Since you do not commission a fine portrait very often, we cannot expect you to know all the elements that affect its creation. Memorable portraits take careful planning and the clothing you choose is very important to your portrait's success. The following guidlines will help you to make important decisions about your portrait.

Clothing Selection

The goal of any fine portrait is to direct the viewer's attention to the face. Everything else in the portrait (clothing, hair, background, and props) should be secondary to the face. When a face dominates the portrait, you will never tire of it as time goes by. Improperly selected clothing can overpower the face and ruin an otherwise excellent portrait. While it's our job to choose the proper portrait lighting and pose for you, we must rely on your help in selecting clothing that will create the visual effect you wish to achieve.

Clothing Color

For an outdoor portrait, dark colors like burgundy, navy, purple, brown, denim, evergreen, rust, and black always photograph well. Dark colors are more flattering and slimming to the wearer, while light colors such as beige, tan, peach, pink, white, and yellow add bulk and mass to he subject wearing them. Keeping this in mind, lighter colors work better if a lighter backdrop is chosen in the studio. Especially bright colors such as orange or red will ruin a portrait, and bold stripes, checks, plaids, busy prints, and logos never photograph well. While solid colors and denim always work best, small gingham and small simple floral prints are okay too.

Clothing Style

Very simple garments always photograph best. Turtle necks or V-necks are flattering, provided that neither is exaggerated in style. Avoid very wide or particularly deep V-neck garments as well as bulky cowl neck sweaters that completely hide the neck. Long sleeves are essential, since in a portrait, bare arms will overpower the face. Please do not wear short shorts, short skirts, or tight fitting skirts. This makes posing more difficult. Long flowing dresses, jeans, or khakis make a better selection. If feet are to show, make certain that shoes and stockings (preferably both in dark colors) are in keeping with the overall intent of the portrait.

Hair, Makeup, and Glasses

Many young ladies have their hair and makeup professionally done the day of their portrait session, and we highly recommend this. Young men should have their hair cut about one week before the session. Neither young men nor women should radically change their hair style before a portrait session. We cannot hide "five-o-clock shadow," so make sure you shave beforehand. If you normally wear glasses, plan to wear them for your portrait, or people won't recognize you. For the nicest possible portraits, it is worth your trouble to borrow a pair of empty frames from your optometrist. Please note that it is impossible to correct lenses which darken in sunlight.

Timing

Please arrive fifteen minutes before your appointment to allow final clothing and hair adjustments. Nicole schedules your outdoor portrait session based on quality of light. Light quality varies with the weather, so your exact time will be determined on the day of the session, based on what the weather (and therefore the light) is doing. Please call before 12:00 non on the day of your session to confirm. If you feel you are running late, even by just fifteen minutes, we will have to reschedule your appointment.