If you have an upcoming photo shoot or are planning to have one in the future, you’re probably wondering what kind of outfit to wear. Maybe you’re stuck on what colors to wear or what style to go with. Either way, I’ll be sharing with you my tips and tricks on finding the best outfit for your outdoor photo shoot.
Portland, OR
1. Singles or Group Photos?
First, you need to decide whether or not you’re taking single photos, photos with another person or a group photo. If you’re having a photo shoot with another person or a group of people, you have to coordinate your outfits with one another. Once you finalize these things, you can move onto choosing your destination!
2. Pick a Location
You should always decide on a location first, before planning out your outfit. With an outdoor photo shoot, you can basically choose any location.
If you’re having trouble finding a location, I’d suggest looking up local parks, beaches, rivers, lakes, viewpoints, and landmarks. The location you choose will affect the color and style of your outfit so choose wisely if you’re wanting to go for a specific style or color. Below are pictures of some of the places my fiance have had our photo shoots.
I have to admit, my favorite location by far is Cannon Beach! It has so many areas you can take photos, ranging from the shore, rocky formations, sand dunes, etc.
Troutdale, OR
Portland, OR
Gresham, OR
Cannon Beach, OR
Photo by PrettyGeeky Photography
Cannon Beach, OR
Photo by PrettyGeeky Photography
3. Colors
After you’ve chosen your location, you can choose your outfit colors. Your color should be similar to or match with the color of the scenery.
Outfit Colors For a Forest Setting or Places with Green Grass
For these type of locations, it’s always best to choose colors that will match the color of the trees or the color of the leaves on the trees. Colors like green, black, brown, tan or white are great for photos. Basically, any dark colors would work.
Outfit Colors for a Beach, Lake, or River Setting
Our goal here is to match with the color of the water and any other background colors in the area. Colors like white, blue, and tan would be perfect. You can also go with any other light or pastel colors.
Outfit Colors for Places That Have Tall Yellow Grass
Any colors that aren’t too bright or vibrant are perfect. Below are some colors you can consider.
4. Style and Attire
Once you’ve figured out the colors you want to wear for the photo shoot, you can choose the clothing attire and style you want to go with. Depending on the location and the theme of the photo shoot, you can choose any clothing attire ranging from casual to semi-formal to formal.
I’ve included some shots of the outfits we chose to wear for our photo shoots so you can see how we styled them, color coordinated our outfits and incorporated the clothing attire with the colors of the location.
Our Outfits for Forest Settings or Places with Green Grass
My fiance and I took these photos in the Fall and wanted to go for a casual/semi-formal look. I had him wear a sweater with a dress shirt underneath while I wore a laced dress. Here, we went with burgundy, tan, and pink/coral because it went with the trees and Fall leaves!
Our Outfits for a Beach, Lake, or River Setting
We took these photos off of the Columbia River. We wanted to go for a more casual shoot so I decided to wear a maxi dress and my fiance went with a blue button up top with some khaki shorts. We went with colors like navy blue, tan and white.
These are our engagement photos that took place at Cannon Beach! We knew we wanted to go more formal for this shoot. So, I chose a formal floor-length dress and had my fiance wear a white dress shirt with khaki pants. We also decided to go with colors blue, tan and white.
Our Outfits for a Tall Yellow Grass Setting
This photo shoot was a mix between casual and semi-formal. I knew I wanted to wear light pink for this location because it would go really well with the color of the grass. Then I decided to have my fiance match with me by wearing red to compliment my light pink dress. In the end, all the colors matched perfectly!
My fiance and I actually wanted to incorporate our Hmong culture into our engagement photos so we decided to go with formal, Hmong American clothing. We even added some Hmong jewelry to go with our outfits like his xauv (necklace) and my silver jewelry belt. We went with bold colors like black and orange. I was afraid our outfit colors would clash with the ocean and yellow grass but it actually turned out looking really good.
I know you’re probably thinking, “Didn’t she already post this outfit earlier?!”. I did! However, I wanted to show you guys how this outfit matched with the yellow grass. These colors were PERFECT for this setting. I’m absolutely in love with how everything turned out!
I know it can be stressful and difficult finding the perfect outfit for a photo shoot but I hope that these ideas will help you with your upcoming shoot! I hope this gives you some inspiration for your next shoot and helps you find the best outfit for any future photo shoots to come!
