5 Tips for What to Wear for Stunning Family Pictures | Utah Family Photographers

One of the biggest stresses for our families (especially for moms) when they are preparing for a photoshoot is what to wear in order to have stunning family pictures? Along with preparing little ones to succeed at family photo sessions, the job of choosing outfits is essential. Family session outfits add a lot to a photo and they can really enhance an image or take away from an image. But choosing outfits doesn’t have to be stressful at all! Here are a few simple tips to help!

 

1. Choosing the Right Colors and Patterns

When you’re thinking about the colors you want to choose for your family session outfits, we recommend selecting lighter tones and more muted shades. By avoiding ultra-bright, bold colors, it will help bring all the attention to your faces and let the eye focus on the way you feel about each other. The camera loves shades of soft pink and muted blues, mixed with sophisticated light neutrals like heather gray, creams, gold, leather brown and white. That softer color palette fits beautifully into almost all natural outdoor environments and especially complements the mountains, fields, and cities in Utah. These colors are one of the keys to stunning family pictures!

If you are looking at button up shirts for your spouse or kids that have a pattern, larger patterns photograph better than tiny checkered patterns do. There’s a thing called chromatic aberration that happens when a camera takes a picture of patterns that are small and close together. It’s a photographer’s nightmare to try to fix. It’s always better to go with a solid color button up than one with tiny square or striped patterns.

2. Coordinating Outfits

As you’re putting together and coordinating  your outfit with your family, keep in mind that your outfits will look the best and most consistent on camera when the color palettes coordinate, but don’t necessarily “match.” This means trying to avoid shirts or bottoms that are the same main color as much as possible. For example, if you’re wearing a blush dress, soft blue earrings, and neutral heels (blush being your dominant color), then your spouse could wear a navy sport coat with a white button-down and gray pants, paired with brown leather shoes (making navy his dominant color). Your daughter could wear a soft blue top with a white tulle skirt (making a soft blue her dominant color) while your son wears light khaki pants with a navy bow tie and a white button down (making white his dominant color).

 

3. Say yes to the dress and tie!

There is no such thing as over dressing for family pictures. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with your outfits. Dresses and skirts are our favorite because they flatter every female body. Long, flowy dresses look great in pictures because they add movement. Shirts and ties by themselves or paired with vests, sweaters, or jackets look great on guys and give family pictures that extra classy James Bond feel.

4. Layer and Accessorize!

Scarves, necklaces, earrings, or fun shoes are all super cute, and add a lot to your pictures! They photograph really well. Layering is also always a win for guys and girls and makes pictures look a lot less casual.  You can layer with cardigans, jackets, vests, or many other things.

5. Is it Flattering and Your Style?

This is something that is so easy to forget, but make sure you find colors and styles that are flattering to your figure and your skin tones. If you don’t like the way you look normally in a strapless dress or in polka dots, then you aren’t going to like the way you look in your pictures. For example, Jessie says that she wouldn’t personally feel comfortable in a mini skirt because she thinks she’s so pale that it would take weeks of tanning lotion to make sure that her legs weren’t translucent! Make sure you are comfortable and that you feel like yourself! 🙂

We always say that showing up to a family session looking great and prepared is main thing that our families need to do to create stunning family pictures. After that’s done, the rest is up to us! We love working with families and helping them prepare for their sessions. So go ahead and take these tips and see what you can come up with!