One of the questions I get asked most frequently by my clients is, "what should we wear to our session with you?". I honestly LOVE advising you guys on how to dress for your session. I love it when you bring half of your wardrobe with you to our time together and let me pick out pieces for you to wear in your photos. I never imagined that in addition to my role as a photographer I would also be a wardrobe stylist! When it comes to dressing YOU and your family for your session with me I am all ideas and clever combinations, BUT forget about it when I am in front of the camera! I am much better at dishing out advice then taking my OWN advice for myself!

There are several things I tell most of my clients when consulting them with their outfit selections, and several things I wish my clients would go out on a limb and try! I am going to sharee all those juicy tips with you guys today. Keep reading for 7 tips when dressing for your photography session with m.newsom photography!

1. Stay Timeless

It may seem like the best idea to wear your newly purchased chevron skirt that matches your kids chevron dresses to your first family session in five years, but consider this scenario: You LOVE the photos you took with your two pre-teen daughters and your husband and have purchased several huge wall art pieces to display proudly in your home for years. Since you've invested so much money, you know these prints will be hanging at LEAST until your grand babies make their appearance 15 years down the road. But, three years later the bright chevron trend is a thing of the past, and each time you pass your large photo wall-art you can only think of how dated your photos look.. and you continue to regret spending so much money on those pieces. You would love to have another session, but you know that realistically you cannot afford to do that while your paying for cheerleading uniforms and braces.

Instead of regretting your beautiful wall-art of your family portraits, why not choose outfits for your family that are on-trend, BUT are also timeless? Think of things that have never gone out of style, black dresses, a great pair of jeans, simple hair styles and good fitting clothing. Because you will be making the decisions for your family's attire for your big photo session, try to dress them in something they feel confident in, while staying away from things that are too trendy. Play to your family member's personalities while also keeping in mind pieces of clothing they feel confident in. You won't regret staying away from the seasonal trends 15 years down the road when your photos are still proudly displayed on your walls!

Tips:

Stay away from logos and lettering on t-shirts. These always date your photos.
Look at magazines from 10 years ago. What colors are people still wearing today? Most likely neutrals like greys, whites, blacks and browns.
Always stay away from red. Always.
You can always add a trendy hat or scarf to a simple outfit to show more of your personality or bring pops of color into your photographs.
Stripes are always a win. Big, small, vertical or horizontal, they add lots of personality to your photos without being too "on trend".

2. Consider Your Home Decor

When dressing yourself for your session, it is always important to think about what you want your end product to be. Do you want to display your photos in your home? If so, will they go in your bedroom, your kitchen, your living room or study? Will you only want your photos to share online? Do you not want to display any photos in your home and only have and album made to commemorate your session? These are important things to ask yourself while you are thinking about your wardrobe.

If you DO want to display your photos in your home (whether in frames or in wall-decor) it is important to make sure your clothing choices will match your furniture and accessories in your home. It would be impratical to dress you and your fiancé in bright purple if your living room paint is pink. Those two colors would clash and would not be complementary! If your home is bright and bold, then dress bright and boldly! If your home has warmer colors you could either follow a similar color palette OR you could dress in brighter complementary colors to add a pop of color into your living area.

Always remember to tell your photographer about your intentions for your time together and what the inside of your home looks like! This will help him/her decide on locations and will also help them in guiding you to great outfit choices.

3. Consider Previous Sessions

Are you planning for your engagement session photographs and already know what colors you want to use for your wedding? Consider wearing coordinating colors for your engagement session so that you can pair engagement session photos with your wedding photos well on your (or your parents!) walls.

Another multisession time in people's lives are their maternity + newborn sessions. They usually come a few months apart, and mothers always want to place their maternity photos with precious photos of their new child! Consider dressing in the same color family when you get each of these sessions taken so that your photos will hang on display in your home seamlessly.

4. Make Sure You Feel AWESOME

Are you planning to wear a new maxi skirt you just got, but you HATE the way it feels around your waist? Don't wear it! If you LOVE the way your old jeans fit, then PLEASE wear your old jeans with a new top you feel great in. The way you feel in your clothing will translate into the way you feel about yourself in your photos. If you think you feel like runway model in your cut off jeans and white v-neck t shirt, then put that outfit on with some fun shoes, a great statement necklace and a head scarf and wear that to your session!

Apply the same rules when you dress your family members. If your husband NEVER wears a button up and khakis, then don't force him to wear it in his photos.. let him wear what he feels comfortable in. If your kids have been obsessing over star wars the past year and they won't go anywhere without their light sabers (did I spell that right?!) then by all means, let them bring them to their photo session! If your kids feel most awesome when they are in their undies playing in the mud, then that's where we need to be taking their photos!! You will look back on them in 10 years and love those pictures MUCH MORE than you would have loved photos of them in their Sunday best looking stuffy and bored.

When you allow yourself and the people you love to be comfortable and completely themselves, their personalities will shine in their photographs.

5. Coordinate (without coordinating)

Gone are the days where family photos means putting on matching jeans and white button up shirts. So, if we can't coordinate with our black v-necks anymore, then HOW in the world to I coordinate my family? Think back to tip #2. Your home decor is most likely several different color pallets. Think back to art class in middle school when you learned about colors and complementary colors. This will have a HUGE role in picking out outfits for yourself and your family members. Below are some great examples of coordinating outfits without being too matchy-matchy or cheesy. The whole family has the same "feel" to their outfits, while keeping each member's style unique and making sure they stayed away from the "jeans and white button-up" trend of the 90's.

6. Consult Pinterest

Yup. Pinterest is awesome, and I think it's a great tool to inspire you for your photosession-day wears! In fact, I have created a Pinterest board with YOU in mind. Lots of outfit ideas, lots of color schemes and even articles detailing different ways you can add life and fun to your outfits without going overboard.

Click here to see more>> http://www.pinterest.com/mnewsomphoto/what-to-wear-to-your-session/ <<

7. Add Accessories:

As mentioned before a great way to bring life and your unique personality to your wardrobe is to add bright accessories. Go with a neutral-toned base layer and add layers that you can shed throughout your session. Great ways to do this are with quilts, jackets, big scarves, necklaces, rain boots or hats! Any member of your family can accessorize or bring props to add to their ensemble.

I love this great article by Annie of Paint The Moon Photography:>> http://paintthemoon.net/blog/2013/03/wear-clothing-tips-children-family-photo-sessions-paint-moon-photoshop-actions/ << She also has a great what NOT to do at the bottom of the article that I highly suggest you read!

Always remember..

Whether you are having your senior session, taking your engagement photos or shooting your first family session as a family of 5 make sure, above all else, you stay true to yourself! The purpose of photos is to capture where you are at this point in time of your life. To see how you and your husband love one another, to see the grey hairs growing around your pup's nose, to see how your kids loved to play in the rain.. wear what you are comfortable in and make sure you feel like a million bucks. If you do, that will shine in all of your images and you will be much happier with those than any stuffy photos in clothing you do not enjoy!

7 Tips When Dressing For Your Photography Session