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Introduction to Wardrobe Styling

Lesson 6 from: Men's Portrait Photography

Jeff Rojas

Introduction to Wardrobe Styling

Lesson 6 from: Men's Portrait Photography

Jeff Rojas

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Lesson Info

6. Introduction to Wardrobe Styling

Lesson Info

Introduction to Wardrobe Styling

How many of you have wardrobe stylist that you work with exactly no one and that's ok, because a ll the tips that I'm gonna give you guys these things that you can do it's an introduction to men's styling what looks best on men and bart's to suit fit pants close blazer's large german broader man things that you could do to, uh help physiques if you will there's not much to styling we're not talking about before we even start I'm not talking about fashion I'm not talking about what colors to wear, what texas where what patterns to where I'm speaking specifically about fit and the rope with away something is supposed to fit on you as opposed to everything and everything is going to be relative to where you live obviously fit in japan or in dubai or fit in peru is going to be different the united states is going to be different everywhere so the tips that I wanna give you guessed it is really much western culture for what we see as appropriate so those of you that are on the eastern side ...

of the head or eastern side of the world I would just look up different ways to to do the same on your end so the introduction to men's suits give you guys a little cheat sheet how many telling how many of you have ever seen and we discussed discusses before men that look like they're swimming in suits that too big or large german they're too small or short of men that thing's air too long so they look even shorter we're gonna discuss that momentarily I went to a wedding recently where it's a beautiful wedding they spent a lot of money it was beautiful I don't you guys know I don't photograph weddings this is why because I would we'll discuss that a little later I don't photograph wedding specifically because fashion sets if anything happens I'm okay I can fix it I'm fearful weddings it's just a personal phobia if you want to call it that and wedding scare me in general so that's okay just so you guys know that I looked at the gentleman he looked like he was grooming here swimming in his close was a rental it was a rental suit you know jet men tend to be that want to be more comfortable we discussed that before us we tend to get pants that are a little more comfortable on us they look a little bigger we're just comfortable it feels extremely uncomfortable however that's not always the best fit so here's a cheat sheet to suits this is when everyone took a screengrab online at that exact same second cici two suits shoulders a well fitted suit should fit snug against the subject shoulders you see wrinkles it's too large if you see it's pulling out it's too small if it's sticking out it's too large does the things that you have to consider handkerchiefs draws attention away from the chest and not the belly larger men say if you're in a suit those who have a handkerchief in their pocket we're drawn to the handkerchief and their face we're not drawn to anything that's in the center we'll discuss larger men as well torso a well fitted suit should hug the subject's frame this has a lot to shape we talked about shapes before if I see curves and wrinkles in the clothes that seems too big that's what were visually seeing is too big we'll cover that momentarily jacket length should cover enough to cover the rear your jacket dominant like moon everyone now your jacket lengths just fit right about here no longer no higher too long it's too big too short it's too small and it seems so trivial but if you provide your grooms with guides like this you would be surprised how much improvement your your overall photos will have. This also will cover this on tomorrow retouching things that you need to consider during retouching to make people look better so this is this isn't just in camera this is things that you can do in post processing to fix certain issues cuffs it should be at least at least an inch of cuff showing at the end of sleeve I don't see cuffs it's too long if I see too much cuffs it's too short and that's those a little ways and no one says you can tell so if I look at the man on the right I would say the only thing that I would change is probably the wrinkles on the sleeves to at least look appropriate next we discussed suits I know what I wear my suit I don't wanna gain weight it looks like the first one that's exactly what it looks like it's like healthy buttons about to pop the first the first button in a two piece suit on ly the first button should be buttoned the bottom should freely it's it kind of sweeps away it allows you to have ah nice physique and itjust a nice open ending the second one is too loose it looks bag you know we're talking about the fit mint of the way that it fits along the sides and thie sorry to loot you can't see any negative space the one on the right we're looking at it's nice cut shapes if I went back we'll go for it tio when we when I was mentioning going back but the treatment on the science I need to see negative space I need to see something that looks fit fitted without tio without too bulky to tight we talked about shoulders if these shoulders if it starts pressing up against the shoulders kind of like this just this is also not too tight there's probably a terrible example the right hand side it's going to be too tight you don't want to see that too loose too bad you don't want to see too baggy clothes the great thing is with articles of clothing is that you can do the things you contract in directing directly influence I'm not saying no they haven't mentioned don't wear a purple suit or a pink suit I just said make sure at least the pink purple suit is fitted next too short too long just right we're talking about the length of the actual suit top can I borrow you for a second russ I'm gonna give you a blazer um we're going to see where it fits you ok can I borrow that blazer that's over there please thank you. And if you don't mind putting that on for may what's the automatic assumption is this going to be fitted in that and if I could have had them here clips wearing sleeves right for this but so if this was a suit is this too short too long messing you guess turn over to turn over to the side so what what do we lengthwise lengthwise is a little short she covered his rear when we talked about covering the trust let's look at his let's look at his hands sleeves are if he were to have cup little long okay next thing is towards the front and he