Preparing for your Senior Photo Session

Everything You Need to Know

You are part of a generation that documents everything. You have the power to share and create memories at the tips of your fingers. You’ve mastered the art of the selfie but now it’s time to master your senior photos. These are the tips that we’ve found helpful – we want your photo shoot to be fun, comfortable, and we want to capture exactly how you want the world to see you.

Before our session together there are some things you may want to keep in mind. While all of these are listed as “rules,” always remember that rules are made to be broken! During our time together it’s important to remember that you won’t be in front of the camera the entire time of your shoot. Bring warm clothing to ensure you will be comfortable while we are moving locations or getting ready for the shot. Don’t forget good shoes for getting dirty/walking around, and a warm jacket are crucial for an enjoyable photoshoot. Also consider bringing bug spray, sun screen, a towel, moisturizer, gloves, and a warm hat.

If you’re interested in bringing props you may want to consider bringing along things like purses, flowers, books, hats, birth bears, sporting equipment, bikes/four-wheelers/snow machines, hunting equipment, prop planes, musical Instruments, art supplies, or any mobile hobby you may want to include.

General

In the time between your consult with us and your session you may have changed your mind about some of the session details. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any new ideas or want to make any changes.

We will keep an eye on the weather the day of your session. If we have any concerns about what is happening, we will reach out to you and discuss options with you a few hours before we plan to get started.

The photography itself will be 2-3 hours. This does not include any driving between locations.

Bring good walking shoes and/or footwear for wet walking. It is also a good idea to be prepared for just about any kind of weather, bring appropriate clothing and gear. It is always a good idea to bring a water bottle no matter what the weather is.

These are some things you can do to make your session fun and successful:

The photography itself will be 2-3 hours. This does not include any driving between locations.
Try to get a good night’s sleep/rest the night before your session.
Make sure your skin is moisturized if it is needed.
Bring chapstick to apply during your session, lips frequently dry during outdoor sessions.
Your nails (fingers and toes as applicable) should be well groomed. Nail polish is not required, but if you do use it, make sure it is not chipped or peeling. If going without polish, please make sure they are trimmed neatly.
Make sure your hair is styled the way you want for your shoot.

Planning What You Will Wear

Getting Started

Bring 4-6 outfits/clothing looks. We may not get through them all, but it is good to have some choices. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind when planning. Try to choose looks that are somewhat different. The paragraphs below provide some helpful tips on planning your wardrobe. It is intended to help you consider your wardrobe options.

1. Casual/everyday looks
2. Dressier look – could be what you wore to prom, but doesn’t have to be – again, what is “you”
3. Whimsical or fun look – could be a team sport uniform if that is you or JROTC or whatever…

Don’t forget appropriate accessories: hats, scarves, jewelry, etc

Clothing should be clean, relatively lint and wrinkle free.

When choosing wardrobe, be mindful of any visible undergarments. They will appear in the final images and will only be removed when requested. This will involve an additional retouching charge.

General Do’s

NUDE UNDER GARMENTS

You really can’t go wrong with nude undergarments. Because it’s usually similar in tone to your skin, it doesn’t appear like a white bra under a white shirt would. Nothing ruins an outfit more than when you can see what you’re wearing underneath your perfectly planned outfit.

LAYERS

There is a fine line between stylish and not being able to move your arms because you’re wearing so many layers. Layers can be a key part of your outfit because they’re so versatile. See style pages to learn how to create the appealing layered outfits.

JEWELRY AND ACCESSORIES

Add some texture to your look with jewelry, wrist watches, ties/bowties, headbands, belts. Your jewelry should add to your look rather than distract, although statement pieces are a great way to accessorize if you typically wear jewelry. Make sure your jewelry/metal matches itself. Either go will all gold pieces or all silver pieces, pairing silver and gold rarely look good together. If you decide to go the tie/bow tie route, try bold colors or patterns!

