What to Wear for Senior Pictures
This is the question that causes the most stress before a session, and it should not. There are really only about four rules, and the rest is just wearing something you like.
Bring two or three outfits
Not one, and not seven.
One outfit means every photograph in your gallery has the same energy. Seven means we spend the session changing instead of shooting, and the light does not wait for us.
Two or three is the sweet spot for a 60-minute session. A good spread looks like:
- Something you feel great in. Not the most formal thing you own, but the thing you would actually choose. This is the outfit your best frames come from, every time.
- Something dressed up. A dress, a blazer, whatever “nice” means to you. These are the frames your parents want printed.
- Something that means something. A letterman jacket, a uniform, your instrument, the sweatshirt from the school you are going to next year.
Colors that photograph well
Solid colors beat patterns. A busy print competes with your face for attention, and in a photograph your face should win. If you love a pattern, make it one outfit out of three, not all of them.
Deep and muted beat bright and neon. Rust, forest green, navy, cream, burgundy, dusty blue, black. These sit beautifully against Oklahoma light and against every location in town.
Be careful with pure white and pure black. Neither is off-limits, but white blows out in direct sun and black loses all its detail in shadow. If you are wearing either, we shoot it in soft light.
Green is the one to think twice about if we are shooting somewhere with heavy foliage, because you can disappear into the background at Theta Pond in June.
Think about the location
Outfits and backgrounds have to agree with each other.
Downtown brick loves warm tones: rust, cream, mustard, denim. The Botanic Garden in tulip season is already extremely colorful, so simpler and quieter outfits work better there. Campus architecture handles almost anything, which is part of why it is such a reliable starting point.
If you tell me your outfits before the session, I will tell you which location suits each one and we will run the order accordingly.
The three mistakes
Wearing something brand new. You do not know how it moves, whether it rides up when you sit, or whether the collar behaves. Wear it once before the session.
Forgetting shoes exist. Full-length frames include your feet. Sneakers under a formal dress is a look, but make it a deliberate one.
Ignoring the weather. Oklahoma in October can be 78°F or 41°F. If you are cold you will look cold. It shows in your shoulders and your jaw before it shows anywhere else. Bring a layer you can pull off for the frames and put back on between them.
A few small things that help
- Iron everything. Wrinkles are far more visible in a photograph than in a mirror.
- Bring a hair tie, and take it off your wrist before we shoot.
- Do your nails, or do not, but know that hands are in a lot of portraits.
- Keep jewelry simple. One good piece reads better than five competing ones.
- Skip the sunburn. Sounds obvious. Happens constantly in September.
And then stop worrying about it
Genuinely. The photographs people love are almost never the ones where the outfit was perfect. They are the ones where the person looked comfortable. Wear something that lets you forget what you are wearing, and I will handle the rest.
Booked a session and still unsure? Send me photos of your options and I will tell you which ones to bring. If you have not booked yet, check your date here. Senior sessions start at $150.
