Style Guide – How to Dress for Your Session – Women

This is one of the biggest questions I get from clients. How should I dress for my session or even my family’s session? Well I am finally writing a blog about it and soon will have a great informational card for all clients as well. So let’s get into this starting with the women..

Makeup

I cannot stress this enough please wear matte eyeshadow! It is so important. You do not want the light to catch your eyelids the wrong way because it can make you look like you’re crying or can reflect badly. I will insert a truly terrible photo of myself from freshman year of college to demonstrate. This is not a professional photo by any means but demonstrates my point perfectly. Look directly at my face and you’ll see what I mean. 

Exhibit A…Does it seriously not look like I’m crying in this photo!? Please ladies no sparkly eyeshadow or glitter. You’ll thank me later 🙂 Alright now more words of wisdom. Please wear face primer especially if it’s hot outside….melted makeup is not cute….sorry. Always curl your lashes it seriously opens your eyes and makes them look so wide and beautiful. Contouring and highlighting is not a must have but is always nice…emphasize those cheekbones girl! Below you will find examples of these.

See how so much wider her eyes look compared to the uncurled eye!? Gorgeous! Another quick tip is to add a nude eyeliner to the waterline to open the eyes even more. 

Contouring and highlighting are not a must for photo sessions but it does give the face some gorgeous dimension. Each woman above is gorgeous on her own but occasionally lighting can wash a woman out and the extra contouring can really bring out a woman’s beautiful bone structure.

Clothing

When it comes to dressing you should always follow your own personality. I always recommend neutral colors as they tend not to clash with anything. I tend to ask clients to stay away from patterns as they can look odd on camera. Never wear a printed shirt or anything with photos on them. I suggest wearing something neutral with no photos or graphics on them. I would choose a warm or cool palette, mixing palettes tends to not look right in photos. Wear something fitted and never wear shapeless shirts or dresses. You want to accent your curves and figure. Wearing loose clothing can tend to make women look bigger in areas they don’t want to accentuate. Wear clothing for your body type that you feel comfortable and confident in. Confidence in your beautiful self is always conveyed on camera and I always strive to make my clients feel beautiful in every photo that I take. Ideas for dressing are shown below.

The important thing is to always be yourself. There is nothing more beautiful than a woman being herself and enjoying herself during her photo session. I hope this style guide helps when you are preparing for your session with me. I will be doing more style guides soon so keep coming back for more!