obviously has clothes on he has a bunch of like equipment on, so if I look at the front it is a little tight on ly because he has his statement on, so I know that as I'm talking to groom sees the things that you're going to take a photograph of that you can change, so if I feel like those sleeves are too short, you guys ever use little he's little small claims here just a quick styling tips things that you can use to change I can start pinning things if this was a portrait session to the back if I needed to at least to start shortening the length of that is going to make sure that it looks at least a little snug I'm gonna have to turn that way towards the camera from so I can start pulling up certain areas I can peek I can pull I can pick and prod depending on what I'm trying to showcase let's see here if I need to pull I'm starting to poor areas from the top without looking like it's it's actually cut so I don't have to have a suit I could do things myself so these little clamps these little clamps absolutely our paramount for you to, uh to showcase next thing let's say let's look at your shoulders I would say in the shoulders they fit good but they're a little large larger because they have passing them so the next thing I'm gonna do is turn to the side and again they have little rubber fittings at the end not to destroy suits so you guys have that so little things that I can do for us you have too much patty in there man you have too much panic what can I do to start hemming other areas? I'm something to pull things the way they need to go so if I was going to take a portrait of him facing forward I don't see any clips you can't see anything I'm gonna have to move on do you mind unbinding your blazer so make sure they get there okay sorry don't mind at all so I'm gonna unbutton this blazer right now see if this is too large what could I do? I'm gonna have you turned that way again I can pin on the back of it by folding it over and again this is just if those suit was too large obviously but I can start hitting the back of it so I don't have to see anything I want to make sure that I'm showcasing the body as best as possible same thing with pence if I needed to do it with pants and we will discuss the end of it I'm gonna move down this goes back to styling one on one yes, if it was the opposite if it was too short so like the bottom of his jacket is shorter so how would you adjust that? I wouldn't either if you could do it in post processing to fix it but there's not much you can do toe add material yeah it's almost like adding hair you know it's very very difficult to do you could meet you so I can start pulling things where they need to be so if I look at the sides pull this up a tiny bit do you mind turning over on that side? Okay, so if I look at his his left leg if you want to show your you're healed towards them where's the fit of the length of hats how does it fit relative to what we're trying to photograph? You know if I have you facing forward the break and we'll talk about this momentarily the break should be one break I should only see one cuff I would probably fix this up. I need to make sure that it's one break if it looks if it has too much bag penis to it it looks too large so shorter men if you think about it that have more breaks here they look a very, very small inshore larger men you don't want high waters it was well it's difficult to add material it's easy to take away material like it's super easy in post processing to try to fix things but adding materials the pain so if he had high waters you don't have high waters if you had high waters how would that make him look? You look at me look taller and make him look very, very long and long getting ill fitted that's not something you want you want to make sure it looks best as physically possible so what we want and we'll discuss that moment l a is just one break of clothing and I need to make sure that everything fits accordingly I'm gonna have you turn around for me to take these clips out I'm going to take off the blazer from eh? Does anybody have any questions so far about styling feel free to have any any questions whatsoever with this? I'm done with it. You want to wear your back agent thank you. Job okay, I'm trying to pick on anybody's close stephanie how are you? Okay, stoney's pants are correctly fitted right? We'll talk about that. I'm gonna show you guys a quick snapshot let me move forward since you mind sitting in that chair for two seconds but I can check for some internet questions if you don't mind jeff, we've got rent to own who says where does one find a clamps to purchase? How much do they cost? On average you talk a little about that absolutely these you can buy on amazon for like a pack of six for I would say probably three dollars you're super inexpensive um I would just again get the little rubber tips and make sure they don't have there not two strong because they'll start damaging clothing you just wanna make sure you at least want to be a finger without it hurting so he's like somebody online is at least like painful that I just did that in my own finger thes don't hurt their very, very light so you don't want to damage clothing it's extremely paramount there and you said you had another question for me I was gonna ask you to stony sunnis pants are perfectly fit right they fit and we'll talk about the break there but can you lift your like from a on top of that chair so as I start piecing things up stoney if sony had high waters what could I do like ifs tony's pants were like this how can I photograph that look okay do I want to photograph it from the side? Probably not. So what could I do? Can I move forward? Can I bend his leg? I'm gonna have you turned that way from it your pants are missing and I'm sure I'm trying to give you at least enough critique to say you did get today you did good, I'm teasing you can I photograph it straight? If it was high waters to look a little better, I can't tell the difference. I can't tell brick I can't see a socket can't see anything it's purposeful. I can see that there. Next thing is stone if you want to stand up for me god is picking on me way talked about fit of clothing, right? If I feel that I like it but it's a little baggy clothes clothe how much is too much? If I pull on a pole? How much is too much? How much is too little? You kind of have to figure out I need a tiny bit of negative space without showing any, any, like a bulge in the front and even very, very fit. You obviously fit the any models or any subjects that I photograph that a very fit. I still worry about it being too tight because it's showing a little bulge in the belly area. So the things you want to kind of show case so I'm gonna actually