PATTERNS TO MIX

This isn’t easy but it’s certainly achievable. Keep in mind to coordinate colors, not patterns. The other important part to remember is to not cover yourself in patterns. Break up the busy patterns with some plain articles of clothing. Try pairing a patterned shirt and pants/leggings with a plain jacket or skirt.

General Don’ts & Their Solutions

WRINKLED CLOTHES

Using the nicest adjective possible, wearing a wrinkled shirt, skirt, suit, or pants is sloppy. Even if you slept past three alarms, you’re 5 minutes late and eating a bagel in your car on the way in – you can still make it appear like you took the time to iron your shirt. If you’re in a pinch, you can iron your clothes by hanging your clothes in the bathroom and steaming the room with the shower.

SMALL REPEATING/BUSY PATTERNS

The focus of the photo should be you – not the entire polka dot shirt, floral scarf, and zebra printed skirt ensemble. In general, try avoiding patterns like plaid and stripes together. If you love a certain pattern, focus on that and pair with solid colors. In general stay away from small repeating patterns like hounds tooth, pinstripes, and herringbone. It can create unwanted abnormalities in the photographs that are not removable.

INAPPROPRIATE CLOTHING

Style is certainly a way of self-expression but if your clothes distracts from the face your mama gave you, then the focus is lost. This goes for clothing that is too revealing or that may include inappropriate graphics or wording. Before you decide on an outfit ask yourself if you’d feel comfortable going to dinner with your grandparents in it. If the answer is no, it’s probably not an appropriate outfit to bring to your senior session. As much as we want you to love and embrace your body, we also want the focus to be on you; not objectifying your body.

UNDERGARMENTS THAT DON’T MATCH YOUR OUTFIT

This one isn’t just for the girls! Its important to remember that your outfit matches from top to bottom. Make sure your clothing isn’t see through, or your undergarments aren’t bunching under your clothes. A great way to make a statement is with fun socks! However, a way to make a questionable statement is to wear short white ankle socks with a black suit. Matching your undergarments is crucial for a complete put together look. Go for neutral colors to ensure no colors will show through your outfit.

How to Determine Your Body Type

Fruits, geometric shapes, or inanimate objects — choose one to determine your body type. Oh, wait – you’re human? Maybe it’s not that easy to put your body type in a box. We understand and appreciate that everyone is different, so what might be eye-catching on one person, might not flatter you in the exact same way. We hope these tips help you determine how to compliment your body best, so you can wear what inspires you the most.

How to Determine Your Body Type

STRAIGHT

With a straight body, your shoulder and hips are relatively the same width and your waist doesn’t have a noticeable curve inward or outward.

The general rule of thumb for this body type is to look for pieces of clothing that really help create the illusion of a more “shapely” figure. Snug clothes, not skin tight clothes, like a bodycon dress or a snug button down are easy ways to achieve this look. Color blocking is also a simple trick to consider.

What to avoid: Shapeless, flowy tops and dresses. With a straight body, it’s very easy to loose your shape.
If stripes are a pattern you want to incorporate, look for pieces with differing thickness — it can help define your body shape
Straight leg jeans as opposed to skinny jeans and jeans with a classic or lighter wash. Dark wash jeans create a slimming illusion.

STRAIGHT

With a straight body, your shoulder and hips are relatively the same width and your waist doesn’t have a noticeable curve inward or outward.

What to avoid: Shapeless, flowy tops and dresses. With a straight body, it’s very easy to loose your shape.
If stripes are a pattern you want to incorporate, look for pieces with differing thickness — it can help define your body shape
Straight leg jeans as opposed to skinny jeans and jeans with a classic or lighter wash. Dark wash jeans create a slimming illusion.

HOURGLASS

If you have an hourglass figure, your hips and shoulders are relatively the same size while your waist is distinctly smaller.

Your waist is what you’ll want to bring attention to, so look for shirts with v‑necklines or that are more form fitted. You’ll lose your shape in baby doll/loose tops or a shirt with a high neckline. Pencils skirts or straight cut pants are also an easy and classic way to play up your features.

