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Planning Your Outfits for a Senior Photography Session in Colorado

Are you a high school senior thinking about what to wear for your Senior pictures? If you’re heading into your senior year of high school and you’re wondering how to plan your outfits for your senior photoshoot, you’ve found the right place. I’ve been a Denver senior photographer for twenty years now and I finally decided it was time to write up a list of my best tips and advice for choosing what to wear for your senior yearbook photo session. I’ve included examples from past senior photos as well to help illustrate what works best for this kind of session. I hope that it helps give you some great outfit ideas so that you’ll love how your yearbook photos turn out!

How Many Outfits Should You Bring to Your Senior Pictures?

I advise that seniors who are working with me plan to wear between 1-3 outfits at their senior picture session. If you plan for much more than that, we will spend too much of your time at the session changing outfits instead of creating awesome photos for you to choose from. The following types of outfits generally work pretty well if you want to have some variety. Otherwise, you can just choose 1-3 outfits that you love and want to wear. And please don’t feel like you must bring multiple different outfits to your session. If you just have one ensemble you know you love and feel good in, you don’t have to do a clothing change at all if you don’t want to.

Casual Outfits for Seniors

Consider wearing one outfit that is your more casual, everyday type of look. This will mean something different for each senior and that is part of the fun of getting to express yourself through your senior photos.

Fancy Outfits for Seniors

If you want to wear more than one outfit, you can go with another casual look or you can opt to dress it up a little bit. Wear something you might wear if you were to go on a date and wanted to impress someone. This could be a great opportunity for wearing a nice button up shirt or even your prom dress if you want to go even fancier.

Outfit That Shows Off Your Interests

And lastly, for your third outfit it can be really fun to wear something that shows off your interests, a club you are in, or just something that makes you special. There are lots of examples of what that could mean. Something like your school letter jacket, your team jersey for a sport you play in, or bringing a prop like the instrument you play. Or perhaps you really love going to shows and want to wear your favorite band’s shirt. Maybe you already know which college you’ll be attending and want to bring a sweater or pennant for your new school. An outfit that shows off your interests is a great way to visually show who you are at this time in your life.

Keep in mind when deciding how many outfits you want to bring that the location may help dictate if an outfit change is possible. Some locations are more private and you can do a simple change right there wherever we are while others will require us to find a restroom or head back to the car to make the change which takes some time. Try to keep your changes simple if you can so that you aren’t spending a lot of time at your session changing outfits instead of actually creating photos.

Which Colors and Patterns to wear at a Senior picture photoshoot?

There are really no rules for this! Truly almost anything can look good on camera so don’t overthink it and go ahead and wear the colors that you love. I am partial to darker colors and deep jewel tones because they tend to keep the focus on you and your face more. But if you prefer lighter, fresher colors that works too. The only type of color I would consider avoiding are neon colors unless we plan your session around them. They tend to draw your eye to them too much and often look very out of place in natural settings. Plus, those extremely bright kinds of colors can reflect onto your skin making you look a bit strange with an odd color cast.

Consider Texture When Choosing What to Wear For Your Senior Session

Texture is terrific and can add interest to your photos in a subtle way. Especially if we end up doing any of your photos in B&W. If you are the type who prefers to wear understated clothes, then thinking more about the texture will help guide you in making choices for clothing that will look more interesting in your photos. I’m talking about things like cable knit or fuzzy sweaters, Corduroy, herringbone and tweed fabric, and crochet, ruffles, beads, and even feathers are all interesting textured items that can take a more simple look to the next level in a photo.

What about Patterns for Senior Outfits?

Patterns are ok too! Many photographers advise to keep it simple with patterns for senior portraits but I think they can be fun even if they are loud. (This is obvious from how many Hawaiian shirts I’ve picked for my husband!) Big, bold patterns can definitely compete with your face so it’s all about pairing loud patterns with more simple clothing items to keep the right balance. And not all patterns are big and loud. There are lots of interesting and fun patterned clothing that is more subtle too. You don’t have to stick to only solid colors if you find something patterned that you really love. Plaid button down shirts are a classic that never seem to go out of style and floral prints are still just as popular as ever.

Accessorizing for your Senior Photos

Accessorizing is probably the one thing I think most seniors getting their photos done forget to think about and it’s often something you can do to really elevate your personal style. Have you ever put an outfit together and it just seemed to be missing something? I’m willing to bet what it was missing was an interesting accessory to tie the outfit together.

