Styling Your Wardrobe for Your Session
Styling your wardrobe for your session may seem like a daunting task. However, wardrobe has one of the biggest impacts on the way your images turn out! If choosing what to wear for your session feels overwhelming, we’ve got you covered here at Island Style Images. Whitney, my stylist, and I help our photography clients with ideas on what to wear as well and offer links for purchasing pieces for your photography session.
How does styling affect your photography session?
There is a reason we often struggle with choosing what to wear. It’s because we know that what we wear has the ability to affect the way we look. Choosing the right colors, patterns, fabrics and fits can make you feel confidently beautiful for your session. Nothing makes a photography session shine quite like confidence!
When you are wearing a piece that flatters you, works well with the session location and your photographer’s editing style and coordinates beautifully with everyone else in your photoshoot, your images get an automatic upgrade! On the other hand, choosing outfit colors that don’t match the location or your photographer’s editing style can make your images feel off. Patterns that are too distracting may take away from the images as well.
Styling your wardrobe for your session in the right way has a major impact on the final results. It can be easy to choose an outfit for yourself for your session. But styling your family’s wardrobe and coordinating your outfits can be a lot trickier.
Coordinating Your Family’s Wardrobe
One of the biggest struggles clients experience when selecting a wardrobe for their session, is how to coordinate everyone’s outfits so they feel cohesive and put together for your session. Our biggest advice is to coordinate your wardrobe, don’t “match” or put everyone in the exact same outfit! But how?
Whitney, my stylist, and I will use these three basic principles to create a mood board to help you style your wardrobe for your session:
Choose a Color Palette
Whether your family likes neutral tones or bold colors, choosing a color palette is the perfect start to styling your wardrobe for your session. A color palette with at least 3 to 5 different colors works best. You can search for color palettes that you like on Pinterest or Whitney and I are happy to suggest color palettes we think will work wonderfully for your session.
Avoid Distracting Patterns or Designs
Patterns that are too busy can sometimes make photos appear pixelated or overwhelming. On the other hand, finding the right pattern that isn’t too small or too big can help add a fun visual element to your images. You also want to avoid certain designs on children’s outfits, like character shirts, to help your photos feel professional.
Select Appropriate Fabric for the Season and Session Location
Fabric also plays a huge role in the outcome of your session. Certain fabrics like lace, fur or leather can add texture to your images, making them more visually appealing. The right fabric can also coordinate well with your session’s location. For example, if you are doing a session at the beach, we would suggest light and airy fabrics that are comfortable and tie in well with the setting.
Styling Your Wardrobe for Your Session
Styling your wardrobe is a big part in planning for your session. I want you to enjoy your session with me and feel completely confident and relaxed in front of the camera. That’s why Whitney and I prioritize helping you select the perfect wardrobe for your session. You and your family will look and feel your best and your pictures will turn out as beautiful as possible!
Below is an example of a mood board we created and the final wardrobe for Whitney’s family session in Saguaro National Park in Arizona to help give you an idea of how we plan a wardrobe to style a session. This session was so fun and loving! The style helped elevate their session to create images that will be treasured for years to come.
Want to book your session with me? Contact me here to get started.
Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest for more inspiration and ideas for your family session!
