You’ve got your engagement session coming up, but stuck on what to wear? That’s okay! I struggle with what to wear to work from home in my office. I also have, like most of a master bedroom closet full of clothes, so choices are overwhelming.
I shoot bright and bold looks for my photography style, what I like to call, clean, fresh, and fun! When it comes to your outfits, depending on the outfits you choose, your photos can have a more romantic style or a much bolder one. Here’s how to pick outfits for each!
Romantic styles:
This is the light and airy look with the dreamy color schemes. By choosing neutral and light colors, you’ll get that warm, and bright look across your photos.
You’ll want to choose colors like blushes, tans, light pinks, faint blues, and light minty teals, creams, grays, and whites.
More feminine-like styles such as ruffle dresses and skirts that are very flowy in a breeze always photograph beautifully. Dresses and skirts with lots of layers are perfect for this look, too. You would be amazed at how impactful moving fabric softens an image.
To keep your photos as light as possible, consider wearing khakis or lighter-colored pants instead of dark jeans. You can wear a fun color on the bottom like pink, baby blue, or even white!
Bold styles:
This is the more vibrant look with slightly heavier shadows because of the outfit.
If you do go for a pattern, make it a large one! Smaller patterns are quite often difficult to photograph. Some small patterns are still okay, but as a general rule, stick to larger patterns.
Only one of you should wear the bold color. If you’re going for the bright and bold look, and you want to do it well visually, one of you should wear the bold color and the other should stick to solid neutrals so you don’t overdo it!.
Of course, talk to me when you need help deciding! Not only am I a photographer, but I also worked in fashion retail for 4 years. Specifically, I spent a couple of those years at maurices, where I picked outfits for my customers personally. I’d love to talk about fashion with you!
Some other things to keep in mind are:
1 – Avoid colors like neons, bright oranges, and bright reds because they reflect poorly on skin tones and can be difficult to edit.
2 – Avoid patterns that are smaller than a quarter because of a strange effect called chromatic aberration, which happens in the camera.
3 – Avoid matching too much; for example, if one of you is wearing dark pants, the other should wear a light-colored bottom. Another example is if one of you is wearing a dark navy top, the other shouldn’t wear a dark or similarly-colored top. Color coordination helps balance out an image.
4 – Avoid one outfit being casual while the other one is dressy. It’s not wrong per se, but it does unbalance the image and make it look awkward.
5 – Avoid tennis shoes/sneakers, graphic tees, bold logos on shirts, sunglasses, and baseball hats.
-Taliya Michelle
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Engagement Session Outfit Planning
If you're new here, then let me welcome you to my blog! I am Taliya Michelle owner of TM Grey Photo. I am a New Jersey based Wedding & Portrait photographer as well as a Private Photo Editor. I of course serve New Jersey couples, but I travel to Connecticut, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, and wherever happy couples need their love stories told.
This is a place where I can journal about my lovely clients, what's going in my world, and of course give tips to all the future spouses and photographers alike. Be sure to check my instagram for the latest!
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