Clothing Selection: The objective of any fine portrait is to direct the viewer's attention to the face.  Everything else in the portrait -- clothing, hair, background, and props -- should be secondary to the face.  When the face dominates a portrait, you will never tire of it as time goes by.  Improperly selected clothing can overpower the face and ruin an otherwise excellent portrait.  While it is the job of Impact Image to choose the proper portrait lighting and posing for you, we must rely on your help in selecting clothing that will create the visual effect you wish to achieve.

Clothing Color: Garments in medium to dark tones of brown, rust, burgundy, green, or blue always photograph well.  Light colored clothing, however, calls attention to itself and away from the face.  Avoid light colors that approximate flesh tones such as beige, tan, peach, pink, white, and yellow.  These colors not only dominate a portrait and overpower the face, they also visually drain color from the face and make the wearer appear unusually pale.  Light colors also tend to add bulk to subjects wearing them.  Dark colors are more flattering and slimming to the wearer.  Especially bright colors, such as red and orange, will ruin a portrait; and bold stripes, plaids, checks, and busy prints do not photograph well.  Pastel colors are appropriate against a white or pastel background and sometimes work well with a dark background when an interpretive "pictorial" study is planned.

Clothing for the family Group: When photographing a family group, proper clothing coordination is critical.  In home decorating, a major concern is to coordinate the colors and tones of the walls, carpets, draperies, and furniture.  This kind of coordination also is necessary when selecting clothing for a group portrait.  Choose clothing in the same tonal rages so that no single member of the family stands out because his or her clothing is too light or bright as compared to the rest of the group.