I just finished a photo shoot with two of my amazing friends, and I wanted to show you, because I think this could be really helpful for you to know what to pack for a photo shoot.
So, I’ve got all this stuff here, and I’m going to kind of just show you a little bit about what to pack, what to consider. Because, I’ve just got to say, my photographer said that I was the most prepared person she’d ever shot with. And I was like, “Ah, thank you. I’ve had practice!” I’m going to show you exactly what you need to pack for your upcoming photo shoot.
First, you want to start with your main base outfits. I had two. My photo shoot was two hours, so we did two main outfits, and then we did a ton of accessories and sweaters and other things. So, my two were a simple white tank, and simple gray pants. And then, I had a pink tee shirt and white pants. So, those are my main two outfits.
Once you’ve got that, now you can start to say, okay, what are all the other pieces to put with it? So what I’ve found is that changing your shirt can change the look completely. Adding a scarf or changing a bag or something like that can help, but as you’ll see in my Instagram in the coming days, you’ll see the other posts of these photos, really over the next couple of months. So, you’ll get to see what came of them.
Then, you’ll want to think through additional tops. I brought a gray jacket, which ended up going with a couple outfits and one was white on white. I did a lot of neutrals, top and bottom, and then I did my colors in my sweaters and stuff.
You also want to bring a couple of different shoes.
I brought flats, just loafers, because we were doing a kind of Summer/Fall shoot. I brought high heels in black. Again, neutral. And then, I brought wedges to make it a little bit more casual. And you’ll notice, all of these shoes would’ve gone with any of my outfits. You don’t want to have an outfit that doesn’t have shoes to go with it. Just throw in an extra pair if you need to. And then, you can kind of mix and match.
Then, I brought a few bags. This bag is more of a Wintery kind of Fall-ish look, so we shot this with the gray pants. But, that would’ve worked, of course, with black pants or other things. Another bag we used for a Summer-ish look. And then, I don’t think we ended up using this other bag I took. That was more of just a tote to bring things around.
Okay. Jewelry. You want to bring a lot of jewelry! I have this chocolate box where I just put my jewelry in here because it’s so easy to carry. Okay. I had a few different types of things. I ended up bringing barrettes. We ended up not using them at all. Some watches and bracelets. A bunch of earrings. Bring as many types of earrings as you can! We ended up not using most of them, but some of them, we did. This could’ve worked with a lot of these different outfits. Earrings can change a look, because in a photo shoot, sometimes you’re only going to do upper body anyway. You know? Just swapping out the earrings can change the whole look. You want to bring lots of extra jewelry!
Then, makeup. So, I usually just bring my essential touch up makeup. You definitely want to bring powder, because, you know, you’re going to be working hard so if you get a shine or something. My photographer actually had me add more eyebrow because it had been brushed off with all the changes and stuff. So, we did that. Blush and lipstick. Bring lots of different lipstick colors too, because that can go far.
I also brought a hat. I brought sunglasses. Two different types of sunglasses. Oh, I brought this, my little tumbler with my logo on it. But, we didn’t end up using that after all. But, it was still cute.
I love scarves and I wear scarves a lot, so I brought just a bunch of scarves. Just simply, like if I were to just throw this on with the outfit, it just completely changes the look. Right? And now, with a closeup shot, the look looks completely different. Right? So, anyway. Scarves go a long way.
And then, maybe you’ve seen this on the Home Edit. Maybe you’ve just done this naturally on your own. I never stored my scarves like this before, but the home edit taught me to do these little, I think they call them scarf donuts or something. Anyway. It’s a great way to store them.
Oh, and then I have these hanging things behind me here. One of the things that I thought was a game-changer was a blazer! So, I brought just a simple black blazer, and then I brought this green sweater too. But those helped so much because it allowed me to elevate a look, because this is all casual. But then, put on the blazer and boom! Things look different.
Also Belts! Bring a bunch of belts. I only brought this color and, black, and I wished I would’ve had my white belt with me, but I just forgot it. But that would’ve been helpful.
