Matching Up Outfits & Locations

What I hear most in the portrait photography world is that outfits are one of the top stressors of getting photos taken. I work very closely with my clients to alleviate as much pain as possible through educating them and I have another tidbit to share today!

Picking out your outfits is a big hurdle but it's not the only consideration. Once you have the pieces selected, no we need to plan which outfits go with which location! Let's set up a scenario. You have three outfits - a white dress, striped shorts with a light blue shirt, and jeans with a floral shirt. Let's say that the location is Belle Isle and you're planning to shoot at the fountain, the casino, and the beach/grassy area.

The first thing to decide is which outfit and location is your favorite. Obviously you should like all of them, but you're likely going to have a favorite :) If you're doing an evening session (which you totally should if you can make it work!), save your favorite location/outfit for last, when the light will be perfection!!

Here are some things to think about:

• Poses. If you were thinking about wearing your shorts in the long grass, are you okay with sitting in said long grass in shorts? If your dress is long, it might not be the best option for beach photos because you can't go in the water without getting wet.
  
• Location. Some outfits look better in certain settings. Jeans go great with more urban settings and florals look beautiful in the fields.
  
• Colors. While not a hard and fast rule by any means, if you are wearing a white dress against light stone, there will be less contrast. Similarly, wearing green in the grass doesn't stand out. Light colors are always gorgeous, but picking pastels or prints for your more urban locations might be better and you can save the neutrals for the grass and beach shots.
  

So working with our example, I would recommend the dress for the fountain and grass, shorts for the beach, and the jeans for the casino (the urban look).

If you need help figuring out which outfits should go with each location or what order the locations should be in, talk to your photographer! That's what we are here for! My personal philosophy is, I should be making as many recommendations as possible without telling you what to do :) Yes, I'm the photo expert, but you are the expert of you! The collaboration between photographer and client is such a special part of the experience, in my opinion :)