Clothing is decided before you leave the house, and it affects the result more than anything you do once you are standing in front of the lens.

Colour is chosen against the background, not by preference

The right question is not whether a colour suits you but whether it separates from where you are going. However good a green top looks, it will vanish in a garden, and beige will merge into sand.

The practical rule: if the setting is colourful and busy, wear neutrals — white, cream, grey, navy, black. If the setting is muted and monochrome, wear one strong colour. A photograph needs exactly one colour accent, and you decide whether that accent is you or the place.

White and navy are the two safest choices in most outdoor settings. White separates from nearly every natural background, and navy sits opposite orange on the colour wheel, so it contrasts strongly with earth, wood, dry leaves and late afternoon sun.

Fine patterns break up on camera

Narrow stripes, small checks and dense patterns can produce moiré on a digital sensor: rippling rainbow bands appearing where the pattern is too fine for the resolution. It cannot be corrected and it ruins the frame.

Even without moiré, dense pattern competes with the face for attention. The eye is drawn to areas of high detail and contrast, and a finely striped shirt is exactly that.

Plain is always safe. If you want pattern, choose large and sparse rather than small and dense. On the same floral shirt, blooms the size of a hand photograph well while tiny scattered flowers become a speckled mass.

Fit matters more than style

A camera does not see expensive fabric or a label; it sees an outline. A cheap garment that fits photographs better than an expensive one that does not, because its outline follows the body rather than forming a separate mass of cloth.

Clothing that is too loose erases the waist entirely and turns the torso into a rectangle. Clothing that is too tight creates horizontal creases wherever the fabric pulls, and those creases are very visible in a photograph while being nearly invisible in person.

Before going out, try the outfit on and take one phone photograph from two metres away. You will see things a mirror does not show, particularly horizontal pulls and excess fabric at the back.

Fabric decides how light behaves

Shiny fabrics such as satin or leather reflect light into strong highlights, and in direct sun those highlights blow out easily. Matte fabrics such as cotton and wool absorb light and keep their detail in any condition.

Shooting outdoors in sun, matte is far more forgiving. Shooting indoors in soft light, sheen becomes an advantage, because the highlights give the photograph depth.

Pure white deserves its own note: it is the brightest surface in the frame and usually several stops brighter than a face. In harsh sun a white shirt blows out before the face is properly exposed, so off-white or cream is often easier to photograph than true white.

Groups: coordinate the palette, do not wear a uniform

A group in identical clothing looks like a uniform and erases the individuals. A group each wearing a different strong colour produces a chaotic frame with no focal point.

The method that works is to agree on a palette of three or four colours that sit well together, and let everyone choose within it. White, beige and navy, for example; or several tones of one colour. The group looks deliberate while everyone still reads as themselves.

A useful secondary rule: whoever should stand out most wears the colour that contrasts most with the rest. For a family photograph with a baby, or a group photograph with someone being celebrated, this directs the viewer’s eye without rearranging where anybody stands.

The details people forget

Shoes appear in every full-length photograph and almost nobody thinks about them while getting ready. Bright white trainers pull the eye down to the bottom corner of the frame, the opposite of what you want.

Underwear matters too: pale thin fabric shows its outline in strong sun or when shooting into the light, which is not visible in a mirror at home.

Last are the things carried without intending them to be in the picture: a phone making a rectangle in a pocket, keys, a wallet. Handing them to whoever you came with takes five seconds and removes a whole set of distractions.