How I Style My Photoshoots (anyone can do it!)

If you're someone like me who absolutely hates styling and putting clothes together for photo shoots, then this is the video for you. Hi, how are you? Yes, I also hate styling, but I have to do it because a lot of the time I don't have a stylist for my photo shoots in the M. We have to put something together. We have to do something. I have tips that I've used to help me style better. I'm going to talk about where you can get clothes for your photo shoots, what other things you can use to style with, and then how to put these things together, and then some extra stuff that I've picked up along the way. To start, always ask if models can bring their own clothes, and especially shoes, because that's going to be the hardest thing, right? Bringing a few t-shirts is not going to kill me, but then bringing some like two or three pairs of shoes for models in different sizes, that's going to be a little bit more difficult, right? Have the models bring heels. Tell them what kind of shoes you want them to bring, like boots. I'll always do a heel. I'll have them bring heels and sneakers. Sneakers are great, too. So, just basics. Have them bring one or two pairs, basic pair of pants or just tank tops. Another thing that's important, if you want them wearing like a nude colored bra or a black bra or a white bra, they need to know that because if you have a certain outfit that's maybe a little bit see-through or maybe you need them to be wearing like a strapless bra, they need to know that so they can be prepared. That's the basic thing that you can do without having to provide anything. Just have the model bring things and be specific about what you want her to bring. And just keep in mind, sometimes they won't be bringing anything, okay? It it's definitely going to happen at some point. So that's why I would say always you should be bringing something as a photographer just in case. Do not rely solely on the models for styling. It's happened so many times where I give the call sheet. I say bring this, bring these shoes and they come with nothing and I'm like, okay, I should have seen that coming. That's a rookie mistake. If you are going to bring something, what do you bring? What kind of pieces should you buy? Okay, for me I have basic pieces, right? Very simple. Well, I'll show you guys some examples, too. Towards the end, I'm going to show you guys some stuff that I've recently bought and then stuff that I would have recommend. But basically, I would recommend basic pieces. So, tank tops, thick straps, you could do spaghetti straps as well, pant, like one or two pants that the models can wear. Skirts are really great. I love just basic skirts. You can get them, and I'll talk about where you can get these from also in just a second, where to buy all these pieces, but just keep it very simple. Neutral. Think about neutral colors, right? Because if you're bringing pieces that you want every model to wear, you can shoot with them multiple times if they're neutral colors. If it's like black, white, beige, that would be easier to reuse because then you could just put it with a different top or switch it up with a different kind of skirt. Like if it's just basic pieces. These pieces are great because they don't take up that much space. They're neutral tones. You can use them for multiple outfits and multiple girls. And then also they're mostly hopefully inexpensive. Maybe one pair of pants. Pants will be a little bit harder though because you want to make sure that they're not too long, not too cuz every model is different, right? Every model is a different height. So for me, skirts are better for me than than pants in that aspect because I can just put stuff over the skirt like something long and like switch it up and do all of that. Now, where can you get the clothes and accessories for these shoots? My number one favorite place is the thrift store. So, I've been to Salvation Army's, I've been to Goodwill, like everywhere. Every sort of if it's vintage or a thrifting place, I will go in there and I'll take a look and I will spend hours. I will go through each and every piece of clothing to find even just one piece that's going to work for my photo shoot. You can go on Etsy. Now, Etsy is super fun because people have like custommade pieces, different corsets, head pieces, all of that stuff you can find on Etsy. And a lot of stuff on Etsy is handmade. So, it's different than just going to like H& M and just buying what a million other people are going to be buying. eBay is a really good place to go. You can buy used clothing. people thrift on there and then re resell it on eBay. So, that's also a good place, the final sale section on websites. I love doing this because you can find some really good pieces and because they're final sale, they're going to be so much cheaper. So, I love doing that. And if it's especially if it's like going to change seasons, they're always going to want to get rid of their summer stock or winter stock to make way for the new pieces. And so, you can get it at a really good deal and then use it in the future. You can save it and There's websites that let you rent clothing, like designer items and stuff like that. I don't really use that too much to be honest with you, but it's an option if that's what you want to do. But my number one favorite thing to do is to get clothes at the thrift store, which is that's my favorite place to go. It's so much fun to look for pieces and I always find something interesting. I would go thrifting alone because you might be there for hours and the person that you're with is like, "Can we leave?

