Portraits are a great way to preserve your family’s magical moments. Here’s some tips and tricks to make your day as stress free and easy as possible!
WHAT TO WEAR
THE BASICS
Make sure your clothes are hole free, freshly laundered, and ironed if need be. Wrinkled shirts will catch the eye make and will cause people to focus on them instead of your family.
Stay away from branded clothing (think Nike with the huge swoosh). Brands catch the eye and will also distract people from the family. A superhero family is totally okay though!
THE LOOK
Coordinate! What do I mean by coordination? In the simplest terms it would be by color palette.
Let’s say you want to go with red. Now you don’t want everyone to wear the exact same color. Go with different hues of red for everyone – think maroon, brick, crimson, and magenta.
Mix and match – don’t just have everyone wear all red everything or all red shirts. Have someone wear red pants and a white shirt, another in a white skirt and red jacket, another person in a red and white pattern shirt with gray pants, etc.
Going further – don’t want to go with just one color? Pinterest is a great place to find lovely color palettes that you can use to base clothing off of. Something like teal, coral pink, gray, and white is a great palette to start with!
PATTERNS
Careful with patterns here. One person wearing a pattern can be distracting, now throw in three more and now all anyone wants to look at is everyone’s shirts! Best to limit to one type of pattern – such as a subtle plaid – or have one or two of the party with patterns while the others have more solid prints.
POSING
RESEARCH
As the photographer I will help direct and pose you for photos, but it never hurts for you to get some ideas beforehand. Looking through Pinterest and Instagram will give you great inspiration for various poses you can do and what you would like best to see for your own family photos.
Look to see how to use the location to your advantage. Want to have your photoshoot in the woods? Have some of the family climb a tree! Thinking about a shoot in a grassy field? Have the kids poke their heads out of grass behind you!
BE RELAXED!
The biggest thing to do for a family photo shoot is to have fun! While posing can get you some great shots, it’s often the candid shots that come out the best. Basically don’t feel like once you all have been placed in a pose that you have to grin and stare at the camera – relax, play with the kids, talk amongst each other, it’s the little moments that really make the best photos!
BRING PROPS
Want to include the family dog? We can get some great shots of her playing with the kids! Are you an outdoorsy type family? Turn the shoot into an outdoor picnic! Are you all geeks? Bring those lightsabers for some epic and hilarious shots your entire family will love!
MAKEUP, HAIR, & JEWELRY
MAKEUP
I highly suggest that everyone – guys included – wear at least some foundation. This will help to even out your skin tone and will make my post processing job easier and faster – meaning you’ll get more finished photos!
Matte makeup is best, anything with sparkle or gloss can be a distraction for the viewer. I would suggest that those who tend to go for a more natural look with their makeup to add on a bit more for the shoot. Makeup doesn’t look as vibrant as it does in real life so going further than you usually do can make a huge difference.
HAIR
Don’t get everyone’s hair cut the day before the shoot – if a problem occurs you won’t have any time to do anything about it. Get them done a week or two before so the haircuts will still look fresh but will have had time to grow out a bit if there were any issues. Hairstyles should also be simple – with lots of people you don’t want any one person standing out for having a wedding updo.
JEWELRY
If you don’t usually wear jewelry, don’t feel like you need to for the shoot. If you do, wear the pieces you generally save for fancy occasions. Nicer jewelry translates better through photography and can really up your professional look.
There is an art to coordinating jewelry with outfits, so if you are unsure a little research can go a long way to understanding what necklaces go best with what shirts and more.
