Images by Dana
Key Points to Remember When Choosing Your Portrait Clothing and Accessories for your Family Portrait (children and senior portraits follow different rules at times)
Keep it
simple,
love it
forever!
KEEP IT SIMPLE
The biggest suggestion is: Keep it simple! the busy clothing.
We want to be drawn to the faces in the image, not
SOLIDS vs BUSY PATTERNS
Solid colors work best. Patterns should be used sparingly and need be simple and soft. Keep plaids and bold patterns out of the image unless they blend and compliment extremely well the other colors in the portrait. They must be subtle. Logos, patterns, stripes, and certain styles will date your portraits and compete with your face for attention.
BASE CLOTHING
TOPS
Base clothing refers to the pants, skirt or article of clothing that you wear waist down. This item anchors the image. Play it “safe” and go with a black, blue, denim or khaki base. Everyone should have a similar base—the more alike the base, the more uniform the image. The more uniform the image, the more we are drawn to the faces in the image as opposed to the varying colors and patterns.
Tops should accent the base. Choose colors which flatter your skin tones. Stay in the same “color palette” Consider a color tone for the shirts that is very similar—(ex. all white, all blue, all green etc.). The shirts do not have to be identical in style, just very close in color. If you are more daring, choose a variety of different shirts/ tops/ blouses BUT choose only colors in the same tonal family and those which compliment each other (ex. all pastels OR all variations of a mid-tone color OR all jewel tones, etc.).
BARE SKIN
The less skin showing on adults the better, especially women unless you are of a petite build. Sleeveless is to be avoided as often as possible. 3/4 or full-length sleeves work best. Usually women photograph better in capris, long pants or longer styled skirts.
ACCESSORIES JEWELRY Jewelry is fine and it can be fun if you are into funky necklaces, etc. However—Funky shouldn’t be overdone, basic should be simple. And often times watches and other items may actually be distracting. If you are unsure, bring along a couple of options and I will help you decide. Females, steer clear of dangling earrings which have a flat disk shape as they often act like little “mirrors” and reflect light back into the camera lens.
SHOES Don’t let your shoes dominate the portrait—be sure to consider how they complement the rest of your outfit. Often barefoot is best, especially on young children and beach portraits.
GLASSES Consider Not wearing glasses Removing lenses If neither is an option, we can retouch the final portraits to remove glass glare, however, that art fee is passed on to you (nominal charge depending upon type of portrait ordered). Please do not wear the lenses that change color when in the sun for an outdoor portrait. You will look like you are wearing sunglasses!
FLOWERS A basket of flowers, which Dana will be happy to arrange for you, should be brought to your outdoor, natural light session. For a fee, I will gladly provide flower arrangements if prior arrangements are made. I also have a selection of baskets which work well for portraits if you are bringing your own flowers.
PROPS Keep props to a minimum—example, a simple book to read to a child.
Okay...so let’s get started
planning your portrait...
Start with a base color—the underlying base which you will choose to build color upon for your portrait. Good examples of “bases” are Docker style “khaki” or denim pants. Docker type pants should all be close to the same tone (ex. green tone, tan tone, navy, black, beige, khaki, etc). Denim should also all be similar—either all dark, all medium, or all light. Bases should be pants, skirts, dresses, jumpers or capris. It is not advised that shorts be worn by women. Please do not put everyone in pants and one person in shorts (applies to adults). Add tops—“Safe” colors (below) for tops are whites, ivories, blacks, browns, or simple colors which match in tone but not necessarily in style. For example, everyone in your portrait wears a white shirt—could be a polo, button down, or pressed, non-ornamental dress t-shirt.
Tops can be more daring — complimentary but not “matchy matchy” -- if you add variations of color, they should compliment one and other 100%. You can incorporate a base of a different color (usually for a woman in the portrait), and it may be accented by a complimentary belt or scarf, etc. See the following pages “CLOTHING OPTIONS” for some thoughts and ideas if you want to venture beyond “safe” and explore complimentary.
Then start thinking about subtle props...
CLOTHING Where to start...in your closet of course.
Clothing Option #1 Below—Image B Above—Image A
Good color choices Plaid does not distract from faces; plaid works because white, yellow and blue compliment other shirt colors Two blues work because they are in the same color range even though they do not match exactly Notice pants in Image B anchor the color scheme better, Image A pants are acceptable, but Image B are preferable
Clothing Option #2
Satisfactory color choices but green stands out a bit too much Plaid does not distract from faces; plaid works because white, yellow and blue compliment other shirt colors Notice all pants are the same color tone
Clothing Option #3
Good color choices if you like to add some color—complimentary colors in the same color pallette The striped shirt does not distract from faces, it is SUBTLE—it works because the colors compliment the other shirt colors and there are no distinct light and dark areas Solid shirts work because they are in the same color/ tonal range Notice pants work because they are basically the same color A nice splash of summer for a summer portrait— a basket of coordinating flowers
Clothing Option #4
A nice palate of colors—blue skirt has two tone blue (as opposed to a strong white and blue pattern which would be too confusing to the eye) Both blues of skirt tie in with the shirts Base color in pants keeps a simple “platform” around which to build the color choices
Clothing Option #5
Another nice selection of colors—notice how the scarf/ belt really pulls everything together while not distracting from the overall color scheme With colors up top, solid base anchors clothing
Clothing Option #6
Overall, pretty boring options—needs a bit of color from a scarf, tie belt, etc.
Not good choices...notice how the lone blue shirt really stands out because the colors are not in the same palate; the white, yellow, and plaid shirts are safe choices but the fourth shirt should also be very pale/ soft to compliment the first three Also, it would be a better choice to have all pants in the same color tone
Clothing Option #8
Not complimentary…
Again, too many things going on with these selections—too many base colors and the green does not match the tone of the other three shirts at all
Sample Portraits Notice the variations in clothing choices‌ Which look do you like better? Complimenting one and other or matching one and other?
If you like matching then you will probably like these images.
Pale blues
Whites
White and pastel pinks, pink flower accents
Khaki base, green accents over white
The contrast of dark and light, dark colors in the same tonal range
Dark, non-descript, non-competing colors (her arms are ok, she has beautiful, youthful skin)
Dark khaki and ivory—casual, simple, you barely notice what they are wearing, notice the half sleeves
Safe, easy to organize, probably in your closet—blacks and whites
If you like coordinating then you will probably like these images “Safe” two-tone white and blue (blues compliment one and other)
Complimentary— Green accents make this image stand-out unique, the floral has no high or low areas—it blends well...these colors would work as well in a field as on the beach
You will enjoy these portraits for many years to come if you invest some time choosing clothing that helps to enhance the image. Ultimately, we want to be drawn to faces, not outfits. Minimal skin showing. Colors that are flattering. Styles that are simple and timeless... Most of the images in this document are 10-15 years old...yet they are still “pretty” by today's styles and standards. Styles change. Keep your portrait clothing simple and classic. One of the best ways to accomplish that goal is to choose clothing which does not “date” the portrait. I am happy to look at clothing or pictures of clothing to help you make decisions!
Images by Dana 443.465.5050 www.imagesbydana.com danarampolla@gmail.com