What to wear for your personal brand photo-shoot: 10 top tips
Planning what to wear for your session can be an exciting part of the pre-shoot process (and for others of us, this bit might be feeling a bit daunting!).
Wherever you’re at right now, I hope my tips below spark inspiration and clarity.
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Our choice of outfits are a wonderful way to bring our personality and style to our images; the colours, textures and details all say something about us.
Your new photos should be a celebration of you, the person at the heart of your business, and bring a warm welcome to the people you serve. When you’re feeling great in what you’re wearing, that helps you to feel your best in front of the camera; and that will come through in the photos.
My tips below are not going to explore which colours are the most ‘slimming’, recommend styles to minimise certain parts, or fulfil any prescribed ideal of beauty… my intention is to help you tune into your own preferences, desires and intentions for your images, and help you choose outfits that have you feeling like the best version of yourself!
How to use this guide
Have a read through the tips below and reflect on the ideas shared. Notice what feelings and ideas come up for you as you go. You’re welcome to work with the ‘questions for reflection’ in a way that works for you. I find jotting down my thoughts helpful for clarifying my ideas. Take what resonates, and leave the rest.
Written version: What to wear for your personal brand photo-shoot
1/ Bring gentle awareness to how your current outfits make you feel.
What you wear around the house on a Sunday may be different to what you’d wear to meet an absolute dream client, which may be different to what you’d wear on a date, or for a walk in the woods.
Whether that’s true for you or not, it’s useful to consider why we’re choosing to wear what we wear (is it for comfort, confidence, colour, physical warmth, beauty, magic, etc?), and also to notice how these outfits make us feel in different situations.
In your new photos, we want to present you in a way that’s compelling, authentic and resonant with your personality, ethos and brand. It’s important to choose ‘looks’ you feel really good in. Start to notice how your outfits are making you feel, day to day, and what this may be telling you about what you’d like to wear in for your photos.
questions for reflection…
What clothes am I feeling drawn to wearing at the moment?
Which clothes are lifting my spirits, bringing me joy & helping me feel ready to be seen?
What outfits are no longer resonating/am I no longer wanting to wear?
2/ CHOOSE COLOURS THAT COMPLIMENT YOU & YOUR BRAND COLOURS.
Our images go a long way to informing the colour palette of our branding. If you have specified brand colours, choose to wear colours that match or compliment them. Avoid colours that clash with them
(This is similarly important when thinking about the locations you decide to use. Get my tips on choosing a location here!)
You could consider hiring a colour analyst to help you find the shades of colours that suit you best. (I have done this and find it so useful!). Search for a ‘colour consultant’ near you to find out more.
questions for reflection…
Which colours do I personally love? Which colours do like to wear? Which best suit me?
What are my current brand colours? What colours compliment my current brand colours? (If not yet chosen: Which colours would I like to bring to my branding?)
Which colours do I want to AVOID in my outfits and photos? (which colours clash?)
3/ WEAR STYLES OF OUTFITS YOU GENUINELY LOVE TO WEAR.
Sometimes we may feel we need to dress ‘a certain way’ for our photos, based on notions of what’s expected of us, of what’s on-trend or ‘professional’ in our industry, or on what we’ve seen other people wear in their photos.
It’s so understandable that we do this, and let’s try to release ourselves from what we think we ‘should’ be wearing in our photos and beyond.
We want to create images that feel like YOU. You’ll feel yourself if you’re wearing clothes you genuinely love, and not in items you’ve picked out solely to wear in the photos and would never wear again.
Choose outfits you genuinely enjoy and feel good in, beyond the photo-shoot day.
questions for reflection…
What items / styles of clothes am I really enjoying wearing at the moment, or would I like to wear more of?
I hope these ideas have been useful!
Get the full guide by signing up below.
When you sign up, you’ll get instant access to the PDF which includes more…
tips to help you tune into your unique style
ideas to spark outfit inspiration
journal prompts to help clarify your preferences
suggestions on how to get the most out of each look (and your photo-shoot!)
See you there!
With much love,
Becky
P.S. Is it time to update your brand photography? Schedule a call with me here and let’s explore the kinds of images that’ll help take your biz to the next level.