When picking out outfits for boudoir sessions, I recommend having a color story in mind! Finding pieces that are complementary colors or ones that will flatter one another overall will create an excellent visual flow for your album. When planning your shoot, I always have your photo album in mind. I want a nice flow of colors that won't be too jarring when you flip the page. So this is crucial when I am looking through all your items!
While you're wrapping up in hair and makeup, I come in to look through all the pieces you have brought and begin planning the flow of your shoot. I pick the pieces that you are most comfortable in or are your favorite and go from there! I choose pieces that will flatter you the most in the various poses you will be doing, along with complimenting the different scenes in the studio. This is also when we can take a look at the client closet and add any pieces that will enhance the overall flow!
With all that being said, I know what you are thinking; where the heck do I start?? Don't you worry, I have your back! The first place you should begin when shopping for items for your session is finding colors that flatter your skin tone and hair, then build the color story! Today I will tackle the first step on helping you find colors that look amazing on you (next blog on tips to creating a color story 😉) for your boudoir session.
So let's begin with color analysis. The color analysis considers your skin tone, hair color, and eye color. We need to consider undertones, saturation, and brightness.
First- undertones. There are traditionally three different undertones; warm, cool, and neutral. To determine your undertone, go into natural lighting; this will give you the most accurate results. If you have a warm undertone, you will notice more yellow, orange, or golden tints in your skin. You will be cool-toned if you see more blue or pink tints when looking at your skin. You have a neutral undertone if you feel you are in the middle and do not notice more than the other. Whatever your skin tone is, those colors will look the best on you! If you have cool-toned skin, cool tones are your jam! They will compliment you the most. If you have warm undertones, warm tones will flatter you the most. You have the most options with neutral skin tones because either will compliment you!
Subsequent- is saturation. Saturation overall means how vivid or rich a color is. To see if you will look better in bold or muted tones, we have to look at the saturation of your face!
If you have a high saturation, this means you have a vast difference between your features. A few examples would be dark hair and light eyes, light hair and darker skin, fair skin and dark hair. If this is you, bright and bold saturated colors are your jam!
If you have low saturation, this means there's more of a soft difference in your features. Examples of this would be light hair and light eyes, dark hair and dark eyes, fair skin and light hair, darker skin and dark hair. If this describes you, muted tones will compliment you the most!
Lastly- brightness. Brightness describes how close a color is to pure white or pure black.
For this, we look at our hair and our eyes! If your hair and eyes are on the lighter, brighter side, as in someone with blonde hair and green/ blue eyes, colors that are brighter and more mixed with white will compliment you the most.
If you have dark hair and brown/black hair with brown/hazel eyes, deeper colors and colors mixed with black will be your jam!
Bright colors
Dark colors
With all this in mind, your color analysis should be A GUIDE, NOT A RULE BOOK! DO NOT let this limit you. If warm tones are your jam even though you're cool-toned... girl, you better still buy those warm tones!
If you read through all this, still are confused, or are struggling to figure out what colors, shades, etc., will compliment you the most, well, I have a website for you! This link will take you to a website that curates a color pallet via seasonal color analysis! It will divide you into a season, then will describe you as deep, warm, soft, light, clear, or cool. It will then provide you with an entire color palette of colors that will compliment and bring out your features!