photograph you in both ways. I'm going have you clip on and clip off. So can you stand that the background for me, um, a little closer towards me, we'll talk about this momentarily twiddling your thumbs, nervous when you're nervous. I always joke with all my subjects to make them feel less comfortable I kind of feel like family like that's the way it's supposed to feel onset not crazy family just regular family because you always have those uncles and cousins that you stand over to your right a bit testis works perfect don't destroy the tv that's all we care about perfect and I have the one fifty on their might go twos generally the thirty five I'm so used to the thirty five being on there okay see what that looks like a camera sonny I'm gonna take the clip off your back like the half smile give me a smile we'll talk about that talk about that exact same thing little less snug it's like the nineties all over again perfect and if I could have a little separation just from your arms a tiny that a little less perfect can I see those photos the three photos that I just took the last two photos I'm sorry last two photos clipped and not clipped that move you're so happy how much did the clip actually help that one little tiny clip look at his sides look at the moon anybody who doesn't know what a movement is it's the frilly thing that goes out this is a men's portraiture class every woman's laughing every guy's like what look at the fitting of his shirt how is that slimming his body no that was a consideration that I have when I'm posing people when I'm sorry when I'm standing people I'm thinking about how it looks best next thing I'm noticing is kind of the wrinkles that he has here how is that accentuating his body type so I want to have that door not want to have that but this year I want a lesson those fold them over you you look like a pushpin by the time I turned around I would have you turn around so everyone worry about you turn around from a camera okay so what is it doing it's starting to accentuate center certain things about his body perfect have turned towards me can't next thing is awesome perfect obviously have no light why am I doing that? I'm so focused on him you're distracted it's you're you're gorgeous man soniya gorgeous man perfect so if I could see not the second to last shot the last three shots aside from that does that make sense thank you gnomes I'm gonna start putting them all up he's gonna have like he's literally gonna look like a bushman let's see where's our moo moo I need to see the moon move thank you wait todo we're starting to define his body type subtly little by little I haven't done anything in camera there's no liquefy everything has to do with just those little tiny clips that we have behind next thing I'm worried about is let's say the pant pant like I think it's a little too long again I'm not changing what he's wearing I'm just tryingto to showcase as best as possible last two clips on you I promise forget one perfect fitted exactly okay perfect I would say that a little too badly on the top so if you guys want bob agnes and tops in here and say try this and you don't have to make make more skinny jeans by any means but at least it looks a little little better there oh yeah you may both how about that would you give up a year listen let's see so I'm looking at his thighs they're awesome five clips that's not seeing this so if I can have that one and then that one compared to the moo moo won come teasing you know that I know see I know so I would say the shirt in the front we're just gonna go ahead and fix the tiny bit is showing your belly a tiny bit and he obviously he doesn't have a belly he's fit so I need to show his best stops once it stops self deprecating you know that was the word you look amazing amazing goal just my gorgeous perfect one more time came to me fair and just pull down any shirt at the bottom as I do that all the clips pop out the back I'm not worried about his face. We're we're just in his clothes here. Stony, you're very very handsome man. Next one so mu compared to the last shot we just had way doing, we're sculpting. It looks good on you. So when I'm starting to do is I'm gonna pull the clips off now. Sorry. So I'm doing some sewing to sculpt thank you very, very much. So what I'm starting to do is I'm sculpting his body to make it look as best form fitting it's possible to fit the clothing that I see fit. And as you can tell, larger men tend to wear bigger clothing because it feels comfortable in there hiding their physique. But what is it really doing in actuality? Hiding it it's hiding it? Yes, but it's also making them look larger because it's adding up, adding to their body weight all tryto compensate. Smaller mento tend to wear larger clothing because they're trying to look bigger. But it's really doing is making, making them look tiny and larger. Mento where bigger clothes, larger man tents were bigger clothing as well to hide their physiques and it's doing the total opposite of what they wanted to wanted to do so. Those are little subtle things that you could do with these little tiny things amazing styling one o one next if you don't mind there's got a quick question couple here uh oh dear says are there certain parts of the body that pins should generally be pinned at um other places that you avoid putting the panzers purely just wherever you can fit it where it's not showing in your picture I'm gonna borrow him for two seconds you come up and he's like not again that depends nothing when I'm pinning and just a quick how do you turn around for me um towards the background sorry as I was pinning I'm pulling out towards the centre because I'm thinking about where the clothes are actually pulling so why have you switched around with me so face towards the camera so I'm pulling it back how is that looking in his physique like what's happening there okay, so I'm pulling back if I pulled too low what is it really it's not really doing much I need to kind of pull in the center pull from the back if I pulled too high what is that doing it's kind of like making it look hunt so I need to pull back center and then don't just clip would have you turn around towards the camera for me I'm not gonna just sorry I directed incorrectly we'll go with this what I wanted to I don't want to just pull I want to fold and I want to fold over therefore not damaging clothes and I'm just clipping accordingly so I'm not putting too much attention on all the single men sir it's just putting tension on one part so that's what's really happening is that I'm getting the form fit mint of his shirt specifically without doing that next thing is the arms if I pull up here what happens getting wrinkles