How To Choose Family Photo Outfits
For most of us, planning coordinating outfits for our whole family is the most stressful part of the whole experience. So let me give you some tips as a family photographer of 8 years & planner of family photo outfits for the past 7 years.
Mom picks her outfit first. I know what it’s like as the mom, you’re usually the last to pick something for yourself & you probably won’t love it, you’ll just choose it because it fit the color scheme. Please don’t do this! Plan your outfit FIRST and then the rest will come! In my experience, if mom doesn’t like her outfit, she won’t want to print the photos to display on the wall or share them with her friends and family. I want you to love how you look! I love the look of long flowy dresses that come in at the waist, but you pick what you love!
Colors. Long gone are the days when everyone wears matching outfits or colors. We don’t want that! Instead, choose complimentary neutral colors like navy, khaki, green, blush pink, denim, cream, dusty blue, etc. They will all pretty much look amazing together if you choose neutral colors. STAY AWAY FROM bright, bold, neon colors like red, hot pink, orange, bright yellow, etc. Those colors tend to reflect back onto your skin and give it a really nasty unnatural color that’s pretty much impossible to edit out.So just stay away from them!
Patterns. My rule of thumb is no more than two patterns in the whole family, and they need to be different scales. So a large floral print and a thin stripe, etc. When they are similar in scale(or size of pattern), they compete with each other too much.
Textures. I LOVE incorporating textures into outfits! It brings a bit of interest and variety without going crazy with color or pattern. Textures like corduroy, tulle, pleating, waffle knit, cable knit, ribbed, etc. are great ways of incorporating texture!
Consider the location. Location can play a huge factor in what you choose to wear! We took our family photos on the family farm so I incorporated a lot of denim and had the boys wear cowboy boots. If you are taking photos at a historical or fancy building, then dresses & dress shirts with slacks will be more appropriate. At he beach? Light flowy dresses, khaki shorts or pants, light colored shirts & barefoot or sandals would fit the scene. Dress to the location.
Look at them together. If you are buying outfits, take screenshots of the outfits & put them on a Canva board to see how they look together. If you have the pro version, you can erase the background of the images, but if not, it still works and can give you a good idea of how they will all look together. If you are piecing together outfits from what you already have at home, lay them all out on a bed or floor to see them all together and see if anything needs adjusting or switched out.
This is what we wore this year & I love how they turned out! Pretty much everything was from Walmart so I’ll link the things that I can below!
My denim dress, this is sold out as of the time I’m posting, so here are some other options. Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, Option 4.
Daughter’s black denim dress, boots
Son’s green quarter zip, jeans, boots
Baby’s pointelle bodysuit, her paper bag pants
I wrote up another blog post all about how to prepare your kids for the family photos ever! Check it out here!
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