What Should I Wear to my Family Photo Session? | Inspiration and Tips to Plan Your Perfect Look
One of the questions I get asked most often is, “What should we all wear?” Having shot hundreds of family sessions, I am happy to share some tried and true methods with you that will help in your planning of the whole family’s outfits! The overarching idea is to keep it simple without having too many patterns or distractions. The great news is that it’s pretty easy, and I’m sure at least one of these ideas will resonate with you and prove easily doable!
Stick to Solids
This is one of my favorite family session style tips. The reason solids are so great is because their simplicity allows YOU and your loved ones to shine. Solids are timeless and classy, and they normally don’t require you buying everyone new outfits. Sometimes it’s nice to have the majority of the group in solids with just one individual in a fun pattern that matches the other solid colors. Sticking to a few different shades is always a good idea too! Check out some of these fun family shots below!
2. Pick Two Different Shades to Focus On
Especially for large, extended family groups, I notice that telling everyone to pick between 2 shades-something like blue or green, or blue or gray always looks great! For my own large family group portrait, we told everyone to either wear a shade of blue (light or medium or dark!) or a shade of gray. And for 20 people, it felt cohesive and crisp against a green summer backdrop. I never like everyone to be completely matching- sometimes that can feel cheesy lol. And offering someone the option of at least 2 different colors will make it easier for everyone in the group to find something that works well for them. Here is my family photo in blues and grays. It’s me, my husband, my siblings and their spouses and kiddos, and my parents! Cute, right?
And here are some more ideas for choosing 2 different shades as the theme. Greens are also always gorgeous:
3. Have Fun with Richer and More Vibrant Colors for Fall Sessions
Fall is my busiest time of the year, and I could not love Fall Family Sessions more! The colors somehow still astound me, year after year. I’ve noticed that lots of my clients pick richer and darker colors for their fall sessions, and it looks simply gorgeous! A lot of times these are the photos used for holiday cards, so it makes sense that it feels more festive. Take a look at some of these ideas:
4. Go All White or Neutral Themed!
I’ve noticed (and loved!) that for newborn sessions, lots of my clients choose to wear all white or something very neutral. It looks clean, simple, and again, it’s timeless without feeling cheesy. It’s one of the easiest routes to go because most everyone has white or cream or beige, etc! How sweet are these?