What to avoid: Loose fitting clothes that don’t bring attention to your awesome waistline and curves. Don’t look for skin tight clothes but look for shirts and dresses especially that play up your waistline ~ i.e. a skirt that cinches at the waist.
As long as the stripes are the same direction, it will emphasize your natural curves.

HOURGLASS

If you have an hourglass figure, your hips and shoulders are relatively the same size while your waist is distinctly smaller.

What to avoid: Loose fitting clothes that don’t bring attention to your awesome waistline and curves. Don’t look for skin tight clothes but look for shirts and dresses especially that play up your waistline ~ i.e. a skirt that cinches at the waist.
As long as the stripes are the same direction, it will emphasize your natural curves.

Triangle or Pear

With a triangle or pear body shape you notice that your hips are wider than your shoulders and your waist line is defined.

With this body type, you’ll want to be mindful of which part of your body your emphasizing and which part you’ll want to tone down, just a bit. Since your hips seem wider than your bust and shoulders, you’ll want to bring more attention to the upper half. Patterned or colorful tops, A-line dresses, higher cut tops with simple bottoms will bring attention to your top half.

What to avoid: Anything that brings attention to your hips – patterned/colorful pants, flared skirts, baby doll style shirts that flare at the waist.
Horizontal stripes create an illusion of a broader upper body – which can help balance out the lower half of your body.

TRIANGLE

With a triangle or pear body shape you notice that your hips are wider than your shoulders and your waist line is defined.

What to avoid: Anything that brings attention to your hips – patterned/colorful pants, flared skirts, baby doll style shirts that flare at the waist.
Horizontal stripes create an illusion of a broader upper body – which can help balance out the lower half of your body.

INVERTED TRIANGLE

You have noticeably wider shoulders, in comparison to your waist and hips.

It can seem a bit like a balancing act at times but creating a look that sculpts your body is surprisingly simple. Look for pieces that play down your shoulders while simultaneously adding some definition to your hips, like pairing an A-line skirt with a simple tank top with narrow straps.

What to avoid: Bringing more attention to your broad shoulders – i.e. shirts or dresses with high necklines and off the shoulder.
Vertical stripes can be your best friend – they create a slimmer silhouette.
V-necks with a slim fit look great on you.
Colorful or bulky bottoms like skirts or thicker pants pair well with this body shape.

INVERTED TRIANGLE

You have noticeably wider shoulders, in comparison to your waist and hips.

What to avoid: Bringing more attention to your broad shoulders – i.e. shirts or dresses with high necklines and off the shoulder.
Vertical stripes can be your best friend – they create a slimmer silhouette.
V-necks with a slim fit look great on you.
Colorful or bulky bottoms like skirts or thicker pants pair well with this body shape.

OVAL

In general, your waist is equal to or wider in width to your hips and shoulders. Look for shirts and dresses with a deeper v-cut and add a belt to help create the illusion of a more defined waist. The trouser/skirt waist should always be comfortably loose, never belted so tight that it pinches and wrinkles.

What to avoid: Skin tight clothes that don’t do your body justice. It will be easier to create a defined body shape with more loose fitting clothes than to start with tight fitting pieces.
Vertical stripes can be worn with this body type as well
Suspenders or overalls look good on this body type as they make your torso appear longer.
High waisted jeans and anything pleated on your lower half helps balance your body type.

OVAL

What to avoid: Skin tight clothes that don’t do your body justice. It will be easier to create a defined body shape with more loose fitting clothes than to start with tight fitting pieces.
Vertical stripes can be worn with this body type as well
Suspenders or overalls look good on this body type as they make your torso appear longer.
High waisted jeans and anything pleated on your lower half helps balance your body type.

How to Determine Your Skin Tone

Luckily there are a couple tricks to figuring out what your skin tone is. There are three categories of undertones that affect your skin tone: cool, warm, and neutral

Wrist Check. When you look at the veins on your wrist do they appear more blue or green? If you’re seeing a green tint, it’s because the melanin in your skin has a more distinct yellow tone to it, creating a “warm” appearance. If your veins appear blue and everyone can see in your face when you’re blushing, most likely you have cool undertones.

