The Clothes Make The Photo Session

A slight exaggeration, but clothing style and color play an important role in how your family photographs and the final artwork will display in your home. Therefore, it is important to think about mood, matching color palette to the season and location, and coordinating all of this to your home decor. Feeling overwhelmed is completely normal, but this resource will help you make sense of it all.

Understanding Color Coordination

When choosing outfits, you want to lean toward colors that are complementary rather than matching. This allows each family member to show off their individuality and avoids everyone getting lost in a sea of denim. I like to visualize color choices with a color picker similar to this one on Canva.

The second consideration should lean toward the season you are choosing to have family photographs captured. Generally, you should lean toward bright and light for spring/summer, earth tones are good for fall, and winter lends itself to cool colors.

Choosing Outfits That Reflect Your Family’s Personality

Time to give some thought to your purpose for this family session and decide on casual or formal attire. Casual dress can be the perfect choice for a fun relaxed outdoor session or even a lifestyle session. Formal attire is most often worn for special events, milestones, and holiday portraits.

It is important to add personal touches that show off uniqueness and make the session more personal for everyone in the family. Think about quirky accessories, meaningful jewelry, or any other item that speaks to a persons individuality.

Tips For Each Family Member

When it comes to children, try and choose outfits that are cute, comfortable, and familiar to them. Kids tend to feel uncomfortable in clothes they have not worn or don’t normally wear. Siblings provides a good chance to coordinate without looking identical (unless this is your style).

Parents should pick an outfit that matches their style, personality, and general theme of where the artwork will be displayed. Some ideas of what photographs well are flowing dresses, comfortable pants, and button down shirts.

What to Avoid Wearing

Overly bright colors, bold patterns, and large logos are generally best to avoid. In the same realm, choosing all white or all black outfits can cause your family to lose detail in the photograph.

Choose footwear appropriate to the location you have chosen. My personal recommendation for outdoor locations is to bring a pair of walking shoes and a pair of photographing shoes.

Preparing For Weather

Our weather here in the beautiful pacific northwest can be unpredictable and change by the minute. For outdoor locations, it is recommended to bring layers for flexibility. Think about adding a sweater or coverup to your chosen outfit. If this is not ideal, think about a jacket for in-between photo spots to keep warm or out of the wind.

While we do the best we can to plan around weather and any other force at play, it is highly recommended to have a backup location should anything prevent us from using your primary location on the day.

Questions

Question: How many outfits should we bring to the photoshoot?

Response: We advise bringing options, especially for children. One or two alternatives for everyone can relieve the stress and worry of spills or other mishaps.

Question: Are there any colors that work best for photography in natural settings?

Response: For outdoor sessions, earthy and natural tones tend to photograph well with our range of landscapes. Some color ideas might be greens, browns, blues, and creams; all depending on season and background of course.

Question: What should we do if our clothes get dirty during an outdoor session?

Response: We find wipes, Tide pens, or other travel stain removers work well. If it works with your chosen theme and style, darker clothes are also good at hiding smaller stains.

Following these tips should help your family have an enjoyable photography session and lead to artwork that you will cherish for years to come. Please Contact Me with any additional questions.