by Courtney Fanning
Finding great outfits for your photo session can be stressful! Whether you are planning for you and your fiance or a full family, choosing outfits can make a big difference to the story of your images. Now I don’t make it all about the outfits, BUT if you are choosing distracting colors or patterns it can take the focus off of your and on to your clothes.
Avoid Bold Colors
My first tip is to avoid bold colors! Not only do they distract from your beautiful faces BUT the colors will bounce the light around and cause your skin tone to look funny. Crazy right! Just as the ocean looks blue from the bouncing color of the sky, bright colors can bounce onto your face making it very unflattering.
Lean Toward Solids, Minimize Patterns
I love a good flowy flower pattern dress and if you find the right one, go for it! But then dress everyone else in solid layers. The best thing is to dress only one person in a pattern (if you have a large family, maybe two) and everyone else is in different solid colors. When it comes to colors, choose 2-3 colors and pick ANY tones within those colors. For example, if you choose blush, mint and navy you will want to pick different tones within these colors not all exactly the same color!
Add Layers
Adding layers creates beautiful texture and dimension within your photos. This means adding vests on little girls or even a skirt with straps over their shirt! For little boys you could add a sweater or suspenders. Add jackets in the fall or vests in the summer. Without layers, your photo can seem very flat. Mix colors with your layers as well!
Think Timeless
One think I always mention to my clients is to think “timeless” when they choose outfits, especially for engagements. These are images you will be looking at for years and decades. Trends change! Think about when you look back at your parents or grandparents photos, often times we giggle about the clothes and hair styles instead of focus on the pure love they expressed. What if when you look at your images in 30 years, your grandkids just see honest love! How amazing would that be! Now if you want to be trendy, by all mean make your heart happy! But dressing timeless is simple, muted colors can be very beautiful for generations!
COMFORT
The last and probably most important tip is to ALWAYS CHOOSE COMFORT! Make sure you can move around easily, especially for my type of sessions where we do a lot of moving! You also want to choose something that makes you happy so you let loose and relax easier on photo day! Make sure you feel darn stunning in whatever you choose!!! That is number one FO SHO!!!!
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