What to Wear for Portraits -Family Portraits

What to Wear for Portraits 

KEEP IT SIMPLE: 
Keep your clothing simple, coordinating, but not matching. It must be carefully selected to blend the bodies together. Avoid loud or busy patterns and large logos. Solid colors are best. First, decide whether the basic tone of the clothing will be warm-toned (browns, etc.) or cool-toned (blues/grays/blacks, etc.) Keeping a group in similar colors focuses the attention of the portrait to the faces and individuals that make up the portrait. Dissimilar colors in groups tend to be more distracting. 

A WORD ABOUT WHITE: 
White is great if we are going to the beach for portraits, but otherwise it’s to be avoided. White tends to wash people out and generally is brighter than you are. We want you to shine and not just see your white shirts.
 
A WORD ABOUT BLACK: 
Black is classic and always in style – looks good in just about every environment – except the beach, where white is your best choice. Black by itself can be boring, so adding a pop of color with belts, scarves or other accessories is great; or pairing a black jacket over a bright top is also a great choice. 

NO TO PLAID, STRIPES, LARGE PRINTS, & NEON! 
Plaid, small checks, stripes, and loud large prints & neon are very distracting in an image; we highly recommend you avoid all of these for your portrait. 

CHOOSE YOUR COLOR PALETTE: 
Matching colors or similar colors and tones make for a great choice. Here are some ideas for your color choices based on your location. 
•Wooded area: Greens, Browns, Greys, Black – accented with yellows, reds, blues, and purples
•Downtown area: Grey, Black, Blue – accented with reds and blues

COORDINATE OR MATCH Everyone should have color-coordinated outfits (not a uniform necessarily, but there should be a theme). For the children, choose outfits that fit well without a lot of “growing room.”

Keep everyone with the same color on the bottom, so if you are going with jeans make sure everyone’s jeans are similar in tone. You DO NOT want a washed, faded jean with a dark jean; keep it the same… change it up on the top. 

WHERE TO START: 
If you are struggling, I suggest you choose a color that you can start with: If you like purple, then you can mix greys and blacks with a variety of shades of purple. If you like green, then browns and blacks tend to look nice with that. Think in terms of keeping the family in the same palette of colors. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and look at color swatches of one main color with variations. Layers are always good and can add a pop of color or bring things together. 

SOME EXAMPLES

ON THE BOTTOM 
Keep everyone with the same color on the bottom, so if you are going with jeans make sure everyone’s jeans are similar in tone. You DO NOT want a washed, faded jean with a dark jean; keep it the same… change it up on the top. 
WHERE TO START: 
If you are struggling, I suggest you choose a color that you can start with: If you like purple, then you can mix greys and blacks with a variety of shades of purple. If you like green, then browns and blacks tend to look nice with that. Think in terms of keeping the family in the same palette of colors. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and look at color swatches of one main color with variations. Layers are always good and can add a pop of color or bring things together. 

IDEA CLOSET 
Here are some ideas grabbed from the web; this is to give you some ideas and direction: 
Brown & Orange --- the plaid on a little guy is okay but not for the adults…


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This grouping is great for holiday portraits that are winter themed: green and navy; OR red and black