Why It's Hard To Choose What Everyone Is Wearing For Portraits
For some reason we expect to be able to pick out outfits for our family portraits ourselves. The ones who have done it previously probably already know how tricky and stressful this process can be.. and the Moms who haven’t, well, let’s just say that the ideal of perfectly coordinated family portraits isn’t as easy as we imagine it is.
In this post, you’ll find out exactly WHY it’s so hard to select clothing for everyone to wear during a family photo session and the process I personally use to style each and every family I work with.
COORDINATING IS HARDER THAN MATCHING
It’s no wonder we see so many families dressed identically in portraits. It’s simply easier to dress everyone in a white shirt and jeans and call it a day. Coordinating clothing - which simply means selecting colors that go together but aren’t the same - is much harder, especially once you consider all the different hues within a color (more on that below).
So how do you coordinate? My approach is to start with one person. Usually the hardest person to dress and the one with the least number of options. We pull all possible tops, bottoms, and dresses out of the closet and place them on the bed so we can easily view them all at once. Then, we move on to the rest of the family, with the same approach. We pull everything out that might work without forming any ideas or notions about what the final set of outfits would look like. And this is important - sometimes we might think we’ll go in a certain direction, only to change it completely once we see what other members of the family have as clothing options.
Once we have all possible outfits out and in front of us, I will start to put things together. This is the part that’s more art than science. There are rules that must be considered, but in the end, it’s really about making the best selection for each individual family. Sticking with a color theme works well - light colors together, blues and grays, jewel tones, dark color hues - and this is when the next step becomes important…
MAKING SURE COLORS MIX WELL TOGETHER
Even if two colors theoretically go well together based on scientific color principles, it’s still incredibly important to actually place those two colors next to each other. Every color has a specific hue, saturation, and brightness. So sometimes, even if the hues work well together, wearing a brightly-colored shirt next to a dull-colored one simply doesn’t work. Muted colors work well together and bright colors work well together, mixing them doesn’t. This is also why it’s so hard to order things online - it’s often impossible to tell what the color really looks like in real life when you’re reviewing them on a backlit LCD screen.
VISUALIZING IT ALL TOGETHER
Not all of us are visual thinkers. It’s notoriously hard to imagine how things will look if you’re not well practiced in the area. This is exactly why we place all the clothing options on the bed together, move them around, and pair them visually right in front of us. Imagining how things might look is simply not as efficient. This also avoids having to get other family members involved in the process. Once we pull things from their closet, they don’t really need to put on different options or try anything on. We can see right away if something will or will not work without their involvement.
KNOWING WHAT WILL PHOTOGRAPH WELL
We all take for granted the fact that real life and life captured on camera are two very different things. In real life, we see 3-dimensional objects that are never still (after all, we’re constantly adjusting our bodies and the expressions on our faces), but the camera captures a single moment, one that reveals a very different view on things. This is where fit becomes really important. Flowy and loose clothing might feel comfortable and look good in real life, but actually makes people look a lot larger in pictures. White will appear bigger than darker colors. And anything that doesn’t allow us to shape your body within a pose is going to "add 10 pounds”, as they say.
There is also the aspect of distraction. When putting family outfits together, anything that has a bold pattern or stripes will draw attention to itself. It’s always baffling to me when other photographers tell their clients to simply show up dressed as they like. That might work perfectly fine for everyday outings, but when you’re trying to create a portrait, you want people’s faces to be the primary point of focus in the image, not their shirt (at least that’s my opinion!).
So in the end, knowing what photographs well, which comes from tried and true rules married with experience and practice (like sitting down and getting direct feedback from clients on images) is one of the most important tools for selecting clothing. It’s why I don’t rely on my clients to go through this process alone.
KEEPING THINGS CLASSIC
As much as I love trends, wearing clothing that’s an example of current styles isn’t the best idea. In fact, it will be one of the fastest way to date your family portrait. Selecting outfits that are simple in their cut and style will always work out better in the end. The truth is, family portraits aren’t supposed to look good for a year. They’re supposed to be our cherished heirloom for decades. And when you look back on your own family photographs, trendy clothing and hair styles are the first and most distracting aspect of them! And this is exactly what I try to avoid when photographing families, which is why hair styling and clothing play such an important part of the process.
KEEPING STYLE PERSONAL
That doesn’t mean that personality preferences go out the window, though! In fact, because we select clothing from everyone’s existing wardrobe, we can be sure that we’re representing their style and preferences from the very beginning. I also always leave room for kids to change their minds and give them options. When I leave the Styling Appointment, I always give direction for best way to substitute items or what purchases can be made to fill in any holes. If a toddler really doesn’t want to wear the navy dress we picked out to go with the rest of the family, she can have the choice of wearing a blue shirt and a skirt. And if someone has an absolute favorite item they love to wear, we’ll even coordinate the whole family around that. After all, everyone we’re working with is a human being and we need to consider their emotions and preferences as much, if not more, than anything else.
I hope you found this information useful for your next photo opportunity! Let me know what you thought or if you have any questions in the comment box below.
