Heather Johnson Photography// What to Wear:

You have booked a photo session with your favorite photographer. You have had a consultation, your prepared to the terms of your contract, you have paid the session fee, and picked the perfect location, and you love the style your photographer represents.

Have you considered what to wear for your session? Have you exhausted all option on what to wear for your upcoming session? What to wear should not be the cause of your unneeded stress, but it should be part of your preparation. Your in luck, we have done the work for you.

For your family portrait session or kids photographs we want all of you to look your very best. Most people get portraits taken in lifes most beautiful milestones, we wanted to give you a few ideas to make sure your clothing choices count.

What Not to Wear

1. Clingy Clothing (Yoga Pants)

No matter what body type you have clothing items such as yoga pants, clingy pants, active wear, exercise clothing, tennis skirts, and clothing made of stretchy material. Clothing that shows every curve do not make great choices for These style choices don't make you look great in portraits. These types of clothing accent all areas where you carry extra weight. We want to hide these areas.

2. Hoodies, Baseball Caps, T-Shirts with Logos

Your Photos will outlast your favorite Disney sweatshirt, your favorite sports team, or your favorite restaurant. Your really do not want to advertise for free do you? I highly recommend you skip the baseball cap, t-shirts, and hoodies with logos small stripes, and contrast patterns. These types of clothing look unflattering in digital or printed images. Your son or daughter might look adorable in her new t-shirt memorabilia from disney. Do you really want to advertise for a old product or brand 10 years from now above the mantle. Do you want to look back on your childs life and see her fleeting disney idol. These are clothing ideas we would recommend against.

3. Busy Patterns or Contrast Colors

A big No is for busy patterns or busy designs of bright colors. Leave behind your safety orange t-shirt even if its a solid color, small stripes, and high contrast patterns.

4. Too Casual clothing

I am not suggesting you wear your tuxedo or your evening gown you wore on New Years Eve. There are certainly shoots where this is appropriate. If you have done all the work to prepare for a professional portrait, you should dress the part. We are just asking that you not wear what you would marathon binge watch Netflix in your bedroom. ( We are saying this in the kindest way ).

Clothing Options

1. Unfortunately, We have ruled out many options for your clothing choices but you have many options to choose from. What you will wear will depend on the time of year, location of your session, time of year, and something you feel comfortable in and unique to you. Here are a few of our tips on what to wear since we have covered what we hope you do not wear.

2. Solid or earth tones Simple earthy tones are best; blue tones, earth tones, neutrals, pastels; We want to notice your face before your outfit

3. Makeup Keep it simple; stay away from a harsh eyeliner and bright color eyeshadow; neutrals are best with a pop of color. Wedding makeup is a good idea the look we are going for here

4. Keep Jewerly Simple or don’t wear it

5. Low contrast outfits (if your shirt is pure white, go for lighter color bottom pieces). This is an exception to the rule you can also wear dark jeans. Or khakis as well.

6. Flatter your figure–don’t wear clothes that are entirely too tight or loose, or clothes that accentuate your insecurities. Wear something you feel beautiful in. Wear something that fits that shows off your figure

7. Wear sleeves or quarter-sleeves if weather permits. In my experience, the women I photograph are most insecure about the way their arms appear. Covering your arms may take the focus away from them and flatter their shape at the same time.

8. Dress in flowing skirts, pants, or dresses. There is just something about a long flowy dress that photographs so beautifully, and you will have so much fun wearing one!

9. Wear your hair how you like it, but typically stay away from ponytails. Typically, the looser and more flexible the style, the better! Especially, for a beach shoot your hair should not have too much hairspray it looks plastic. Your hair should frame your face

10. Coordinate your clothing–in group photos, try to keep everyone on the same page and color palette of 2-4 colors. The best tip I recommend for a place to start your family outfit planning is to pick one item of clothing with a few colors (like mom or daughter’s dress) and pull colors from that for everyone else to wear. Dress like you go together.

11. Be Yourself

You want your photos to look like you, bare the above suggestions in mind, ultimately wear something you feel comfortable in. possible) Specifically stay away from tank tops, tops with bra straps showing, white tees with underarm stains, strapless tops, sweatpants, hats, and your favorite sports jersey. Sure there are exceptions to every rule, unless you have discussed this with your photographer lets rule these clothing choices out.

12. Choose Your Palette First

Pick a palette of 3-4 colors. Think in terms of tones: blue tones, earth tones, neutrals, pastels, etc. Everyone in the family can express their own sense of style within a color palette, and the whole group will coordinate beautifully.”

13. Coordinate, Not Match

when yours deciding what to wear for photos. Start with the youngest and pull colors from their outfit to dress and layer everyone else. Layering can make a huge difference in tying colors together. If they still need help, I will put together a fashion board of outfit examples ”