10 Tips for Posing Like Fashion Bloggers

no jeans challenge black leather jacket

A couple weeks ago I tried to challenge myself by wearing no jeans or pants for two weeks. The idea was to push myself to wear the dresses and skirts that seem to get little rotation in my closet, and spend more time and thought putting together outfits in the morning. I work primarily from the back sunroom in our home, so sweats and pjs are too often my working uniform. I knew for the challenge I’d be sharing my outfits on instagram, which was a little intimidating to me since I don’t do a lot of outfits photos on there, and I kind of dread outfit photos in general (do you as well or is it just me??).  I’ve found is so impossible to look natural in an outfit photo. So I did a little research in preparation for the two weeks by examining some of my favorite fashion blogs. Here’s what I learned about outfit photos from the blogs and doing outfit photos the past two weeks. Some tips are pretty silly, but I thought they’d be fun to share! PLUS keep reading for a few favorite outfits from the challenge…

Image above by Tara Rudolph

Taking a lot of outfit photos was so much work than I thought. I gotta hand it to those fashion bloggers, it’s not as easy as it looks for sure. That was the hardest part of the challenge I think for me was the stress of documenting outfits. I did learn some tips from looking at lots of fashion blogs and taking tons of outfit photos the past two weeks. Some definitely legit, some kind of silly but still legit advice:

outfits3

#1 Straight on photos often feel too forced for me but I thought that I just needed to learn how to pose and what positions to move my body in. Wrong. Turns out out whenever I tried to pose a certain way, it looks super lame so I just kind of move around and talk and walk and try to be as natural as possible while having my assistant or whomever snap snap snap away. Something will work. Often it’s that one of you fixing your collar or playing with your skirt.

#2 Sunglasses are a great accessory. Then you don’t have to wear as much makeup! But actually, don’t wear sunglasses with hats. Too Indiana Jones or Hollywood Star trying to avoid paparazzi in the grocery store.

#3. Fiddle. Play with your hair, mess with the buttons on your jacket, take your hat on and off, swing your skirt around. If you’ve looked at Madewell/JCrew/Asos you’ll see all the hot models do it. Something looks really natural about it.

outfits1

#4 That random person over there staring weirdly at you? They just said something SO FUNNY. Laugh just a little. Or a lot.

#5 The Sartorialist street style trend is still hot. You can play with that whole street style NYC thing without it looking to fake: not really paying attention, very, very busy heading to a very, very, very important meeting.

#6 Always nice to have someone else in the picture to engage with. It forces you to act slightly more normal in front of the camera (although I always end up tensing up in my knees).

outfits2

#7 Jackets are meant for your shoulders. Of course it’s a little too cool for me in real life but I think in photos it’s fun to play around with (see first image).

#8 Red lipstick. Always red lipstick.

#9 Cross your legs or lean against something.

#10 Wash your mirror + make your bed if you’re taking a bedroom mirror selfie. Which I actually never do but that’s probably why I’m not a fashion blogger 🙂

Were you into the no jeans challenge? Any fun tips you have for successful outfit photos??

Comments

I loved this challenge. I was going to do it along with you but all of my dressers are SO summery. Time to go shopping! 😀

haha! I live with a photographer and I’m still all kinds of awkward on camera. Seriously, I have to give you mad props for doing this. Also? I’m a wee bit envious that you’re able to wear dresses and such in February. It’s, like, 12 degrees here right now. Wah!

Love the tips. I always feel so awkward when I have to pose for photos. I will def need to practice before our wedding 😐
The no jeans challenge is an awesome idea but in the winter in ny it seems a little too much, I might try it once warmer weather comes around 🙂
http://www.southernfolly.com

Yes we’ll definitely do the challenge again in the summer or spring (although you’ll laugh because I’ll still be in scarves and jackets here in SF!). And yes, I feel so awkward too for photos!

Comments are closed.