You've been here for 3 hours looking through one pile of clothes. " Etsy is really good for accessories, by the way. I love buying stuff on Etsy, especially head pieces. They have the best stuff and it's so fun to go through different sellers and go through their shops and see what else they offer and buy pieces. But the another downside is that the shipping can take a lot longer because a lot of these places are international. So, you have to buy in advance for Etsy, like a month in advance at least, because the shipping takes time. What kind of things should you look for? Okay, number one, matching sets. It's such an easy thing to style, right? Because you have a top and a bottom. It's coming. It comes together. It's kind of like cheating a little bit. You got the top, the bottom, they match. It looks good. You don't have to do that much. You put on some shoes and you're good to go with styling. I love putting color tights or patterned leggings or patterned tights with any outfit. It's fun. It's cool. And you could do so much with this. My friend and stylist Sarah actually got me into this. She did this one look where the model was wearing like a hoodie and then was wearing bright blue tights and I'm like this looks really cool. I never had never thought about doing that. That's when I started putting everyone in colored tights and then I started doing patterned leggings and patterned tights. Just anything that looks funky, but then I would try to keep whatever she was wearing very simple so it's not overwhelming. The second layer to this is a statement piece. So I'm talking about head pieces. I've done I love doing head pieces so much and I bought my recent photo shoot I did. I had a headpiece that had little butterflies. I'll show you guys a picture. And that was something that I bought from Etsy. Absolutely loved what it did in this photo. It was so cute. I put her in this matching blue. I just bought this blue dress and I put her in it and it just brought the picture together. Something very simple. I didn't have to do too much. So, a headpiece could be could be fun. You could also do gloves, which I love to do. You'll see a lot of my photos, the models are wearing gloves. You could use lace latex gloves. You could do big earrings and just keep it simple. And what I love to do sometimes, I don't do this too often. I used to, but you could add a wig on your model. That way, if you don't have a hair stylist, that could also work. But I love doing a colorful wig. And sometimes this can be tricky, right? You have to find a wig that still looks good. It doesn't look like she's wearing a Halloween costume. So, you definitely don't want that. But adding a wig could be something fun that you could do in your photo shoot. Eye gems are something that I've used before. Something simple that you can add on. Like if she's wearing a simple dress, you can just put in some eye gems. And I've bought the bought these on Amazon as well. They have jewelry for your face. You can put those on. You stick them on. That could also be an option if you're doing beauty photography or something like a portrait close-up. I would be really careful with glitter putting it around a model's eye because if glitter gets into someone's eye, it won't be good. Okay? So, just be really careful about glitter. Anything weird is good. If it looks strange in person, it's going to look good in your photo. So, that's what I would say. If it's you can even introduce props, too. That's not so much clothing, but that could also be used in your photography. Like I had a phone that I use. I had my model holding a cereal box. People love that. Just a cereal box. So just think of things other than clothing that you can incorporate. It's a style that not so it's not so much styling. It's just maybe just props. But that's also a fun prop you could use. I want to show you guys some looks I styled and only the good ones, okay? Because I don't [gasps] Let's not bring up the ones that I flopped, okay? Because I'm trying to forget about that. This photo here I took in Japan. I bought this necklace from one of the shops in Japan in Harjuku. I bought this top in Japan as well. And then this skirt. I also just paired it with that. I don't know what happened to that skirt. And these are the models boots. So I just thought, okay, if I just keep it simple, white top, white skirt, we'll be good to go. And then I added the necklace. I tried to keep it simple. And this is stuff I bought while I was in Japan. Next one is Tashi. Okay, I don't know what I think of this outfit now that I'm looking at it again. This shirt that she's wearing was so long. It was like down to here, like over here. So, we had to like tuck it in to this dress that I bought. So, everything you see in this picture was mine. The shirt and then this dress, this puff dress, and then even the socks. I think the heels were for her. It's decent. I feel like this is not a good example. Okay, let's go to the next one. This is how the outfit looks in direct light. It looks better here, right? Sometimes you style a look and you're like, "Okay, it looks questionable, but then you can photograph it nicer than it looks in person. " I love the socks and heels in this shot. I think it looks good here.

