When you had your last photo session at a photography studio, did you just throw on some comfortable clothes, drive to the studio and hope for the best? Well, let me tell you that a little planning can go a long way to getting great images! My goal is to get you to "plan ahead" and talk with your photographer before your session so that you have the best chance for successful and memorable images! I personally go over this list with each client at Kirk Pullen Photography before they come in the studio. I even send them images of the background, so that they can coordinate their clothing choices. Check out the images that I have included with this post and think about the 3 items on this list and how I used them.

1) CONTRAST - Think in terms of bright or dark when thinking about contrast. If your clothing is dark, then you will want a bright background or vice versa. When the clothes and the background tend to match then the viewer of the photograph has to work harder to find you or it may make you less noticeable in the photo.

2) COLOR- When you think of colors for your outfit and background, some great choices are complimentary, analogous, triad, compound or in shades. What does that mean? Well, it means that the colors should just "work well together."

Here is a color wheel from Adobe! Click on this link: COLOR WHEEL

Play with the different choices on the wheel and see what colors work well together! Each of these colors have names! Write them down and see if your photographer can find a background to compliment the color choice with the clothing that you have.

3) DESIGN- Backgrounds sometimes have elaborate designs on them and others are solid in color or shade. Typically, if you have an elaborate design on the background, you would not want to compete with that design by wearing clothing with an elaborate design or vice versa. You would want to your clothing to have a solid design so that the viewer of the image does not have to search for the subject. Another tip for clothing choices is that with vertical stripes can make a person look slimmer while horizontal stripes can have the opposite effect. 

This list that I have made for you are just suggestions and not rules for picking out clothing or backgrounds. Rules in photography can be broken, depending upon the intent of the images that you want to create. In the long run, you have the choices and I am the artist that will help create the photographs that you will love and enjoy! I hope that this list has been helpful to you!