What to Wear: Family Portraits

It's a great time of year for family photo sessions and if you're wondering what to wear to yours I don't recommend outfits that match. I recommend outfits that go. 

In the vast history of family portraits, there have been many done where everyone in the family is wearing the same thing. But honestly, how often does your family dress like that? To have the best real representation of your family, choose a few colors that go together and then wear clothes that you feel like yourself in. You'll see the outfits I've picked above are all centered around blue, teal, and black.

Words on shirts are iffy. You don't want to have the words be a distraction in the photo and there's always the chance that leaning or bending could make for a less-than-ideal new letter arrangement. Proceed with caution. 

Patterns can be tricky too. It's best to limit the number of people in the photo wearing them. I'd say no more than half your group. Textures are fantastic.

I pulled the group of outfits above from the Women's, Men's, Girls', & Boys' Outfits We Love sections on Old Navy's website to show a combo that goes. If you're looking for ideas of what to wear many retailers show a few outfits they've put together on their website like this. Of course, you don't have to buy new clothes for your portrait session, but if you wanted to it'd be easy enough to get an entire outfit in one place. 

Man's Outfit | Boy's Outfit  | Girl's Outfit | Woman's Outfit 

©2013 Kristin Serna. Graphic design assembled by Kristin. This post should not be republished without my permission. Merci beaucoup.

Like That: Wevther

This falls into the category of not entirely necessary but cute and clever anyway.

On Wevther (which I like to read in a Leeds-American accent a la Mel B from the Spice Girls) you enter your zip code and it tells you the weather for that area. You can even choose the date.

But wait! There's more! It also gives you pictorial suggestions of allegedly stylish clothing to wear based on that weather. You can choose to just see women's clothing or men's clothing or both.

Yes. Some of the clothing is kind of not very flattering looking at all, but it'll amuse you at least for a couple minutes. Plus they're looking for contributors (especially female) so maybe if you're a lady with some style and some time you could help them with that.

Tomorrow in Chicago is a good day for wearing a branch bracelet. I'd have to agree.

But apparently they don't recommend you wear pants. (I scrolled down to the bottom and there were no  bottom suggestions.) I'm going to respectfully disagree on that one. 

This could be a place to start getting ideas for clothing for a photo session... as long as you just use it as a starting point. :)

©2012 Kristin Serna This content should not be republished without my permission. 
Photo screenshot from wevther.com for commenting purposes. 

Fashion Week | Inspiration | For Fun | What to Wear

Yesterday kicked off Mercedes-Benz FashionWeek in New York City. I've never been to one but if I ever got an invite, I probably wouldn't say no.

About ten years ago I actually started paying attention to fashion and trying different clothing (outside of a basic t-shirt & faded jeans) to express myself. (That's before Project Runway started, but watching the show helped me appreciate the work that goes into and skill required to design clothing.) The New York & London shows are my favorite – partially because I'm more familiar with the styles of the designers who show there. While I've yet to purchase anything that's appeared on a Fashion Week runway, I like flipping through photos of the shows for inspiration. And I've already been looking at couple collections for Spring/Summer 2013 – which is kind of weird because we're just approaching autumn, but manufacturing & the trickle down effect (to clothing brands that don't typically do shows) takes time.

These are three of my favorite looks so far. One of the cool things about Fashion Week is that not every collection is a typical runway show. Some are photo collections and some are more like installations where models stand or sit, posed or moving, around a space while people walk around and look at the clothing. All three styles are represented here.

No. 1: Z Spoke by Zac Posen Spring/Summer '13: Z Spoke is a Ready-to-Wear line that's pretty approachable. Out of my three inspirations here, this is the one I'd most likely be able to wear in everyday life - of course not to go hike a mountain or anything, but you get the idea. I'm a big fan of black when it comes to clothing (Thank you, London.) and this pattern is fun without getting too "little girly". I also really like the idea of the belt on the dress along with a blazer – it's something you could easily replicate the look of without this exact dress. Plus I'm amused by how Coca Rocha is modeling it. (I'm a fan of hers in general based on Target's behind-the-scenes video of her dancing all over the place while modeling for them.)

No. 2: BCBG Max Azria Spring/Summer '13: I'm enjoying all the lines and lace-paneling of this dress. To me it's a successful mix of tough & soft that leans a bit more towards the tough side. I'm not sure where I'd wear this though; I'd probably have to invent an event. It could make for a dramatic outfit for a photoshoot too. Definitely harder to replicate this particular look without this gown. 

No. 3: Erin by Erin Fetherston Spring/Summer '13: I have to admit, part of what I like about this one is that it was an installation/gallery-type event held outside on a rooftop during golden hour (some of the prettiest light of the day). So yeah, the photo op here is pretty awesome. I also like the idea of a mostly-monotone suit with a pop of color and metallic shoes. While I like the neutral, I probably wouldn't wear what looks to be lime for the color pop, but I appreciate the contrast it provides. Plus, the suit looks pretty comfy for a suit. 

So there you go – a little Fashion Week inspiration go into the weekend. Feel free to use these inspirations the next time I'm photographing you too. You'll definitely get compliments. :) 

©2012 Kristin Serna This text in this post should not be republished without my permission. The photos in this post belong to their respective photographers and are used for fair use commentary. Merci beaucoup. 

Fashion Portrait Shoot: Natalie

So while studying with Sarah Barlow, I got to partake in a fashion photoshoot of sorts. I mentioned it in the last post and here it finally is!

It was so much fun. We really got around to a lot of locations, the natural light was beautiful, and our model, Natalie, was super enthusiastic about the whole thing. We were going for a fun, hipster-esque vibe. Natalie and Sarah pulled together the outfit and I got to help Natalie with her makeup. Yay teamwork!

Four photographers photographing one model and calling out directions definitely drew some attention, but I think we all got some great shots... and a few elbows in the face from accidentally getting in each other's way.

As I said in the last post, it was super difficult to narrow it down to twelve for this post and it's even more difficult to choose a favorite out of these, but I'd say the last one probably is it for me. Thank you to Sarah for arranging this fashion portrait shoot. And thank you to Natalie for being such a great model.

I'd gladly do a fashion portrait shoot again.
Kristin takes photos.

©2010 Kristin Serna This post and these photos cannot be republished without my permission.

Fashion Photo Shoot Coming Soon

As I mentioned in the last post, while working with Sarah I got to partake in some photo shoots. One of them was a fashion shoot of sorts. And I hope to have a post about that one up sometime this weekend. I'm just having a hard time narrowing it down to a practical number of photos for posting.

Over the past two years I've taken several photography classes where I had to learn to only show ten photos a session. So I've gotten pretty good at the narrowing down process. Three hundred photos down to fifty in a couple of hours? No problem. It's that home stretch of a great session where things get tricky - especially if you shot in several locations like we did on this one.

But you know what? That's a good problem to have.

So while you're waiting, here's an outtake from the shoot:

©2010 Kristin Serna This post and these photos cannot be republished without my permission.