What to wear for family photos? This may be the question you are asking yourself now that you have booked your photo shoot. I hope this guide helps make the planning easy for you. Included in the post you will find examples. Make sure to read to the bottom because I will include some things to avoid when looking for what to wear for family photos.
I love to photograph people, not their clothes
To begin with, we want to make photos that draw attention to your faces since you are the star of your images, not your clothing. I have always told my clients that I photograph people, not clothing. When looking in your closet or shopping to find what to wear for family photos, look for items that look and feel comfortable. I highly recommend avoiding outfits for toddlers that contain imagery, large bows and scratchy material, especially around the collars. Big bows, particularly on the shoulders can often block a child’s face in photos.
I do not recommend monograms on children’s clothes either. Why? Because the children need to be able to pose comfortably and naturally without us worrying that the monogram in showing in it’s entirety. This will inhibit our work flow and can be very agitating to young people, having to repose over and over to make sure it’s showing. If you have a special outfit we can use it in an individual photo.
Coordinating your outfits will result in better images.
First of all, I recommend that clothing be coordinated and not matching. Most of the people should wear solid color as we do not want to mix and match too many patterns. This will enhance the look and feel of your images and is much more modern in styling than everyone wearing the same outfit. One sure fire way to do this is to dress the youngest girl, or boy if there is no girl, in a pattern. Everyone else could choose a solid color that is part of the pattern in the youngest child’s outfit. When possible, I recommend taking that young child’s outfit with you for color matching. Here are some examples of what I mean. I found this on Pintrest and
In addition, the clothing should move with your body so that when you sit down it conforms to you body vs a skirt that is still standing out when a little girl sits down.
Notice is each of the examples above the clothing looks comfortable. Feeling and looking comfortable with give better end results in your images. I personally think that Old Navy/Gap is a great place to shop for clothing that is and looks comfortable. Old Navy also has many styles of coordinated clothing choices.
Think about the individuals in the family portrait.
The samples above bring me to the next point. This article is about what to wear for family photos. However I would like to suggest a few tips about skin tone and images taken outdoors. When shooting in a studio I have control of the lighting. While color choices are still important, they are not going to effect how I would like to expose the images. These additional tips then are more about outdoor portraits.
If you have tan or darker skin I feel that you will get better results avoiding white and very light pastels when being photographed OUTSIDE. This is simply because I want faces to be what I am exposing and often very light colors will lose their detail when exposing for darker skin.
It is also my opinion that people with very fair skin photograph much better in clothing darker than their skin tone. Often light pastels so closely match the skin that it washes fair skinned people out. This is NOT always the case but the contrast of the darker colors is so nice. Here is an example. Her eyes popped with the darker blue and the contrast against her skin was amazing. Had she been wearing pastel blue or pastel pink this image would not have had the same pop.
Also people love the look of back lighting on clothing. I tell people that you can only see light in the dark. What does that even mean? It means that you will see the rim light around a navy top much better than you will around a pastel blue or white top.
I love it when my customers avoid pastel blue outside. This is not always the case but is 90 percent of the time.
My LEAST favorite color to photo outdoors is very light blue, such as a man’s BUTTON DOWN LIGHT BLUE OXFORD SHIRT. I am not screaming that, hahahah, just making capital so you don’t miss it. I tease my customers because I know it is to go to grab for dad in family photos. Have dad consider a nice navy v-neck sweater. If it’s warm outside a short sleeve brown linen shirt is wonderful.
Technical talk that helps you decide about colors.
This may be more information than anyone wants but I am chatty. When light is absorbed by the shirt you have on it’s a good thing. When it is reflected by the top you have on it can be a potentially bad thing. Where does that color go? In your face and under your chin… I don’t care for light blue chins, how about you? Neon colors are also best left out of outdoor photo shoot clothing choices. The same reason applies. I bet you don’t red or orange chins either.
When we shoot in the studio I can control that light. I love red and orange then. I still don’t love pastel blue but maybe you do. hahahah.. In perfect light this will not be much of an issue. When we shoot outside I look for the best possible light. Some days will be better than others, some locations better than others as well. However, we can avoid having this cause us an issue in your images that by staying away from that color. Also, I love white but I love white in the studio or at the beach where it is not picking up color casts from everything in the environment.
In the end, these are just suggestions. I will photograph you in anything that you choose to wear. I will be happy to meet your or see you again and make nice photos. I just feel that guiding clients is part of the service that each photographer should offer. Happy hunting for what to wear for family photos. I can’t wait til our session.