The Essential Family Session Style Guide
Did you book a Family Session and aren’t quite sure what to wear? You’re in the right place. The key for these photo sessions? Simplicity! This should make clothing decisions a lot easier. Read on to check out my Family Session wardrobe tips and feel super prepared for your session.
Consider Location
When picking out clothing options for your session, it’s crucial to keep your session location in mind. Wearing clothes to fit your surroundings makes for a more natural look (like you’ve actually dressed for the location you’re in).
Have a session on the water? Dress casual and beachy (think light and flowy)! Have a session in the woods or at a park? Avoid your Sunday best outfits. A formal blazer or a fancy dress will look out of place in this kind of environment. Instead, try a casual maxi dress or cozy sweater and jeans. Also, opt for cute and walkable shoes like mules, flat sandals, or boots.
Have an in-home session? Choose cozy, comfortable fabrics that match the comfortable intimacy of being home.
Colors
As I’ve already mentioned (and will continue to mention forever), simple is almost always better for photos.
When it comes to colors, choose subdued, muted clothes and solid colors for everyone involved in the shoot. I always recommend steering clear of bright colors/neons (especially bright yellow or red) as they can reflect harshly onto skin and make skin tones look off.
Bright colors also tend to direct attention right to your clothes instead of at you and your family. While we’re at it, please do not wear clothing with any graphics, logos, or words since this takes attention away from faces.
If your session will be held at an outdoor location where there will be a lot of greenery, try to avoid wearing yellow-greens that are similar to the color of grass/trees so there won’t be a camouflage situation.
Patterns
Want to include a pattern? Please do (with a couple of caveats)! To avoid too much busyness, only put one person involved in a pattern. On top of that, choose smaller patterns that won’t pull attention away from your lovely faces.
Need some color inspo? If someone in your crew will be in a pattern, take a close look at the colors in that pattern. Boom, that’s your color palette. Tie together your whole look by dressing family members in different colors from that pattern!
Just remember, keep it simple and clean! We want the focus to be on the emotion and connection of your family—subdued colors, solids, and muted prints work well for that.
Textures
Believe it or not, textures photograph really nicely! Textures and layers not only add dimension to your photos, but elevates the overall look. This helps to make your images more visually interesting.
Here are some examples clothes that add that dimension texture to images:
Overalls (sooo stinking cute on kiddos)
Cable-knit sweaters
Linen dresses/tops
Rompers
Anything with tassels or ruffles
Knit details like in the image below
The Right Fit
Aim to pick an outfit that you or your kiddos won’t need be tugging at or fixing the whole time we’re shooting. An ill-fitting piece of clothing often causes us to get more shots of adjusting than shots of connecting with your people :) Definitely not something we want you to focus on.
If your outfit has the slightest chance of having bra straps peek out (that you wouldn’t want in your photos), choose a different dress, top, or bra altogether.
Important note: Please try not to wear anything too tight in the arms that would constrict you from posing naturally. It might sound odd, but I use arms to make a shot look more casual and natural. When your arms can’t move, it can look really awkward and stiff!
Aim to Be Coordinated, Not Matching
So what does that even mean? I love how in the family sessions below, the colors all work together cohesively without being that family portrait you’ve seen where everyone is wearing white shirts and khakis.
A small pattern on one person adds some interest, and a similar color palette brings all of the outfits together.
Dress for the Weather
As much as you might want to put your kiddo in that adorable sleeveless dress, if it’s chilly out there’s a good chance they’ll start complaining roughly 30 seconds into your family session.
The key to getting good shots is comfort! Weather-appropriate clothing for little ones makes a huge difference in allowing them to be comfortable so it doesn’t distract them while we’re taking photos. Layers can be adorable in a family photo session (and honestly, there’s nothing more timeless than a great trench coat). Take a look at the photo below for some colder day inspiration:
Check Your Closet Before Shopping
Before you go out and buy all new outfits for this session, give this a shot:
Go into your closet and grab your go-to favorite outfit.
Try it on.
See how you feel!
Typically, this is the outfit you’ll find most comfortable and feel the most confident in. This totally changes how you’ll be photographed!
The last thing you want to think about is a shirt that doesn’t fit as well as you thought. Additionally, you don’t want your kiddos complaining about the uncomfortable new pants they’re wearing (that discomfort will show up in photographs).
Do Your Usual Hair and Makeup
When it comes to hairstyles, I recommend styling your hair the way you always do it for your photo session. As you probably can guess, I recommend the same when it comes to your makeup! If you’re not typically a makeup wearer and you’d like to put some on for your session, I recommend using just a small amount (eg a coat of mascara and some blush).
Feel free to have your makeup professionally done, but make sure your makeup artist knows you’re looking for a more natural look. Wearing significantly more makeup than you would usually wear can take away from letting these images be as “you” as they can be and cause you to not quite recognize yourself.
Styling your hair the way you normally do is my main recommendation when it comes to hair. We want these photos to be unrecognizably you and typically the most practice you have with a certain hairstyle is the way it’ll look best.
Not feeling super confident in the way you do your hair? Schedule a blowout for the day of your session—huge bonus if you can get an appointment with someone who you usually go to!
When making appointments like this, please keep in mind these sessions are during a rainy month in Seattle and may get rained out.
