It can be tricky to decide what to wear for a family portrait session and create the perfect look. Luckily, with some preparation and these tips, it will be simple. So let’s start with the end in mind. The first question you want to ask yourself is…
What are you going to do with your images?
Capturing your family memories and displaying them in your home can be essential to your interior design. Knowing what room and where you will see your family images in your home is the first step to clothing choices. Before considering clothing options, look around the rooms where you will hang your portraits. Pay attention to the style in which you decorate. If you are curious about your style, you can look at this HGTV article here.
Choose Complementary Colors
Take a look at the colors in your home and the space you want to showcase your gorgeous family portraits. Let’s say you like neutral tones and notice grays, creams, and whites with soft tones like dusty blues. Then incorporate the same tones and types of colors from your wardrobe.
It is important to work with your home's decor in your clothing choices because once your images are hung, they will look like they were curated for the design of your home rather than an afterthought. If you have a neutral design in your home and your family has bright, bold colors in their portrait, it creates mismatched decor. Thinking about your family portrait session as curating artwork for your home and being purposeful about the clothing you wear into your session will remove clothing confusion. You’ll be able to look through your closet and immediately eliminate anything that doesn’t fit your style and home decor colors.
Celebrate Your Family and Dress up
This doesn’t mean you have to wear formal attire; make sure everyone is dressed nicely and looks pulled together in the photo. Keep in mind that your portrait session is a celebration of who you all are at this moment. Let’s keep that moment feeling timeless. Now is the time to be intentional about what you wear, which includes having your clothing clean and pressed. I know you are spending money and time to get your photos professionally taken. Let’s highlight how spectacular your family is!
Avoid Patterns and Logos
A few ways you can showcase your one-of-a-kind family is to make sure no one wears items with any logos on them. Let’s say you are shining with your make-up, hair, and nails, and someone else wears a t-shirt with a beer logo on it…instantly your portrait quality goes from sensational to unexceptional. Trendy designs and logos will quickly become outdated.
Patterns from clothing don’t photograph well. Patterns like stripes superimpose on one another in images that confuse the eye. It’s like looking at a dizzying 3D kaleidoscope, so unpleasant.
If you want to incorporate patterns, keep them to a small area like accessories, necklaces, pocket squares, etc.
No-brainer clothing choices
As a photographer, I have some easy clothing selections for some of your toughest people to dress.
Men, not sure what to wear without patterns; that isn’t a stuffy dress shirt, but also isn’t a t-shirt? A henley always looks sharp and is comfortable.
For toddlers, especially girls, rompers are a go-to for portrait sessions. Locally, Hodgins Drug and Hobby in Moscow carries some lovely organic rompers by Apple Park. (See blue Romper). Etsy is always an excellent go-to for beautiful handmade knit items like the cream one shown. Most moms put their little girls in dresses for photos, but toddlers are active and tend to pull dresses up to show you their belly buttons and sit in a way you can see their underwear. With a romper, you can still get the cuteness and ruffles without having to nitpick at how your little one interacts with her clothes.
Remember that rompers with small straps can fall off the shoulder if they don’t fit right, so if you are shopping for one for your photo session, make sure to get snug straps.
A boat-necked collar or henley is ideal for little boys because collared shirts move around, flip up, curl up, and look uneven. A boat neck collared shirt is the perfect mix of looking nice with the comfort of a t-shirt without being a “sloppy-T.”
For women, wear what makes you feel beautiful. Something that shows your figure. When someone is wearing oversized clothing, the camera makes the person look larger than they are. Should you wear black if you want to look slimmer? It depends. If you wear all black, there is a risk of looking like you don’t have a figure or are more blocky because there is no differentiation in your figure. If your photographer isn’t skilled in posing, then your arms dropped by your waist could make your torso look ill-proportioned. A great workaround is to wear a jacket or solid-color shirt that is fitted at the waist but where your arms can still have the full range of motion.
There is one piece of clothing that no one thinks about for photos…socks! Make sure you don’t wear bright white socks. If your photographer uses a white background in the studio, the contrast is noticeable, and your socks will look drab. Also, choose longer than ankle-length socks. Why? Because if you sit down and cross your feet, you get an odd ankle/foot line in your photos.
Want to not worry about socks? Go barefoot in your studio session. I love little toes and say, “Everybody take off your socks.” when I shoot in the studio. It also makes the family feel more comfortable and relaxed during their session. So make sure your toenails look good too.
Comfortable clothing that brings out the best in everyone
Trends come and go. Like family photos with everyone in a white shirt and blue pants. You don’t have to match exactly unless you want to. What is more important is to choose colors that look good together. Keep in mind the color scheme of your decor and use that pallet as inspiration. Your matching colors could be highlighted in accessories or as a secondary color. An example might be that your color scheme is in grays. Your necklace is a light blue that is the same tone as the gray in your husband's shirt.
All of us tend to gravitate towards our favorite tones & colors in our wardrobe as our decor. This means more often than not you won’t need to buy new clothes only to wear once. Consider asking your photographer if you can text them a photo before buying a new piece of clothing if you aren’t sure if it will work.
It is possible to pick out your clothes as a family unit to create a cohesive family portrait without being matchy-matchy.
Have your photographer help you
The easiest way to know exactly what to wear to your family portrait session is to have your photographer help you. You can do that by asking if they can provide consulting on your clothing choices.
This might be a part of your design consultation. At Courtney Ranck-Copher Photography, as part of my In Home Design Consultation, I come into my clients' homes to assess design styles & colors to help them pick out clothes in their closets.
I love taking the guesswork out of what to wear to family photo sessions for my clients! One thing I do in my design consultation helps every family member pick out their session outfit(s). If you are interested in a family portrait session with Courtney Ranck-Copher photography, contact me here.
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