Guest Post: Katie Nesbitt – “What to Wear for Portrait Sessions”

You guys, this is Molly – I am currently in Las Vegas for work attending InfoComm 2012 – I’m getting my geek on! I have got a couple AWESOME guest posters this week (and some other stuff I think you’ll love too!) But please give it up for this week’s first ROCKIN’ guest poster, my girl Katie Nesbitt of Katie Nesbitt Photography.

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Hey everyone! This is Katie Nesbitt, reporting for guest blog duty!

I have been reading Molly’s blog for a while now, just hoping to become cool by association so I was pretty thrilled when she asked me to guest blog for her! Now I’m not an expert in fashion and I’m definitely not as stylish as Molly, but as a wedding and portrait photographer I DO know what looks great on camera, so today I thought I’d share some of my favorite Dos for dressing for a portrait session.

DO: Wear something that makes you feel gorgeous.

I always recommend choosing an outfit that makes you FEEL awesome. We all have those days when we wear a pair of jeans that are just a little too tight or a shirt that just doesn’t fit right and the rest of the day we’re adjusting ourselves or just feeling downright uncomfortable. Feeling uncomfortable is the LAST thing you want to feel during a portrait session, so make sure you wear something that not only fits properly, but makes you feel like a million bucks. When you feel great about yourself you get a confidence that radiates from the inside out! That’s a scientific fact, in case you were wondering. 😉

DO: Have fun with accessories!

I love taking pictures of details that my clients choose to accessorize with. They help capture your personality and tell a story about who you are! I always encourage cute shoes, a fun hair piece, or a chunky scarf. Or a belt. A belt is amazing for a portrait session (and real life too!) because it cinches in your waist and then draws the eye to the smallest part of your natural waist. Forget diamonds, a BELT is a girl’s best friend. Okay we won’t forget diamonds, but still.  Also, adding accessories like a belt or a scarf to an outfit will add layers of visual interest to an image!

DO: Coordinate colors (but DON’T be matchy matchy)

I say this a lot to my clients and it might sound hokey, but you really want to coordinate your outfits so they GO, not match. You want to look like you are engaged, not have people pass you on the street and yell TWINSIES!!!!! The days of wearing matching white shirts and jeans are GONE!! Your photographs should capture who you are, and unless you are a member of the band the Plain White Tees, you are so much more colorful and fun than a pair of jeans and a white tee. This advice also goes for family portraits as well! I recently shot a family portrait session where the family coordinated outfits ahead of time and chose to wear turquoise and white. They all chose outfits that best represented their personalities in those pre determined colors and the results were awesome! I feel like their outfits played very well together and though they were technically not “matching”, everything goes and is very cohesive!

DO: Think about hair and makeup!

If you are a bride, your engagement session is a great opportunity to try out makeup and hairstyles for your wedding! You always want to do a makeup trial, but if you do it before your engagement session or bridal session, you have the added bonus of seeing how it looks on camera! If you are a DIY makeup bride, keep in mind that makeup looks a lot less “intense” on camera so you should always add a little more than you are used to. It might feel weird when you look at yourself in the mirror, but believe me, if will look soooo awesome on camera! I also really like to recommend fake eyelashes! I personally have almost zero eyelashes but fake eyelashes make my eyes POP on camera. They do so much to open  up your eye and finish off the look!

DO: Look like yourself!

This one might be the MOST important DO of them all…yes you want to dress stylishly and look amazing on the day of your session, but you also really want to still look like YOU. Right before a portrait session is not the time to experiment with crazy self tanners or anything like that. You don’t want to change how you look, you want to accentuate and play up your best features so you can be the best you possible!

So that’s it! My best tips on looking super fly at your next portrait session! I hope you enjoyed this post because I had so much fun writing it!!

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Thank you SO much, Katie! You are AWESOME! Isn’t she awesome, guys? Show Katie some love, y’all.

-xoxo, Molly