So, that’s what to bring in terms of wardrobe. Now, I’m going to give you three additional tips that I highly recommend. Actually, I got a fourth one too. Four tips. Number one, bring a towel that you can use, or a scarf that you aren’t going to be using, and use it for your change of clothes. So, you know when you take off a shirt and then you put on a shirt, it can sometimes rub over your makeup? So, you don’t want your makeup to get on the new shirt that you’re photographing. You just put the towel over your face, and then you put your shirt on over top of you.
Then, the makeup gets on the towel and not on your new clothes. But, it still can mess up your eyebrows and stuff, so you got to just kind of make it look right. So that’s thing one. Bring a towel. We ended up using a towel to sit on and to wipe stuff off and stuff like that. So, one thing that I’m going to add to my photo shoot list for the future is wet wipes, because a lot of the things that we were sitting on were dusty because it was an outdoor shoot. So, something to think about.
The next thing is to bring a suitcase! I put all this stuff, except for the jewelry and the sunglasses and the hat, those things I put in that bag, but I fit all of this stuff into this little travel-sized suitcase. So, when you fit all of this in there, then what’s great is we could drag this around from location to location! So, everywhere that we went in these little nooks, we could just pop everything back in there, drag it to the next spot. So, it made it really easy for wardrobe changes. Then, I could just put it down on the ground, lift it up, dig through whatever it was that I needed, grab what I needed, and head onto the next thing. You know?
Tip number three is to bring some snacks for the crew! We had a photographer and we had an assistant who was basically the stylist. She served as stylist. She made sure that my frizzies were put down. Anytime, if the photographer was like, “Okay, add the sunglasses” and I would go like this, she’d be like, “Okay. Wait. Susan, come over!” And then, Susan would help and stuff and she’s such a dear friend! It was sweet. And she’s a friend!I tried these one earrings on and I was like, “Do these look corny?” And she’s like, “Yes.” I’m like, “Okay. Excellent.” Like, fast decisions. Let’s go. You know? It was so helpful to have her. So, it was great to have somebody like that. Even if the photographer doesn’t have somebody like that on staff, then I highly recommend just bringing a friend that their whole job is to look and make sure that you are looking fab. All right. So that is tip number three. Oh, tip number three is snacks. Okay. Well, that was tip number four.
So, snacks, what I did was, when we got there, I was near a coffee shop, and so I said to the photographer and my friend who, both of them are my friends, but one was serving as photographer and the other stylist, and I said, “Girls, I want to buy you a coffee, so what would you like?” And one wanted a mocha and the other a latte. So, I just bought them coffees. I didn’t have a coffee because I knew that I was going to have to be doing stuff. I was going to be changing clothes and things like that. So, I just had water. But, it was perfect to be able to offer that to them.
I also brought snacks. So, I had a cooler and I put in cucumbers and M&M’s, and you could do carrots or whatever, things that are light and easy to pick at. So, you wouldn’t want to bring a turkey sandwich or something like that. You know? Then, I put LaCroix’s in there and kept them cold because we were going to be outside. It was hot in San Diego.It was a perfect little thing to just have. My shoot was only two hours, but then when the shoot was over, I was like, “Okay, you girls. We didn’t eat our snacks. You want some snacks?” And I sent them with snacks, so it was a good little parting gift.
Now here’s the final tip. Tip yo staff, y’all! So, the quote that she gave me was, I felt it was pretty low for what she was offering me, so I gave her a little bit extra. Remember, I always, always say we enter the gates of Heaven with Thanksgiving.
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Psalm 100:4
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
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And that is, when you show gratitude and when you show that praise that you’re able to give people, I just think it goes such a long, long way!
So, tip your staff. I have not yet tipped my girlfriend yet, but that is coming soon. I already did with my photographer, who’s amazing and incredible. If anybody needs a photographer, Southern California, specifically in San Diego, let your girl know and I will make an introduction. She is fabulous. Okay?
So, I’m going to just give you a little look see at the final things, just to remind you what you need.
Happy photo shooting!