The sunshine test. Are you the individual who can stand outside for 5 minutes and come back inside looking like you’ve spent a week on a tropical vacation? If that’s the case, chances are you have yellow to olive tone skin, also classified in the “warm” category of skin tones. With cool undertones, you’re more susceptible to getting sunburned, which means you have less melanin, placing you in the category of fair skin.

Gold or silver? The jewelry test is one other option to determine your skins dominant undertone. Silver is considered a metal that pairs well and highlights cool undertones, while gold compliments those with warmer undertones. Even if you haven’t noticed it until now — you probably have more gold jewelry or silver because you naturally pick what looks best on you.

If none of those three tricks give you a definitive answer you may have a neutral skin tone. Meaning you have the easiest time finding colors that look good on you. This is the most common skin tone.

Dress for Neutral Skin Tones

Since your skin doesn’t lean more towards warm or cool, you’re lucky enough to be able to pull off most shades. Some suggest wearing colors like blush pink to subtly enhance your features, or going with green for a bolder look. Try pairing dark navy with whites or tans, even out-of-the-box colors like lilac can compliment your skin tone.

Dress for Warm Skin Tones

The amount of natural melanin your skin creates, allows for yellow-to-olive undertones to be present in your skin. If you’re still not completely sold on which category you’re in, think about the words that seem to repeat when you buy make up: warm beige, honey, and golden.

Dark reds, berry “wine” tones, and even metallic colors like bronze not only highlight your skin tone but bring out the color in your eyes as well. Not feeling the dark shades? Don’t fret — vibrant colors like fuchsia can be incorporated in to your wardrobe. With a warm skin tone, pulling off bright colors, like corals or even fuchsia’s are easy for you — they highlight your features perfectly.

Dress for Warm Skin Tones

Dress for Cool Skin Tones

You’re the friend who gets sunburned and you can never hide when you’re feeling embarrassed. We hope you embrace your ivory, porcelain, or pale skin – you can pull off colors others just can’t. If you have cool undertone, the words, “pale, porcelain, or ivory” aren’t new to you.

Some of the best colors to compliment you beautiful light skin are colors that have a soft shade with just enough pigment to make your eye color pop – a pastel blue is always a solid go-to, especially for people with blue eyes.

Dress for Cool Skin Tones

Styles Explained

This is your chance to dress exactly how you view yourself – whether that is boho, glam, classic, or alternative – we welcome your true personality. Have an idea but not exactly sure what you’d call it? These are some of the most popular styles, explained.

Everyday Wear

An Everyday style is what you might consider as the baseline outfit. It’s very minimal with little effort needed to match. Think jeans, comfortable T-shirts, and sneakers or flat boots. Both streetwear and sporty styles might be considered types of casual styles, but casual style can also lean preppy or hip.

Everyday Wear

Classic/Business Casual

This is more of a formal style and it is better if we term it as business casual. The casuals are still perfectly fine for business meetings and office events. While men wear a blazer with matching pants with a formal shirt and sometimes a tie, women can wear slacks and skirts with proper tunics or blouses with a matching jacket. Think of casual wear as a particular set of clothes that you wear to make yourself feel dressed up but at the same time maintaining the same level comfortably as your everyday outfits. Instead of focusing all of your attention into the formalities, casual wear enables you to find that balance between the level of comfort, professionalism, as well as individuality.

Classic/Business Casual

Chic

Chic is very simplistic in nature. Neat and tidy kind of style as it involves mostly blacks and whites. You may also see some other not so loud and subtle colors but it is all class and ecstatic elegance with nothing overdone and no overtly garish colors. The chic fashion style is famously known for wearing monochromatic pieces with a sleek clean line. Chic simply means a classy look that is produced from the combinations of a few layered items that are done with minimal effort.

