What to Wear For Professional Pictures

I feel  I need to preface this article by saying that I don’t have professional pictures taken often. In fact, since our wedding day 27 years ago, we’ve only had professional pictures taken three times.

Maybe that’s why I stress out so much over the “what to wear” issue? I have this fear that if I wear the wrong thing, the pictures will turn out terrible, I’ll hate them, & our hard earned money will be wasted.

Are you with me?

I recently got a blogging opportunity which required a new, recent photograph. I found myself beforehand sitting at the computer studying profile pictures of other bloggers and analyzing everything about them – their outfits, hair, posture…and then moved on to Pinterest and studied family pictures.

Oh, help.

There were so many options and opinions about what to wear.

I finally turned away and came up with my own philosophy. Now that it’s all said and done, I’m sticking with it.

Here it is:

Wear whatever makes you feel marvelous!

Forget about worrying if it should be something solid colored or printed; v-neck or turtleneck; jacket or no jacket.

Instead, think of what you feel great wearing.

Almost 3 years ago, we had family pictures taken. As a mom of only boys, I found myself trying to figure out not only what I was going to wear, but what they would, too!

Since we were having them taken outside at the camp we worked at at the time, we knew we wanted them to be casual pictures. So, I started out by choosing my favorite casual outfit. Then, I built the rest of the family’s outfits around mine.  That may seem selfish, but you need to start somewhere!

 

I bought some new pieces for each of us, since it was time for some new clothes anyway, but I tried to choose things that each of the boys felt comfortable wearing.

I’ve only been a boy-Mom, so I have no experience in the clothing department with girls. But, in this scenario, all the “men” in the family just wanted me to tell them what to wear. I learned an important lesson, though.

It’s important that each person feels comfortable and authentic in what they are wearing.

I knew the boys were working very hard at being cooperative for this whole picture process. After shopping and choosing and trying on a multitude of options, one of the boys commented,

“This will be ok for the picture, but I’ll probably never wear it again.”

I knew that if that’s how he really felt, then it was totally wrong for the picture! Nothing is worse than trying to smile for a picture while wearing something that makes you feel silly. We chose, instead, something that he already wore and loved. It worked out great.

When you wear what feels comfortable to you, you can enjoy the process and be much more relaxed in the photos.

Now time has passed, and it’s hard for us to get the whole family at the same place and time for a photo shoot. So, this time, it was just my husband & I.

I wondered if a floral shirt would look too busy, but I loved it. So I wore it.

 

It has the funnest flutter sleeves that make me feel like a million bucks. And my husbands favorite black sweater worked great with it.

I needed two specific pictures, and the photographer nailed it ~ in only 15 minutes!

So take it from me ~ a former stresser outer in the clothes department ~

Wear whatever you love, and you’ll look great!

(PS. And a good photographer is key, too. Photo credits for the family pics to Mandy O’Brennan Photography and the recent ones to Little Prints Photography.)

Linking to: Get Your Pretty On, Turning Heads, Jo Lynne Shane