What to Wear for Family Photos

Family Photos Attire Cheatsheet

Eas­i­ly pick out what to wear for fam­i­ly pho­tos with­out wor­ry­ing about clash­ing, mis­match­ing, or look­ing boxy. Use my fam­i­ly pho­to attire cheat­sheet to prepare!

Have you booked your sum­mer pho­to ses­sion? Or are you tak­ing your kid’s sum­mer pho­tos? Sum­mer is a great time to have your pro­fes­sion­al sit­ting. Every­one is togeth­er; a lit­tle sun-kissed and often at the beach‑a per­fect loca­tion for a fam­i­ly ses­sion. If you know me, I am all about tak­ing my fam­i­ly’s pho­tos and even on occa­sion being in those pic­tures. But the ques­tion always is…what to wear for your fam­i­ly photos?

First, what to wear…

Remem­ber that neu­tral, mut­ed col­ors look best, and these col­ors focus on you and not what you’re wear­ing. I don’t mean the jeans and white shirt kind of neutral…those days are done. I mean soft, mut­ed prints or neu­tral col­ors. These col­ors also stand the test of time. You want to look back on your pho­tos in ten, twenty…even fifty years and have no regrets about your out­fit choices.

Next, remem­ber to coor­di­nate, don’t match! Pull 3–4 col­ors from the main out­fit or that will blend with the out­fit, and go from there. Lay­er­ing the col­ors can help pull it all togeth­er, and it’s okay to have stripes on one per­son and pat­terns on anoth­er if the col­ors all work together.

Con­sid­er your loca­tion when choos­ing your out­fits and what to wear for fam­i­ly pho­tos. For­mal attire does­n’t fit the vibe of the beach. Shorts and a t‑shirt don’t work well for a city pho­to­shoot. Think through the look you are aim­ing for, and your loca­tion before pick­ing out your wardrobe.

And last­ly, be true to your­self! You want to look great in your pho­tos! Relaxed, not uptight, and if you are uncom­fort­able in your clothes, you are not going to look relaxed…and the same goes for your kid­dos! Shop your clos­et first. Do you have a favorite out­fit? One that you feel your best when you wear? Start there, if that fan­tas­tic out­fit will look good in pho­tos, and make you feel relaxed, go with it, and build every­one else’s wardrobe around it!

Second, what not to wear for your family photo session…

Don’t wear boxy, shape­less clothes. I’ll admit it…I have a dress that I LOVE! I wear it all of the time. The col­ors are great, I feel con­fi­dent in it, and it’s so com­fort­able, but it does NOT pho­to­graph well. It’s boxy and not exact­ly flat­ter­ing. When I wear it, and some­one takes my pho­to, I have to be aware of the way it hangs. Try to wear clothes that define your shape. Remem­ber, no bag­gy clothes!

Avoid neon, extreme­ly bright col­ors, and graph­ics. This is one time you don’t want your kids pick­ing out their out­fits. Bright col­ors and graph­ic t‑shirts are dis­tract­ing, and you will be incred­i­bly dis­ap­point­ed if you spend time and mon­ey, and the first thing that some­one notices is a busy graph­ic t‑shirt. You want your fam­i­ly to be the focus of your pho­to and not their clothes.

Just like you should avoid wear­ing crazy, bright col­ors, you should also avoid wear­ing white or black. White shirts tend to “blow out.” This means there will be no detail in your shirt. A black shirt will do the same. It will “clip” los­ing all detail. It is much bet­ter to avoid these two col­ors if you can when decid­ing what to wear for fam­i­ly photos.

Because, you want to look back at these pho­tos for many years to come, invest some time and ener­gy into pick­ing the out­fits that co-ordi­nate, make you feel con­fi­dant and com­fort­able, and look time­less in your pho­tos. Above all, don’t for­get to be yourselves!

After you sched­uled your ses­sion, take some time to con­sid­er what to wear for fam­i­ly pho­tos to make sure that you are com­fort­able as well as time­less, and remem­ber to make sure to learn how you can take your own pho­tos of your fam­i­ly! It’s eas­i­er than you may think. All you need are a few tips!

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Learn how to use man­u­al mode and take con­trol of your cam­era so that you can cre­ate the amaz­ing images that you’ve always imag­ined with the online Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Class!