A Guide to Creating Portraiture that Touches your Heart and Decorates your Home. Tips for planning the best decorative investment you’ll ever make; an investment in yourself and in your family’s heritage. Memorable portraits take careful planning and are a team effort between client and photographer. The clothing choices you make are very important to the outcome and style of your artwork.

Families In a family group, proper clothing coordination is critical. Although it is not necessary for everyone to match exactly, it is highly recommended that careful consideration be given to your clothing choices. The word Portrait does not have to mean Formal. Casual clothing for lifestyle portraiture is perfect as long as it is coordinated well. Choose clothing in the same tonal ranges so that no single member of the family stands out because the clothing is too bright or too dark when compared to the rest of the group. Proper clothing selections make the difference between a portrait that appears to be a group of seemingly unrelated individuals and one in which every member of the family belongs together. Clothing displaying patterns, prints, and wording should be avoided for group portraits as they will distract the eye away from the face and give the portrait a “busy” feel.

Men Men should be clean shaven or facial hair should be carefully groomed, with their hair cut about one week prior to your appointment. Haircuts that are only one or two days old tend to appear shorter in portraits than in reality. Shirts should be neatly pressed; you are welcome to change your shirt once you are at the studio to avoid your garment becoming “crumpled” on the drive over. Retouching will not be done to fix a shirt that has not been ironed.

Women Make-up should be kept simple and in natural tones. Heavily painted eyes and lips will draw attention to themselves and take away from the portrait. Hair should be styled simply and neatly, usually away from the face. Avoid a new hairstyle or color before your portrait session. Long skirts, pants, or dark stockings are recommended in order to keep the eye from being directed toward the legs and away from the face. Bare arms appear larger than normal and call attention to themselves drawing the eye away from the face therefore, sleeveless garments are not recommended.

Clients who wear Eye Glasses Although we will do everything we can to eliminate the glare from your eye glasses, it is sometimes impossible and can greatly affect the outcome of your portrait. If it is simply not possible for your eye glasses to be removed, some clients choose to remove the lenses from their frames this way it appears that you are wearing your glasses without the problematic lens glare. If you choose to be photographed with your glasses and lens glare occurs there will be a charge to have the problem corrected.

Additional Tips

T-Shirts, especially those with graphics, are not recommended.

Bold strips, plaids, checks and prints are visually confusing and do not photograph well.

Extremely bright colors such as neon pink and orange tend to overwhelm the face and can ruin a portrait.

Light colors that are too close to skin tones will overpower the face and make the subject appear unusually pale.

Simple long sleeve garments in medium to dark tones of Brown, Gray, Burgundy, Green or Blue are pleasing choices for both close-up and full length portraits.

If you have any questions about what you and your family should wear or if you would just like some suggestions, please call our studio and we will be happy to help.