What to Wear for Branding Photos

You’ve booked a branding photo session and you’re excited to get a database of on-brand images for your small business. But what do you wear for branding photos?? This is the most commonly asked question for clients who book branding photos. Good news: this is something I love to help with! Today you’ll get an inside look at what I guide my clients through in choosing what to wear for branding photos.

Color Selection for Your Branding Photo Outfits

The first consideration for what to wear for branding photos is the color scheme. There’s a few key suggestions that will help you narrow down what you want to bring:

Brand Palette

Consider your brand color palette. This may seem obvious but it’s easy to overlook at first. You may consider wearing colors that align with your brand’s palette to bring a more cohesive look to the images of the session, which in turn elevates the imagery of your marketing! If you don’t want to be too on-the-nose with the color scheme, wear something that complements your brand colors so that it won’t clash with your marketing materials.

Stand Out – But Not Too Much

While I’m all about standing out and making a statement with your color palette, it is best to avoid overly bright or neon colors. Not only can these be distracting from the content of the images, but neon colors also tend to reflect up onto your face giving you unflattering colors on your skin.

Solids Vs. Patterns

When considering the patterns on your outfits, solids will often look better than busy patterns. If you just love patterns, make it a timeless and not-so-busy pattern. These will keep your images from becoming outdated quickly or your outfit stealing the show.

Outfit Types

Next as you consider what to wear for branding photos is outfit types. You understand color schemes that will work great but what types of outfits should you bring?

One suggestion I give to all my clients is to bring a mix of professional and casual options. It’s great to have those elevated professional headshots and working scenes, but it is equally important to show your target audience who you are outside of the office. Being a little more casual in some of your imagery makes you relatable to your audience! I recommend bringing at least one business casual or professional outfit, and one everyday casual outfit. You can bring a couple options for each category if you want to add diversity!

It can be nice to include at least one blazer or jacket to elevate your imagery for a few, even if you take it off for most of the time. Consider layers to create variety in your shots, as well, so you can easily switch up what your outfit looks like by adjusting certain layers. More bang for your buck out of one outfit!

Common Concerns

As I’ve captured more and more business branding photos, I have noticed a few most frequently asked questions. These help you hone in on perfecting your outfit choices and rounding out what to wear to your session.

What Flatters Your Body Type

I’m not one who really believes in “flattering a body type” but I get this question a lot nonetheless. What I think you should focus on moreso is feeling like you look good in what you wear. Don’t buy a brand new outfit you don’t feel comfortable in – that will reflect in your images! Being comfortable and confident in your choice is most important.

How Many Outfits To Bring

It’s best to bring at least two outfits, depending on the length of your session. Even for a mini session for a few headshots, having a couple outfits to bring diversity to your images gives you more to work with! For branding photos, having at least one professional outfit and one casual outfit is key. That could be a uniform, a business casual outfit, a full suit or dress, or whatever else “professional” means to you. A casual outfit for lifestyle and personal imagery scenes helps your target market get to know you on a more personal level and relate to you as a person outside your business.

Incorporating Accessories

Accessories can make or break an outfit – but moderation is key. As they say, plan your accessories and then remove one thing and you’ll be sure you’re not overdoing it. Have plenty of options along with you – being able to quickly switch out accessories can bring a new look to one outfit, and it is nice to have options if you’re suddenly not feeling the accessories you first planned on. Lastly, make sure the accessories you choose are timeless. You don’t want a whole database of images that have a trendy necklace type that dates the images quickly. Those owl necklaces in 2012 or the chunky statement necklace in 2010 were cool at the time, but definitely look dated now, for instance!

What Photographs Well on Camera?

When you’re choosing what to wear for branding photos you’re probably wondering what looks great on camera. Neutrals always look wonderful in camera, as do jewel tones. Consider where you’ll be taking the photos too – if you’re using a blue backdrop it’s best to avoid wearing blue as well or the whole image is too blue. Aim to complement your backgrounds without blending in to them.

What to Avoid When Deciding What to Wear for Branding Photos

I’ve given you a lot of what TO do and what NOT to do in discussing each of the above topics, but here’s a quick breakdown of all the “what NOT to do” as you are deciding what to wear and bring for your session.

Avoid small, busy patterns (especially tiny dots and stripes) as these can create a “moiré” effect that looks weird in camera. While our technology has tools to remove this effect, it’s not always perfect and some can still linger.

The biggest thing to avoid as you decide what to wear is to avoid clothing with visible logos or branding. This is your branding shoot – don’t be advertising other companies in your images (plus there’s trademark and copyright laws that can come into effect!)

Try to avoid wrinkle-prone fabrics. Even if you steam and iron them prior to the shoot, some fabrics will just wrinkle easily as we shoot and editing out wrinkles is difficult (plus not every photographer offers it!) Try to select fabrics that won’t wrinkle easily.

Finally, as you’ve probably figured out from above, avoid anything too trendy that will date your images quickly. You don’t want to have a full database of on-brand images that are suddenly out of fashion or cringe a year or two later. Choosing timeless fashion and accessories will ensure you can use the imagery you invested in for years to come!

Your Branding Photographer

If you’re looking for a photographer in Grand Junction to capture your branding photos, click here to learn more about my work and process. I shoot on-site or have a shared studio we can utilize if needed! I can’t wait to help you create a suite of images for your small business.