Photo: Kampus Production/Pexels
There are a lot of ways you can capture the perfect picture of the perfect outfit, and plenty of ways you can use this information to help you not only determine which clothes look best on you but at what point in your life. Think back to your time as a young child in grade school. Now think of the sort of clothes your mother put you in.
Contrast that with the wild outfits you put together in high school, or college. Quite a change, isn’t it? But would you want to lose the pictures of you as a young child? It’s important to keep a record of how we change over time. Furthermore, this helps you determine how best to augment your personal style going forward.
Sometimes you look better in a shirt than you thought, and sometimes your favorite pants look awful from “normal” angles. Taking lots of pictures helps reveal what’s what. With that in mind, the following are five tips to help you get the best pictures of your favorite outfits.
Get Photos From All Angles to Find the Best One
Get pictures from the front, the side, the back, the top, the bottom, close up, and far away. You want to see how you look from multiple angles. Strike multiple poses. Use the extensive hard drive of your smartphone to capture a variety of pictures. Before, the film was limited. Today, it’s not, because you can just copy-paste pictures elsewhere, clear the drive, and start over.
Photo: Mahbubhasan/Pexels Pay Attention to Where the Light is Coming From
Light coming from behind will put your face in shadow. The light coming from below looks monstrous. Light coming from above is better, but not directly above. You’re looking for illumination like that of a proscenium theatre; it should be coming from slightly above you at an angle, fully illuminating your face and outfit features.
That said, maybe you’re in a sort of Neo-goth ensemble that wouldn’t benefit from that kind of lighting. What you want to do is match the lighting style to the clothing style, and pay close attention to what works.
Play Around With Filters to Enhance Your Outfit
Some filters simply reverse color polarity, so your shirt color changes, but so also does your face. A filter producing the effect a photo negative does would be like this. However, there are filters where you can change a garment specifically, and leave the rest of you as you were. You might want to look into apps like Facetune 2 that help you change shirt color in photos.
Try to Match the Background to Your Ensemble
Maybe you’ve got a hiking outfit, and you want to see how it looks. Would you get a better idea in the middle of some flat-planed silver-ensconced industrial complex, or on a hiking trail at the edge of town? Similarly, do you think a dress for prom or a bridesmaid at a wedding looks like it should in the midst of a swamp?
You want to match the outfit to the background of the picture. If you’re going for something generic, try to have a background that isn’t “busy”; maybe just a solid color like blue, white, or green—unless you’re doing green screen work, of course. If you’re going for something complimentary, you’ll definitely want photos where the outfit is intended to be worn.
A camouflage suit looks best against the sort of underbrush it is designed to blend with, and you can take some very interesting pictures that way. Sure, camouflage isn’t a style many young ladies lean into, but some definitely do if for nothing else than the associated irony. The point is, to match your background to your outfit as best you can when appropriate.
Photo: Atikh Bana/Unsplash Experiment With Accessorizing Your Style
Diamonds, gold, and silver can reflect light, changing the way your outfit appears in “context” with the situation. A camera’s lens may catch you differently than you expected once you accessorize your outfit a little.
Try different jewelry, try different hats, try different shoes, try different belts, scarves, and petticoats. Play around till you find something that the camera loves, and harmoniously captures.
Showing off your favorite styles
Experimentation with accessorized outfits, matching backgrounds to varying ensembles, playing around with filters, paying careful attention to where the lighting is coming from, and getting photos from multiple angles all represent fine ways of capturing strong pictures of favored outfits. Mix and match these techniques to find those that work best for you.