Adding accessories to help express your personal style and personality

Accessories to consider for your senior photoshoot are all of the typical ones like watches, jewelry, and belts. But you can get even more creative by having some fun with scarves, sunglasses, hats and more. Some accessories may only be included in a few photos so they don’t steal the show for the entire session but they can be fun to have in the mix.

Don’t forget to think about your shoes and footwear

Most of your photos at a senior session are likely to be more of a headshot or at least ¾ length, since for most seniors the goal is to create a fantastic photo to go into the yearbook. But, we do also get some stunning full length photos at my senior sessions. Afterall, this is Colorado and we have some pretty great scenery to show off here. Shoes are often an afterthought so I’m mentioning them in this article since they do sometimes show up in your photos. Be sure to pick a pair that goes well with your outfit. 

Many locations require a decent amount of walking. If you have a pair that you’d like to wear in your photos but they aren’t great for walking in, I recommend bringing a bag with you so that you can carry the shoes you’d like to wear once we reach where we’re headed. Some locations may not be as suitable for changing in and out of shoes the whole time so you’ll want to find a pair that can do double duty for looking good while being comfortable enough to walk in. Also, you’ll want to consider the color of your socks. Will a bright white sports sock or a darker dress sock look better with your outfit? Or maybe something more off-beat and snazzy. Your choice.

Pets are great accessories for your senior photos!

Depending on the location, I’m totally happy to photograph you with your furry best friend if you would like to bring them! If this is important to you, be sure to let me know up front so I can let you know if the location you’ve selected is pet friendly or not.

Dressing for the Location & Weather

Thinking about the location can also help guide you on choosing your clothing for your senior photos. If we are heading into the mountains, be sure to think about whether you will need to incorporate a jacket of some sort and make sure it goes well as part of your overall outfit. You want to look good at your session, but not at the expense of being too uncomfortable to last outdoors in the elements. We will be photographing closer to sunset and it’s often a little bit colder later in the day than you realize, even during summer, and especially if we are photographing in the mountains at a higher elevation. Either way, make sure to bring a coat to at least put on in between shot set-ups!

Hair, Makeup, and Grooming for Senior Photography Sessions

Whether you’d like to stick to your natural every day good looks so that you feel more like yourself in your photos or if you’d like to glam it up a little bit I have a couple words of wisdom regarding grooming for your senior yearbook photoshoot below.

Makeup for Senior Pictures

Going a bit heavier than your everyday look is good for photos since make up doesn’t always show up as well in photos as it does in real life. But don’t feel like you need to go overboard with a super heavy, stage make-up look (unless that’s your style!) The goal is to still look like yourself, but perhaps accentuate your features for the photos.

Hair Advice for Senior Photos

Have fun with your hair! Hair is so personal that I prefer not to give too much advice about it except to say that if having a flowy windswept kind of look will upset you, you may want to consider styling your hair in such a way that helps keeps it in place more easily like with an updo or braids for those with long hair, or use a bit of styling gel/hairspray to help keep it how you like it. I’ve yet to do an outdoor photoshoot in Colorado that didn’t have at least a little bit of a breeze. Usually we can work around the wind and wait for it to settle but that’s not always possible! 

Other Grooming Tips for Senior Photoshoots

Don’t forget to cut your nails to a length that you like and make sure they are clean. Your hands will sometimes show up in some of your photos so make sure your nails are neat and clean. If it’s in your budget you could even splurge on a fun set of nails to go with one of your outfits but this is certainly not necessary. Also, don’t forget to floss your teeth! I know this may seem a little odd and specific, but you’d be surprised by how much detail cameras can pick up these days and you want your smile to look great!

Extra Tips for Planning what to wear to your Senior Picture Photo Session

Please don’t wear overly wrinkled clothing. Some wrinkles are unavoidable, but ironing out or steaming major wrinkles before you show up is best. Overall, no matter what you choose to wear to your session, make sure it fits you well. Be sure to try on your outfit and move around in it before the session. If it’s too tight, too short, exposes too much when you bend over etc…we will be very limited in the kinds of poses we’ll be able to get for you. You will also want to make sure at least one of your outfits conforms to your school’s guidelines for being included in the yearbook or you risk not being accepted for printing. On the flip side, overly large clothing can give a disheveled appearance in photos so try to avoid ill-fitted clothing for your senior portraits. 

I’m always happy to take a look at the outfits you are considering if you want to snap a photo and email it to me before the session. I look forward to seeing what outfits you come up with for your senior photos!

You can learn more about senior photography sessions on the SENIORS page of my website.