in the clothing I need to kind of figure out where the clothing is and find a center point to tryto make it look as seamless as possible without pulling and one air pulling down and pulling up I need to make sure it's as night and nice impressed it's possible something like that and just clipping that specific area next thing is he doesn't have any any chub back here so I can't clip his skin be careful with clipping people skin I've had that happen on set not to me not not me doing it to me like somebody tried to clip me and I was a god not nice pant wise if I'm going to grab the back your pants so if I was pulling up what happens to the pants if I'm pulling down what does it do to the pants so generally keep but the center I try to find different points that would balance those things out thank you very, very much hope that helps definitely helps we have a question that maybe you'll talk about but jittery and far how would you suggest styling a guy for well for a portrait session when their usual style might be more like loose, baggy, casual or skater surfer style? Do any of these kind of principles apply to those people as well? Absolutely so first and foremost ru is the person specifically talking about dressing someone up or making them dress the specific time that they're wearing anyway coming onto set that way? What do you recommend let's talk about both great question those people that are wearing like more surfer skater things you can do that to make them feel better. I have so many photos we talked about timelessness so many photos with me with patrick pants back when I was like sixteen and like, you know, I don't punk rock clothing like a anyway, I digress, so fit is another things were extremely extremely baggy jeans and I try to fit things that are more form fitting. I mean finding ways to just compliment the forms is a shirt to bag if they're skater is a t shirt two bag is obviously too baggy for that that kid's size like is it? Is it totally destroying the photo by looking to large is a person look like they're swimming in the photo than you can clip it from behind, you know, wearing like the skater look generals like a bigger t shirt, skinny jeans or bagga shit or baggy pants, whatever it is, try to make it look form fitting as best as possible this best as you can now, if you got a style, someone I would say many men feel comfortable and radiant when they're wearing a suit like, yeah, I got it. I feel awesome about myself, and I'm one of those and something we talked about this before it's like it changes your persona, it changes your attitude unfortunately, that's not with every client there's a lot of clients, they don't feel that way, they're like I'm not wearing a suit, you're not putting me in a suit that's never happening and it's extremely uncomfortable and I don't want to be here it's really up to your client? You can make recommendations, but nine out of ten times they wear what they want. You know, how many times have you guys said cannot? Where harms ana white like striped shirt or black all black shirts? Everybody wear white shorts and a body matching and everybody comes exactly the opposite way that you said, like it's goingto happen, you just kind of have to do what, whatever you can to solve the situation but my butt's towards the camera and my pain my pants into bag in here my butt so you're going to see that too tight too big just right that's extremely important when you're looking and you're shooting somebody or photographing somebody from behind too short too long just right I feel like I'm telling nursery rhyme too short we discussed this is really not what you do you can tryto at least cologne sam things out very, very tedious and very, very difficult we just want why I try to fit things you know in cameron and kind of recommend things to do before hands even when you're shooting fashion or your shooting let's say somebody's lookbook because I get hired to shoot like models that'll come on their own clothes you don't really get to say like have a stylist and sets for their lookbook because for their portfolio to show case they want to be a model I can recommend things but I can't make them do something so go through the same thing um styling bigger and broader men he steps extremely extremely useful when you're styling larger men in general because there's a lot of times like I mentioned before the wedding to biggest suits you know what do you have them where what do they look? How how do we look rust? You asked me this the last time we were here, which was how am I supposed to wear my shirt should be tucked in should be out you know what's what should meet this? We'll discuss that now. Um quick tip before start simple outfits look keep attention to your subject and not their clothing avoid clothing with all patterns how many of you guys have seen large men with hawaiian shirts? How many of you stare at long german with hawaiian shirts what's gonna happen? You're drawing attention to your form it's visually distracting you're looking at that person for that specific instance for that apparent reason they're drawing attention to whatever they're wearing simple a simple out the same thing simple outfits are great if you look at it this is really funny photo I'm glad that that's not me because that kind of looks like me in a certain way what's it called it's just you don't want such distracting elements out of the photo itself um when subjects have larger rounder stomachs they have two options is generally a belt either below the belly or above the belly you know what can you do suspenders air equate a great way to actually lift the waistline and float so those of you that what I'm discussing this bus can I borrow you for a minute? I'm sorry russ where do you usually keep your pants in a drawer in his rock let's hope usually I pull them up to right about here and then they dropped just a little bit. So this is probably natural right about do you have any larger friends that keep it above their bellies? Ives do okay, I mean, yeah, I can think of people that have seen him. So what happens when we do that, where? I mean, where are we staring? We're looking at if rush wasn't wearing drescher to kind of hide things, if I pulled, if I pull it tight, where we staring right, dead center, their rights very, very difficult, so buy him wearing something it's, a little more open, it's, more form, flattering to what he's photographing there, but by wearing suspenders, you can start floating it's, where his his waist should bay. It should be right around this level, so we're not staring here. We're not staring up there. We're not looking anything. We're just looking at russ for who he is, and we're structuring their

