Hooray! You made a great decision to invest in capturing your family’s beautiful memories. The session is scheduled. Now what? Anticipating your session day is exciting but it can also add unnecessary stress, especially when it comes to putting together your family’s wardrobe. Here are some simple tips that will help to ease the stress and allow you to enjoy the experience. What to wear – Spring/Summer Edition:
1. Coordinate and complement but not matchy-matchy
It doesn’t take an experienced stylist to put together a harmonizing wardrobe for your clan. Simply start by selecting the “anchor”. This person will carry a pattern and colors in the outfit that the rest of the group’s clothing or accessories pull from. It works out best if the “anchor” is the mom or a girl. So the idea here is to select an outfit for the female, then pull colors from her outfit to create a look for the others. Patterns are great way to accomplish this as long as it’s done in moderation. If your “anchor” is wearing a pattern, try to keep the rest of the family in simple, solid color pieces.
If you tend to favor neutral and pastel pallets, play with layers and textures. They play a key role in adding detail and depth to a photo.
In this example, the “anchor” is the little girl’s patterned dress. The dress showcases a beautiful pattern with shades of navy, pink, yellow, green and blue. Rest of the family’s outfits and accessories were pulled from coordinating and complementing colors and paired with some neutrals. Try identifying the “anchor” on the rest of the images posted below. :-)
2. Accessorize to add color and interest
Accessories bring flat images to life and tie everything together. Accessories can be in the form of scarves, hats, flowers in the hair for girls, jewelry, sweaters, vests, jackets, etc. However, less is more. Don’t choose accessories that overwhelm the subject or the photos.
3. Shoes do matter
You might wonder “who’s going to look at our feet?”. Well, the choice of shoes can make or break an outfit. Selecting the right pair of shoes can tie everything together and complete the feel of the session just like the accessories you choose. Treat shoes as another layer of accessory. Consider coordinating bright and colorful shoes with another person’s clothing or accessory. Another great option is NO shoes. Especially if you’ll be in poses where the bottoms of shoes can be seen – no amount of Photoshop magic will make that look pretty.
4. Location, location, location
Your wardrobe selection will/should be greatly influenced by the location of your photo shoot. Make sure your wardrobe complements the surroundings. For example, don’t wear formal outfits to a beach photo shoot.
