A common question many people have is, “What should I wear to my Senior Shoot?” Well, let me tell you. It all sort of depends. Who are you? Does your personality scream, “bohemian necklace girl that has a reusable straw” or “tube top Starbucks cheeky”? If you can figure out the answer to my one existential question, you might just be on track to a good ol’ senior shoot. Pictures represent personalities. You don’t want to look like that weird girl next door in a picture that you’ll probably keep forever so, make sure your outfit portrays the personality you want.
Now that you’ve found yourself and know exactly where you stand in the world, riddle me this, what season is it? Boom. That should be an instant A for anyone. Who doesn’t know what season it is? Exactly. Different seasons bring different colors. Different colors mean different color schemes. If you’re like me and you have nothing better to do with your time, you might already know your favorite color schemes and what goes with what. If not, I’d guess that’s part of the reason why you’re reading this looking for help. Regardless, I got you.
You want to match the background. This means your color scheme might already be decided based on the season your senior shoot is in. For example, spring is more pink, more bright, summer is more green and equally as bright as spring. As we get to the colder seasons colors get darker. Fall might be some tans, oranges or dark purples and winter could bring some dark blue hues or grays, unless of course, it’s Christmas and, in that case, we have to dress festive because Hallmark told us to.
Let’s have ourselves a little looksies into some past senior shoots:
Ailey Bodemheimer
It’s fall. It’s kind of cold, kind of orange. See, Ailey didn’t pick a bright pink bandana to tie around her head like the Karate Kid. Partly because she’s not the Karate Kid type but also because pink doesn’t quite match the traditional autumn orange. She picked nice, classy clothes of her own that matched a “fall” color scheme. The reds matched the natural orange hues and the green on her scarf and shirt complimented the vibrant reds. Your clothes can change but the background cannot so it’s important to be flexible with the colors it has to offer.
Do you remember that existential question I asked? Well, I didn’t just do that because I’m the one writing the blog and I can. I have standards. Ailey probably asked herself that question too but on a less dramatic scale (that’s why she’s not sporting the Karate Kid look as previously mentioned). The hat and the scarf are a choice in accessories that said who she was. Would I wear a scarf? Probably not. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying this because I have a thing against scarfs, it just doesn’t portray my personality. It does, however, portray hers. The scarf and the hat, both, are a representation of her creative and unique personality.
You should feel confident in what your wear to your senior shoot. If it doesn’t make you feel comfortable, it’s probably not the best choice for you.
Sydney Bak
Fast forwarding slightly in our blast from the past takes us to the summer after Ailey’s shoot. Our new senior, Sydney, has a completely different look to achieve now. You don’t see too many heavy red coats in June so it’s not like she could really take from Ailey’s ideas. Knowing she was heading to a location with simple, white backgrounds she wore tasteful yet simple clothes to match. Even with the flower field a simple white will do. Since the flowers are in the foreground, they produce the pop the picture needs not the outfit. Once again, the outfits were chosen to be appropriate in the location. I love y’all but I’m not painting fences on the battlefield to match your purple vans, we’ll just go somewhere else.
If you’re like me, you’re basically the neighborhood princess. You like glitter, pizzazz and a whole lot of attention seeking outfits that make your fathers worry about what time you’ll be home. Harley was not. Her style was way more simple and elegant than mine would ever be. These pictures pretty much show that. She’s got the whole “existential question” thing down pat.
Textures are also very important. I failed to mention this earlier but if you’ve suffered through my writing this much you’ll probably finish out this paragraph to see what I have to say about them. In Ailey’s pictures above her clothes are very heavy. They are obviously more on the cotton or wool side. They warm up the cold scene around her. If Sydney were to do that, I’d probably sweat just looking at her. It wouldn’t make sense for her to wear clothes like Ailey’s. Just wouldn’t fit. Her flow-y, light clothes match the season and she was probably not super hot in them. Imagine wearing heavy clothes in summer and sweating off your foundation in your picture. You don’t want that.
Dressing appropriately for color and personality is just as important as dressing for the season temperatures. As long as you’re comfortable your picture will be beautiful and will turn out great. Just keep color scheme, weather, and personality in mind for your outfits and everything will be a-ok for your senior shoot.
Valerie Bran
We’ve talked about a lot, color scheme, seasons, texture, personality but there’s one last topic I’m going to force you to read about before we call this post quits. It’s theme. It kind of ties into our existential question. When you asked yourself that and you got “bohemian necklace girl that has a reusable straw” you probably don’t want your pictures to be super modern like the ones above this. If you got “tube top Starbucks cheeky”, maybe you do.
You don’t want your outfit to contradict your theme. Valerie had a modern senior shoot so she wore a sweater with cutouts and jeans with holes. Jeans with holes definitely match the modern theme. The only other generation that even came close to that is the 80s but we don’t need to get into that fashion nightmare. Now, if Grace had came to this senior shoot looking like she just left Coachella we’d probably have had a problem. It’s just too “Woodstock” for a modern shoot. Wouldn’t match the theme.
You want your pictures to make sense. Looking out of place isn’t going to give you the look you want.
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