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Photographer's Style Guide for Men
Men's Posing Guid
Photoshop Black and White Presets
Adorama Gear Guid

Ratings and Reviews

caroline ross
 

I watched this class for free and am saving up to buy it. First of all confirmed! Sigma lens are nothing to be ashamed of and since I love my one main lens, Sigma I immediately felt a rapport. Then listening to the fascinating insights about men and their feelings when confronted by a lens and...what to do with folks who have shaved heads or a little large. Some of the tips were great! Adding a decoration on suit front like a flower or handkerchief, and how to get the suits looking FIT! and well, I plunged into man world and it was a super education. By day two I was amazed by Jeff's generosity. Basically all his experience, all his favorite lighting techniques and painstaking attention to detail. I would have to watch Day two zillions of times to actually be able to absorb all the scenarios and effects. Im going to buy some suit clips Jeff and clip a bunch of suits in back and front to gorgeous my male subjects out. Thank you again for a wonderful, wonderful class.

Lee Crow
 

I've taken a lot of photography training in the last couple of years. Jeff is outstanding. I didn't realize that this content would have such an impact on me. The lighting sections were the best I've seen and the psychological impact of us men having good photos is a wonderful subject to bring to light. The class is great. Jeff is great. CL is great.

MizUniverse
 

this course was worth every penny. Full of practical information and excellent demonstrations. Jeff needs to quit with the crotch comments though ..it was like ...really AGAIN? why are you so obsessed with saying crotch crotch crotch good God. Apart from THAT (which I think was just silly nerves) I really do recommend this class. Jeff is actually very very good. I admire his work. Thanks Jeff I learned a lot!!

Student Work

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