One of the most frequently asked questions we get when our clients are preparing for their photo session is “what should we wear?” 

Our goal with the images we create is ensure that we create beautiful, timeless pieces of art for your family. We always want the focus of the portraits we create in our studio to be on your faces and expressions. Keeping your wardrobe very simple, and even monotone, helps ensure that whatever we create for you will be completely timeless both when you see your images for the first time AND 30 years from now when you’re sharing them with your family. 

Below we’ve shared a few “Dos and Don’ts” when it comes to choosing what to wear for your portrait session. 

What to Wear for your Studio Portrait Session

What to Wear for your Studio Portrait Session: Dos

1. Dark Colors: Dark tones like black, navy, dark gray, and even red and rich jewel tones tend to look best with our hand-painted background. They also are more flattering, and ensure that the brightest point of your photos (where you want your focus to be) is your facial expressions instead of what you’re wearing. This doesn’t mean that your whole family has to wear black tee-shirts, just that you should try to stay in the same dark tone colors. It’s perfectly fine if someone is wearing navy, while someone else is wearing charcoal, and another person is in black. 

2. Different Textures: To bring some personality and interest to your photos while still keeping everyone in the same color, we recommend incorporating different textures into your wardrobe. Again, not everyone has to be wearing the same black tee-shirt. Maybe the little ones wear navy cotton tee-shirts, while one parent wears a linen button-up shirt and the other a knitted sweater. Incorporating different textures into your wardrobe will help break up the same colors that you’re wearing without taking away from your facial expressions. 

3. Long Sleeves: For adults especially, we recommend wearing a long sleeve top. Not only will long sleeves keep your attention on your facial expressions, but long sleeves are also always more flattering on adults since they slim everything down a little bit more. 

4. Classic Profiles & Cuts: To help keep your images timeliness, we recommend sticking to classic profiles and cuts of clothing. Things like patterns and cut-outs can not only be distracting, but can also date your photos, something you don’t necessarily want if you’re investing in custom wall art for your home after your session. 

5. Casual and/or Dressy: Feel free to bring something dressy to wear in addition to something more casual. While we’ve had families happy with their jeans and tee-shirts, or with everyone in button-downs and dresses, we’ve found over time that most of our clients appreciate having photos to choose from that include a few options of each so they can easily display their beautiful, formal, family portrait (in dressy clothes), but also share their family members’ personalities in something more casual. 
6. Press your Clothes: While we can work a little bit of retouching magic to fix wrinkled clothing in post-production, it is never perfect and it is extremely expensive. It’s much more optimal if you go ahead and press your clothes before your session. Not only will we get to skip the expensive retouching, but you’ll also feel more confident in what you’re wearing! 

What to Wear for your Studio Portrait Session: Don’ts

1. Patterns Big or Small: As much as we wish they wouldn’t, patterns on clothes are one of the biggest distractions in professional photos, and oftentimes the reason a client doesn’t love their photos – because they’re wearing a pattern that’s too busy. For that reason we recommend avoiding clothing with any pattern or logos. If you’re trying to find something that adds some interest to your photos, we recommend adding some texture (see above). 
2. Light or Pastel Colors: Like we mentioned above, the goal with the photos we create is for the attention to be on your facial expressions. In any finished photograph, the brightest part of the photo is where your eye will be drawn, and unfortunately if you wear lighter or pastel colors your eye will be drawn to your clothes instead of your faces. Additionally, lighter or pastel colored clothing also tends to be not as flattering as darker colors.
3. Mixing Dark and Light Colors: We understand that finding all black shirts in different textures might not be the easiest thing to achieve, but we strongly discourage you from mixing darker and lighter colors. Again, the lighter colors tend to distract and take away from your facial expressions. 
4. Sneakers and White Socks: Although adult feet will not likely be seen in your finished photos, we highly encourage you to avoid wearing white socks and sneakers to your photo session. The bright white against a dark background and with additional dark colors will distract from your beautiful facial expressions. Children are more than welcome to go barefoot in the studio, and you’re more than welcome to wear sandals, or whatever type of shoe you’re comfortable in outside of sneakers. 

What to Wear for your Studio Portrait Session: Kiddos

1. Bring Extra Clothes, just in case. As a parent I know how often unexpected messes or accidents can happen and we want to make sure that your kiddos are looking and feeling their best, especially when it comes to toddlers and babies! Toddlers and babies are more than welcome to go barefoot for your session as well. If your child has a favorite lovie or blanket, feel free to bring that with you (these always make such sweet photos!), or if they have a hobby or play a sport you’re more than welcome to bring that equipment with you as well. 
2. Sports accessories, uniforms, props like hats, bows and even instruments are a fun way to tell the story of your child.

I hope this helps as you prepare for your upcoming photo session! Keep scrolling for more outfit ideas! If you have any questions, concerns, or are unsure how clothes look together please feel free to reach out so we can make sure that you’re feeling your best before your session! 

Xoxo,

Kelli

Portrait Club by Kelli Wilke is a fine art portrait photography studio based in Wilmington, Delaware and Jackson, Wyoming.

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