10 days of Thoughtful Photos: Day 8

Continuing yesterdays "what to wear" topic, were going to talk about how to come up with a color pallet for your photo shoot! If your not the "typical" family, or perhaps you want something more "trendy" or "out of the box" kicking up the style, patterns, and colors of your images will drastically change the "tone" or "story" of your images!

When selecting a colors and clothing to fit many people, skin tones, and personalities I suggest creating a color pallet. You can find say, the babies outfit with a bold print and then have everyone else do solids are pops of color taken from that print. You can also find inspiration from your holiday cards, if you already have one picked out. Or even from the location, or other images you LOVE!

One of my favorite tips I share with clients is creating a color pallet. I found Design-seeds.com to be AMAZING for helping people see what similar and contrasting colors look like in an image. Because they show the image, then take up color samples from it! Plus they make it easy to search, by color (using sliding bars) or by theme of the photograph, plus you can click on a color from one image and it will link you to other images where that color shows up!

When your shopping (or digging through the closet) you can use the colors to coordinate.Here is a sample of what I might have found... (for my pretend family of 5!)

Might I just say creating one of these boards - WOW does it give me a new respect for all of them I see online! This took way too much of my time today! However, just like a great portrait, it was totally worth it! Look how this fashion set totally works together. You have the pops of color, I added the purple from the pallet above, because that was the combo that I could find the orange in. But it completely works! Your, hip, comfortable and not super matching. It's got enough interest to add to any background!


Now if you want to kick that up a notch....

Lets talk for a moment about what I did. I kept the toddler outfit with my orange and a burgundy along with a neutral (tan in this case). Then I found something trendy with the very fashionable sparkles in a neutral for the teen, but added a very trendy jacket. Mom gets to sport some fur (VERY in) and a decked out casual top. The boys stay relaxed in coordinating tops (not matching... but adding some color and I gave Dad the option of an additional sweater so he is more neutral for shot with just him and mom. (AHH a thinker, I am!)

To either of these fashion boards you can add more by giving the teen a scarf or some orange jewelry, or funky shoe. Depending on how far out of the box you want to go. By mixing trends, the lace, sparkles, fur... but giving it balance with neutrals and core items such as the boys - we have taken the same color pallet and brought in some more interest and personality. Everyone gets to be themselves and will hopefully be happy to continue to wear each item!


Just for fun....

This is the color pallet I choose to work with for my holiday images this year! While I probably wont use all of them - I have really been liking the dark purple, charcoal-like grey and orange pops I have been seeing in the fashion stores while I was creating those fashion boards for you! I hope you remember to check in when I do my holiday photo reveal!