Like just this right here. I shot this in Japan and I bought this top. I found it on sale online. It was like for $20. It was final sale and then I thrifted this dress. It's like a tube top flower dress. it. I thought it could be really good for layering, so I bought it um at a thrift store. And then I put the dress over the top and we had to just tuck in the top. As you can see in the back here, we have a little bit more fabric, but we made it work. And I think it looks very cute. And then these are also my heels that I bought. I hate picking out shoes. I never know what to do. So, I hope this looks good. This outfit, I literally have this top right here. Do you guys see it? It's right here. I thrifted it in Japan for myself and then I was like, "You know what? You would look really cute in this color. " So, I put this on her and then I brought this skirt for myself to wear, but I never I always bring stuff I'm never going to wear. I brought it so I could wear it in Japan, but I never wore it because I always wear the same outfit and it's always ugly. I love this look on her so much. Look at this picture. It's just photographed so nicely. Those are her boots. So, she brought her own shoes. Thank God. This isn't my best work. Um, okay. So, let me explain. This look isn't my like I like this look, but I feel like I could have done better. But I had I just had this top. I brought it for me to wear, but do you ever see me dressing like this? No. Because I don't have style. So, I put her in this top. I had this skirt that I bought from Dolls Kill. And then I layered it with another skirt. It's not my best outfit. Like I feel like I've done better. But just gives you an idea. Like I tried to keep it simple. Um unfortunately she didn't bring heels and I didn't have heels so we had to put her in the sneakers. There's another look at the outfit. I really should have went down a stop. It's a little bright. This is my favorite styled look I've ever done of all time in my entire life. Nothing will beat this look that I did. This is Miji. I took this in Australia. So, I thrifted this dress in my friend's town in Australia. It's like a It's called Woolly's Wallally. No, it's a popular thrift store in Australia. I bought these leggings on Amazon. I love these leggings so much. I regret throwing these out. I don't know where they are, but they're not with me. They're somewhere in a land Phil. These shoes I bought from Zara, and I love I just love the red with the with these tights. I love it so much. And then the dress. And it looks so good. Let me show you guys another picture. Look at how great that looks. And here's another shot. I love this photo shoot so much. It's one of my favorites. But this has to be one of my favorite outfits of all time that I styled. Lastly, let me show you guys some stuff that I recently bought that I hope to use in my future shoots. Okay, this one's the matching set. I told you guys I love a matching set. This is the skirt and this is the top. Look how cute that is. has a little flower detail on the side here with like a little fabric hanging off. This one came with a dress. Actually, it was a dress with gloves, but I really wanted the gloves. These are how the gloves look. And I think it's going to photograph so nicely. I'm so excited. I don't know what I'm going to put these with, but maybe the actual dress, but also maybe something else. You can use this with any other outfit. It doesn't have to even be a dress. You can do a beauty shoot with it. Just I mean, anything. Gloves are versatile. You can mix and match them. I bought this headpiece from Etsy. Look at it. I haven't even seen it yet. Look how cute. I mean, there's so much that you can do. And I found these on Etsy. The seller is so sweet. And I think these are so cool and will look really good in pictures. This is a headpiece I bought in Japan with my friend Eva. We were shopping. This probably looks ridiculous on me, but it's going to look good for the photo shoot. So, this is why I bought it cuz it it's just very eye-catching. It's different. I think this kind of looks cute. I love the color and I don't know what I'm going to use it for, but I definitely want to do a styled shoot with this in the future. So, hopefully you guys will see a model wearing this. I don't know when, but I'm planning on it. I hope these tips were helpful and good luck to you styling on your next photo shoot. See you guys. I'm going to keep this hat on. Where's my cat? Pipsy.