What to Wear for a Photoshoot in Portugal

Most wardrobe advice for photo sessions is written for a park or a studio, where the ground is flat and the background is green or grey. Portugal is neither. The ground is polished stone on a slope, the walls are blue tile, ochre, pink or white, and on the coast there is usually wind. None of that makes dressing harder, but it does change which choices work, and most of them are made the evening before rather than on the day.

Shoes first: the calçada

The pavement in Lisbon, and in the old centres of Cascais, Sintra and much of the country, is calçada portuguesa: small cubes of white limestone, with black basalt for the patterns, set by hand. Decades of feet have polished the limestone smooth, and it is slippery in any weather. In Lisbon it is also on a gradient almost everywhere worth standing, and in Porto the streets that climb from Ribeira are steep granite.

That rules out stilettos, not as a matter of style but because a thin heel catches between the stones and a leather sole slides on them. What works:

• Flat soles with rubber grip for the walking. Trainers, loafers with a rubber sole, flat sandals with a back strap.
• A block heel or a wedge, if heels are part of the look, and only for the frames that need them.
• The good shoes in a bag. Walk between locations in comfortable shoes and change for the frames where the shoes will be seen. Much of a session happens in motion, and new shoes that pinch show up in how people walk.

It counts double on a session in Lisbon. A ninety-minute route from Graça down to Alfama includes twenty minutes on foot on sloping stone, which is where bad shoes stop being a detail.

Colours that work against Portuguese backgrounds

The backgrounds here are loud and specific, and they decide what reads well in front of them. The general rule is simple: solid colours in mid-tones, no large logos or text, and nothing that exactly matches the wall you will be standing against.

Azulejos

Tiled façades, and interiors like São Bento station, are mostly blue and white, often in busy patterns. A patterned shirt against a patterned wall becomes one surface, and a strong blue disappears into it. Warm, plain colours such as rust, terracotta, mustard, olive, cream and camel separate from blue tile cleanly. So does white, as long as it is not bright white in hard sun.

Yellow, pink and ochre façades

Lisbon and Porto have whole streets painted yellow, ochre, pink and pale green. A yellow top against a yellow wall is the most common way to disappear from your own photograph. Against warm walls, cool or neutral colours work: denim and soft blues, sage, grey, white, navy. A strongly coloured wall also throws its colour onto skin at close range, which is one more reason not to repeat it in clothing.

White limestone, whitewash and the Atlantic

Belém, the Alentejo and the Algarve are pale stone and whitewashed walls in strong sun, and bright white clothing loses its detail at the same point the wall does. Ivory, ecru and stone hold texture where pure white does not. On the coast the sea and sky take care of the blue: navy or pale blue can look good, but a warm colour like terracotta, rust or yellow is what separates you from the horizon in Cascais or on the Algarve cliffs.

What to avoid everywhere:

• Fine stripes, small checks and tight herringbone. They shimmer on screen, an effect called moiré, and it cannot be retouched out.
• Neon and very saturated colours, which reflect onto faces and pull the eye away from them.
• Large logos and slogans. They date a photograph faster than anything else in it.
• Grey or pale blue fabric that shows sweat, on any session between June and September.

Wind: hair, dresses and hats

On the Atlantic coast the wind is part of the plan. From late spring to early autumn the nortada builds through the afternoon on the west coast; Cabo da Roca is windy almost every day, and at Praia do Guincho the afternoon is unusable for most of the year. It is better to dress for it than to hope.

• Long, light dresses in chiffon or thin cotton will fly. That can make the best frame of the day, or it can wrap around your legs for the whole session. A midi with some weight, or a lining, moves without taking over.
• Short skirts and cliffs are a combination worth thinking about in advance.
• Wide-brimmed hats blow off. If one is part of the look, bring it for a sheltered frame and carry it for the rest.
• Long hair will go across your face. A hair tie on the wrist, and one or two frames with the hair up, give options. Loose hair photographs best with the wind behind you, which is a positioning question for us rather than a styling one for you.

If a coastal session falls in summer, book it for the morning. When to book a photoshoot in Portugal explains why the afternoon is usually the wrong half of the day.

Couples and families: coordinate, don't match

Identical white shirts and jeans for four people is the look that dates fastest, and it flattens everyone into a single shape. The alternative is a shared palette:

1. Pick two or three colours that sit well together, plus a neutral: cream, rust and denim, for example, or navy, sage and stone.
2. Give each person a different combination of them, so nobody is dressed the same.
3. Let one person carry a pattern, if anyone does, and keep it large in scale.
4. Keep everyone at the same level of formality. One person in a suit beside another in shorts reads as two separate photographs.
5. Lay all the outfits out together the night before and look at them, or photograph them with a phone.

With children, comfort matters more than the outfit. Clothes that pinch or scratch show up in the photographs as a child who wants to go home, and on a family session with small children the time before the mood changes is short. Bring a change of clothes for the child most likely to find a puddle or an ice cream.

Couples follow the same rule at a smaller scale: two people in colours that complement each other, not the same colour. A couple session walks for part of its ninety minutes, so the shoe rule counts twice.

Studio portraits

A studio portrait is the one session where clothes do more work than the location, because there is no location: there is a background, a light and you. Bring two or three plain tops in solid mid-tones, plus whatever you actually wear to work rather than what you think a portrait calls for. Fine stripes and small checks stay at home, for the reason above. Very bright white and deep black both lose detail beside skin, so mid-tones give the most room. Necklines matter more than usual in a head-and-shoulders crop: a plain crew neck, a simple V or a collar frames a face more cleanly than a busy neckline. The session uses two lighting set-ups and two backgrounds, so a second top gives you a second look without adding time.

Mornings, layers and churches

A summer morning session starts cool. At seven in Lisbon a shirt may be enough. In Sintra, where the Serra holds cloud that Lisbon never sees, it is noticeably colder and damper, and at the top of Pico do Arieiro in Madeira before sunrise it is cold even in July. Bring a layer you are happy to be photographed in, such as a denim jacket, a knit, a linen overshirt or a trench, rather than a fleece that has to come off for every frame. Linen suits the Portuguese summer but creases on the drive over, which barely shows in walking frames and shows more in a close portrait.

Churches are the other place a layer earns its keep. Portugal is relaxed about it and most churches enforce nothing, but covered shoulders and knees are the polite norm inside, and at a christening or a wedding mass it is the parish, not the photographer, that sets the tone. A light scarf or shawl in a bag solves it in ten seconds. If a session includes the Sé in Braga, Lisbon's cathedral or the church at Jerónimos, choose an outfit that works with the scarf on as well as off.

Checklist for the night before

• Flat shoes with grip for walking; the good shoes in a bag
• Two or three solid colours in mid-tones, none matching the main backdrop
• No fine stripes, small checks, neon or large logos
• Ivory or ecru rather than bright white for strong sun and limestone
• Fabric with some weight, or a lining, for the coast
• A hair tie, and a hat only for a sheltered frame
• A layer that looks good on camera, for early mornings, Sintra and Madeira
• A scarf or shawl if there is a church on the route
• Families: a shared palette and a change of clothes for each small child
• Studio: two or three plain tops, and what you wear to work
• Everything laid out together, and looked at, before bed

If you are not sure whether something will work at a particular location, send a photograph of it when you book and tell us where the session is. Changing an outfit the evening before is a great deal easier than changing it halfway up a hill in Alfama.