Tips For Taking Outfit Photos In The Winter

Although Toronto is experiencing unseasonably high temperatures, in the words of Ned Stark: winter is coming. Yes winter with it's brutal weather conditions, limited daylight and general starkness - basically a blogger's nightmare.  While product shots indoors are rarely an issue, taking outfit photos in the cooler weather can be challenging. This will be my third winter blogging (crazy, right) so thankfully I have picked up some tips and tricks along the way that really help to facilitate taking outfit photos in the winter.

1. Maximize Daylight - Shoot Multiple Outfits In One Session

One of the most difficult aspects of trying to take outfit photos in the winter for your blog is the lack of daylight. For those of us who work full-time, most times it's dark when you leave and come back from the office! One of the best tips that I can offer you to maximize on daylight is to carve out a couple of hours every weekend to take all of your photos for the upcoming week - or few weeks, depending on how many pictures you get. Although it's not as organic as casually snapping a few photos every day of your outfit, for the majority of us who don't travel around with a photographer all day it just makes more sense.  I like to keep an eye out on the weather throughout the week to see if Saturday or Sunday would be best for photos, schedule in my photos for the weekend, prep my outfits and go!

2. Too Cold Outside? Take The Shoot Indoors

Although we all strive for perfectly lit outdoor photos of our outfits, sometimes Mother Nature has other plans. If the snow, sleet and hail are too much for an outdoor photoshoot, take the party indoors. Look around your area of town - there must be some bright and beautiful public spaces to shoot in.  Some of my favourite locations to try are coffee shops, local libraries, windowed lobbies of office buildings and museums. Keep in mind you may need to ask permission before taking your photos in certain indoor spaces, but most local businesses will be happy to host your photoshoot for the exposure.

3. Snowy Scenes Are Your Friend

Nothing makes an outfit pop more than when it's displayed in front of a clean white canvas. The nice thing about the winter time is that, if you're in an area the experiences snow, the outdoors suddenly transforms into one huge white canvas. Your winter outfit photos are made extra beautiful with the grey skies that often come along with snow fall. Bonus points if it's lightly snowing for a beautiful, speckled effect to your pictures.

4. Grin and Bear It

There really is no other way to say this but, when faced with cold temperatures and snowfall out first instinct is to forgo any sort of outfit photos at all and just crawl under the covers to hibernate. As hard as it is you just have to make a point to get up, throw on some lipstick, get outside and get happy about taking your outfit photos. Trust me, you will be thankful that you braved the outdoors in the winter to get your OOTDs when it comes time to plan blog content for the week.

I hope that you picked up a few new tips on how to make taking outfit photos in the winter time a little easier.  Did I miss anything?  Do you have your own tips on how you cope with fashion blogging in the winter?  Let me know!

xo Joëlle