Digital Daze Photography
Styling Guide

To help you get the most of of your shoot with Digital Daze Photography, we’ve put together a styling guide to help you choose the best possible attire to wear during your shoot.

The choice of clothing obviously depends on the style of shoot you are doing. A creative, fashion or avant garde shoot may require detailed styling and over-the-top costumes. You can discuss these types of shoots with us directly.

The tips we have provided below are a general guide for regular portrait, family and children’s shoots. Keep in mind that this is only a guide. When you commission a professional photographer you are doing so because you want to remember the love, joy and experience of now in the most beautiful way possible. Stay true to your family and yourself when making wardrobe choices to make that happen.

Colours

The colours you wear will have a big impact on your images. Wearing a mixture of bright colours can create a fun and happy feeling, whereas pastels can set a more calming and romantic mood.

The choice of colours is of course up to you, but we highly recommend choosing a complementary colour palette. Wearing one fluorescent item against milder hues will distract from the photo (all you’ll notice in every shot is that bright yellow hat, for example). Likewise one black item amongst pastels will render the same problem.

Think of the mood you’d like to create in your photos and go from there. A choice of 3 or 4 colours will suffice. Take a look on the internet and pick out some photos you like and get inspiration. For high or low key shoots then an all black or all white outfit will be required, but we do not recommend monotones for all shoots.

You are welcome to bring a selection of outfits so if you can’t decide on your palette, then bring several!

makeupTip! If you are really struggling with choosing a colour palette, a neat little trick is to pop to the make-up counter in your nearest mall and get some inspiration from the multi-colour eye-shadow compacts. Experts have spent a lot of time and money putting together these colour combinations, so it can save you the job of starting from scratch.

Guys, the same goes with the paint samples in the home depot stores.

Patterns & prints

Patterns and stylish prints are absolutely fine to wear to your photoshoot. They can add depth and interest to your photos. However, do avoid over-the-top, garish patterns and items with logos, emblems, figures, characters or any form of advertising (such as souvenir t-shirts) that can distract from the photo.

For newborns, we actually recommend the opposite as we think that plains work best (plain textures work beautifully for newborns).

Textures

Textures are awesome in photos. Whether it’s from wool, feathers, embossed fabrics, embroidery, gathered material, fake furs or otherwise. Texture is encouraged!

Styles

Clothing style is a very personal thing and therefore the style of clothing you wear is entirely your choice. Just remember that these photos will be treasured for years to come so by choosing simple, classic clothes will help give your images a timeless feel.

Props and accessories

Yes, yes, yes! Bring as many props and accessories as you like. We have a small selection of props, however having your own, sentimental props will create a much more memorable and personal photo for you. We don’t need to use everything that you bring, but having a selection of accessories is a great way to individualise each shot.

Coordinate, but don’t match.

If you are doing a shoot with more than one person, try to get your colour palettes to complement each other, but don’t wear exact matching attire. And opposed to our earlier advice, limit prints and patterns to only a small selection. Although they can look good in a photo, it can be too much if everyone is wearing different patterns as the eye wont know where to look. If you want to highlight a particular person in the portraits – such as your child – dress them in patterns and the rest in plains.

Go shopping!

We all want to look and feel our best and nobody can deny how great we feel in new clothes. You don’t have to buy a 100% new wardrobe, but an item or two are often appropriate considering you are investing in a photo session.

Get your beauty sleep

Make sure you get plenty of rest before your photoshoot. If you are tired on the day it will show. Those dark circles and red eyes are not flattering for anybody. Avoid alcohol for several days before the shoot as this too can dehydrate the skin and you don’t want extra wrinkles in your close-ups.