Photography Tips for the average Joe - Part Two (What to Wear - Formal Studio Shoot )

What props you use in your photos and how you dress can really affect the overall look of your photos. The best thing you can do is know in advance what kind of photos you are looking for. For example, do you want them bright and playful or sophisticated and formal? Once you know this you can plan your wardrobe and props accordingly.

Today we will cover formal in studio shoots. For this type of photo shoot you should "dress up" more then you would for other types of photo shoots.

A few ideas of what dressing up could mean:

• Dress pants and dress shirt, golf shirt or sweater
• Jeans and a dress shirt, golf shirt or sweater
• Khakis and a dress shirt, golf shirt or sweater
• A dress
• A skirt and top

Something to remember is shoes. If you are doing a more "casual" formal soot with jeans and a dress shirt you might opt for bare feet. For other more formal shoots you will probably want to wear shoes or socks. If you choose to do the shoot in socks then remember that everyone's socks should be plain in colour and blend. If everyone is wearing neutral colours for the photo but someone had on bright pink socks then that is all you would see and will end up being very distracting. If you decide to wear shoes then they will have to be clean on the bottoms in case this is shown in the photo and so that the back drop does not get dirty. Remember that everyone's shoes should go with the overall theme of the picture. For example, sneakers would look pretty silly if everyone is dressed up in formal attire.

Most people feel like everyone in the photo has to match but thats not necessarily the case. As long as the outfits are complimentary the photo will look great! For example, one person may be wearing a blue, black and green dress and another wearing a green shirt with gray pants and another wearing a gray sweater with black pants.  As long as the colours look good together then it will look fine in the photo. It can be nice to have people dressed differently as it can add subtle details to the photo. I say subtle because you never want to wear something that will take over the picture. For portraits you always want to make sure that the people are the main focus.

Things most people should avoid wearing for indoor formal studio shoots:

• Polkadots
• large prints
• extreme colours (i.e fluorescent)
• multiple colours

This is not to say that you should never wear these things, depending on what you are going for it could work but in most cases it doesn't.  You always need to keep in mind what you want your photos to look like in the end. If you are unsure of where to start I suggest you check out pictures online to see what type of photos you like and pay special attention to what the people in the photos are wearing. This will give you ideas for your own photos. You can then adapt these ideas to make them your own. If you have hired a photographer then you can always consult with them and they can also give you some guidance.

I hope this is helpful and feel free to contact me if you have questions.