WHAT TO WEAR?

A Guide to Planning your Wardrobe for your Maui Family Beach Portraits

We get asked all the time about what to wear for a family portrait session on the beach. This can be one of the most stressful parts of your family portraits as you know, you only have one shot to get it right! I have seen some really awesome and sorry to say, not so awesome family ensembles so I thought I would put together a blog post to help you all with your shopping! Plus the better you look, the better we look :) 

Here are a few basic rules for planning your wardrobe for a family beach portrait session:

1. YOU WILL GET WET so wear something that you don't mind getting wet and if possible, doesn't show too much when you do get water on it. There are some fabrics and patterns that you can't tell if they are wet or dry, kind of cool! Of course it is no big deal if your clothes do look wet, you are on the beach after all! Here is an example, the girls dresses were totally wet but you can not tell:

2. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WEAR WHITE about 80% of our clients wear white for their family portraits but that is not necessarily the best choice, it is just the most traditional. The Pro's to wearing white are that it is easy to coordinate, looks fresh and bright and is pretty easy to find in stores.  The Cons are that, white is not always the most flattering color, there are different shades of white, that often don't look different until you have them out in the bright light (sun or flash),  when the whole group is in white, you can end up looking like one big white blob or a polo team about to take the field.  If you do choose to wear white, try to mix it up in different styles with different bottom options or a splash of color, see below for examples:

3. YOU DON"T ALL HAVE TO WEAR THE SAME COLOR think COORDINATE rather than MATCH. When you decorate a room, you don't use the same color for everything, you choose pieces that work well together while at the same time they all bring something different to the room.  People are the same way, everyone has their own personality and style and your clothing for your portraits should show off the personality of the people in the photo.  So rather than making everyone wear the same color, find a palette of colors that all work well together and the let each person express their individuality.  Here are some of our favorite examples of this:

Notice how only one person has a strong pattern ( which is totally fine) you just don't want more than one person in a pattern.  Here is the exception to that rule however:

The girl's dresses are the same but different, and mom and dad's colors pull from the dresses to make a really nice coordinated look.

Everyone has their own look, but it all works well together! 

Want to make your teen happy? Don't make them dress like you! These guys all have their own 
style but the colors all work well together!

3. AVOID CLOTHING WITH LARGE LOGOS We am not going to post any photos of offenders, but please don't show up in t-shirts with writing all over them, it distracts the eye from the important things (like your face) and can lead to image looking dated too soon.

4. A NOTE ABOUT SHORT SHORTS yes, they are all the rage this season, the "Daisy Dukes" are back! But they usually don't work well for portrait sessions as they can be tough to do sitting poses (unless you are a size 0 most people's thighs look considerably larger when sitting and super short shorts only emphasize this) also, soooo much flesh draws the eyes away from the group and right to those legs!

5. ABOVE ALL ELSE Please Please Please wear something that feel good in! We want you to look in the mirror and say "Yeah I am looking good today!" don't sacrifice how you feel in the clothes for the sake of coordinating with your family, MOMS we're talking to you!! You choose your clothing first, then help the rest of the group work around you. You went through gaining and losing that pregnancy weight, you deserve to get first crack at looking good!!

We hope this guide helps, we want you to LOVE your portraits and having a well put together wardrobe will help you love them even more!!

Also, a few tips about beauty and the beach:

1. Maui is often windy, so bring a hairbrush if you plan on wearing your hair down and if you wear your hair up, make sure it is secure.

2. The bright sun and flashes that we use can cause some shine, although we do our best to minimize this, you can help by wearing flat powder without sparkles or shiny bits like mineral make-up.

3. Avoid lots of body lotion or sticky sunscreens, these will make the sand stick to you like nothing else and can look greasy in the photos. 

We look forward to seeing you on the beach soon!

Aloha!