Chic

EUROPEAN/PREPPY

Preppy style is inspired by the clothing and uniforms traditionally worn at private East Coast prep schools and Ivy League colleges. Preppy style often takes inspiration from upper-class sports like polo, sailing, tennis, and horseback riding. Preps are known for wearing polo shirts, Oxford shirts, argyle sweaters and socks, cloth-wrapped headbands, boat shoes, blazers, pearls, cardigans, and khaki pants. Preppy fashion includes Khakis or straight-leg chinos, button-down oxfords, polo shirts, henley shirts, crew neck sweaters, short skirts, etc.

EUROPEAN/PREPPY

Artsy/Statement

The idea is to create something unconventional away from traditional styling. This may involve some very bold and bright colors, with exaggerated prints. The clothes would typically have unusual silhouettes and some weirdly unique shapes. Artsy is a style that is all about creativity. It can be any outfit that you can think of and may be fashioned quickly out of a piece of fabric you already have. Be bold and creative at the same time to let your personality be expressed from the way that you dress.

Artsy/Statement

ALTERNATIVE

Inspired by grunge music and the subculture that originated in the ’80s, alternative fashion features thrift-store finds like plaid flannel shirts, oversize knits, oversized leather jackets, deconstructed blazers, ripped fishnet stockings, skinny jeans, chunky black boots, band logos, and dresses styled in a subversive, disheveled way. Unkempt hairstyles, heavy black eyeliner, mohawks, dyed hair, and spiked hair are also considered grunge or alternative looks.

ALTERNATIVE

GLAM

By definition glam is over the top. We’re talking gowns, jumpsuits, heels, makeup, jewelry, slacks, suits, ties/bowties, watches. Go big or go home wearing all the fanciest articles of clothing in your wardrobe. If you feel like you’re about to walk the red carpet, you’re doing glam right. Small details make big differences. Make sure your socks, jewelry, and accessories all match.

GLAM

BOHEMIAN

Bohemian style borrows from the 1960’s hippie aesthetic and festival culture. The style incorporates earth tones, natural fabrics, dyes, prints and accessories from around the world. This style is known for its free-flowing and relaxed nature and you can see that in almost all outfits of this style. The hallmarks of boho style are flowing shirts or maxi dresses, long skirts, loose fitting pants, large brimmed hats, fringe, suede, and slouchy handbags.

BOHEMIAN

Outdoor/Cowboy

Though this might be something you wouldn’t wear on regular days, if you do you know it includes a lot of staples such as a hat, blue or ripped jeans, leather belts, a pair of boots, and button-up shirts in natural colors or pink and red. Plaid, denim, and leather are best for this style.

Outdoor/Cowboy

Current/Trendy

Take tips from what’s currently in season, what other individuals your age are wearing, or whatever may be prevalent in today’s society and culture. TikTok can be a great inspiration for trendy or current looks.

Current/Trendy

Sporty/Athletic

Sporty style, also known as athleisure, takes elements of athletic wear, like leggings, bike shorts, and oversize sweatshirt out of the gym and onto the streets. If you are a gym enthusiast or are someone who loves your morning runs, this style may have already been a part of you. In this style, individuals typically will wear stuff from popular sports companies such as Nike or Adidas with complementary runner shoes of some similar sports brands. You may also opt to wear a uniform from a sport you play or particularly enjoy watching.

Sporty/Athletic

Vintage

The word “vintage” is oftentimes used to describe the style of clothing that ranges from 20 to 100 years old and it represents the era of the times during which it was manufactured. The condition that is needed for a certain piece of clothing to be categorized as vintage is that it should have a concrete reflection of the trends and styles that are often linked by many to that particular era. Accessories can be a crucial addition to selling the vintage look.

Vintage

Whacky, Silly, or Unusual

Remember that one article of clothing in your closet that you -always- wanted to wear but never had a place to wear it? Your senior session is the perfect opportunity to wear a new, spunky, or favorite outfit you own. Pajamas, cosplay, crazy outfits, Halloween costumes, T-rex suits, we’ve photographed it all!

Whacky, Silly, or Unusual

Gutierrez Photography

11823 Old Glenn Hwy, #107

Eagle River, AK 99577

Ph: (907) 726-1284

gutierrez@gci.net

gutierrezphotography.com