You want to make sure that you look amazing for your senior photos, but where should you be shopping for your outfits? And more importantly, how should you be picking out your outfits to wear for your senior photos?

This is a guide that every senior should be following since outfits are critical to the outcome of your photos! Everything from posing, locations and more is centered around your outfits, so making sure you come prepped and ready is going to be key to making sure that you fall in love with your senior photos!

Tip #1: Variety

There have been a couple times throughout my career as a high school senior photographer that my clients have come with a ton of outfits… but they were all basically the same. When you’re having your photo taken, even though you may have different types of tops and jeans/pants, it’s entirely possible that they will all look the same – or similar – on camera resulting in it looking like you wore the same outfit in all of your photos.

For all of my clients, I tell them to bring no less than 5 different outfits. This is the average (and perfect number of outfits in my opinion) that we end up shooting. This makes sure that we get a good variety of outfits and that you have different looks throughout all of your photos. Ideally you will have 1 casual outfit, 2-3 medium casual outfits and 2 outfits that are more dressy. This is perfect because it gives you what you want, your parents what they want and your extended family like grandma and grandpa what they want.

Pro-Tip: Make sure that you’re changing up what you wear! Don’t bring all jeans, but also don’t bring all dresses. Your outfit type will affect how your photographer can pose you and not having a variety of outfit types can make posing more difficult and result in a lack of variety for your photos.

Tip #2: Color!!

This is something that I am always telling my seniors, but please, please, please make sure that you’re bringing outfits with color! This is something that is so crucial to my style and while the white top may be in style now, it will also lack that “pop” and risk you blending into your backdrops.

I love adding color into my seniors outfits because it helps allow them to stand out in their locations and brings the focus to them rather than their surroundings. Now I’m not saying go crazy with neon colors, but also don’t be afraid to add in some bold color to your wardrobe even if you don’t normally wear it.

Pro-Tip: Your photographer should have a skin tone guide. This is something that will have your skin and hair tones in it and direct you to which colors will look best on your skin color and photograph the best. This isn’t standard, so make sure you’re picking a photographer that is helping to educate you with information like this!

Tip #3: Pick Your Outfits Based On Location

When you’re thinking about your senior photos, one thing that you’ve probably been thinking about is what type of location you want to have in your senior photos. Do you want natural, urban or a mix of both?

This will also play a role in what outfits you’re choosing! If you really want to wear your favorite leather jacket, it’s not going to look great in a natural environment. Same goes for that beautiful, flowy long Free People dress in an urban location. While it might turn out okay, it’s not going to look the best that it can look. Your photographer should be working with you to help plan out your locations and coordinate your outfits to do this.

Pro-Tip: Ask your photographer before booking them if they help coordinate outfits and work to style you for your senior session! I personally work with each of my senior clients individually to make sure that we have a game plan ahead of their shoot and that we’re making the most of our shoot day!

Want More Tips About Styling For Your Senior Shoot? Download the FREE Shopping Guide For Your Senior Photo Outfits Here!

I know how many questions you all have about outfits for your senior photos! Where should you be shopping for them? What do you need to be looking for? So that’s why I created this FREE Shopping Guide for you all! To download it, all you have to do is click here or the image above to have it sent straight to your email and get it digitally!

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Sean Brown is a senior portrait photographer based out of Vancouver Washington and Portland Oregon. His goal is to bring out every senior’s personality in their images and is dedicated to making sure that every senior session is different so that no two senior images are alike. Sean is now booking the Class of 2020. To learn more about being an SBP Senior, click here.