Clothing colors play an important part in how visually effective the portrait will be for the viewers who will have it in their homes, offices and at their relatives homes, in short anyone who will be viewing the portrait. This portrait with the family wearing mainly black is quite strong, with the exception of the woman’s bare arms and white collar on her dress. The man’s blue jeans are a minor distraction.
If I had an additional portrait of this family with a black collar and long sleeves for the woman and darker pants for the man it would be a stronger image and the difference to us would be obvious. Why do I say that? Well, looking at the image we cannot help but notice the bare arms and white collar which visually nudge our attention away from the dogs and the peoples faces. Of course the white dogs (Bichons) stand out–guess what? we want them to stand out along with the peoples faces. Clothing in my professional opinion should be appropriate for the portrait but should not stand out and be a distraction.
However, with black or dark colored dogs dark clothing would not work as the dogs would tend to blend in with the clothing. For these situations I recommend medium clothing colors, not too dark and not too light. I like to tell clients that on a scale of 1 to 10 (white being 1 and black being 10) think of colors that would be either a 5 or a 6–then I will give them some colors I like.
As a professional portrait photographer with 37 years of experience this just one of the services I provide for my clients. Call Patrick Nau Photography at 612-722-7911 for your special portraits. Remember: ‘Don’t say I wish I had, say I’m glad I did.’
We’re a dog loving family!
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