtle.
We hope you find these tips useful in deciding how to dress for your photo shoot. We’re more than happy to make recommendations should you need; just drop us a message.