Prepare For Your FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION

Family portraiture styling tips

We are so excited to create special memories for you! You are about to experience the most amazing portrait session! Let us help you create your vision for these memories. We would love to chat with you in person or on the phone to discuss our session. Please expect to hear from us to discuss your wardrobe. In the meantime, here are a few pointers on how to prepare for your family portrait session.

WARDROBE:

• We recommend a coordinated wardrobe but not completely matching. Typically start with the women and their accessories and then coordinate men around that.

• Avoid busy patterns. If two of the men have stripes then that is plenty. Do not add another plaid to it. For women, a fitted outfit is more complementary.

• Try and think timeless. After all this is an investment you are making and these would go on your walls so they should look contemporary all the time.

• Check out wrinkles and stains (these are particularly noticeable in solids and tend to be exaggerated in hot/humid weather).

• Choose comfortable but complimentary shoes. If they are scuffed, please remove scuff marks.

• I encourage women in particular to avoid sleeveless unless they are comfortable with their arms (family portraits with their arms around each other speak beautifully and you will be posing such). Hair too tends to blow all over during outdoor shoots so try and set it with a spray and bring brush to touch up if need be. It will be hot so you may have sweat beads and a cloth napkin is always helpful.

• Women should remove chipped nailpolish and either repaint the nails or keep them natural. Please remove all hairtyes from around your arms.

• During outdoor shoots in the park, whites tend to cast a greenish tinge on the olive skin tone so please keep that in mind.

• If anyone wears glasses, we can take one of two approaches: take all photos without glasses OR please make sure that the glasses are throughly clean and are non reflective. Even though it is full daylight, we tend to use a flash and if the glasses are dirty, you will not be able to see their eyes. Please avoid transition glasses.  If we are photographing indoors, strobes tend to reflect off of glasses and you will get a glare.

Timing:

• Please arrive a few minutes before your shoot time. Please park in the driveway.

• If we are budgeted for only 30 minutes, I want to ensure that we capture all the relevant groupings you want. Please call a day in advance with your preferences of the groupings you want.

Style of shoot:

• My style of shooting is casual posing. For those that are able to sit on the ground, I tend to pose sitting. For group shots with elderly, we will have them sit on a bench or stool and have you all sit/stand around them. You may want to prepare yourself and the kids accordingly.

• We will do posed shots first and then time permitting move on to casuals.

• Hugging, Kissing, Holding hands, Talking is what captures the connections. Prepare the group to be comfortable with that. Please visit our page to see some examples.

What to bring to the shoot:

• Bottled water, hairbrush, a hand napkin.

• Ladies, please bring along your favorite lipstick and matte powder for touch ups.

• A jacket, scarf to keep yourself warm as we are headed from place to place (if it’s an outdoor session).

• Comfortable shoes to walk in and carry the actual shoes with you.

• Snacks for the kids if they get hungry (but keep them dry and simple…no Cheetos please! :))

• Your remaining session fee (check or cash).

Need color ideas? Here’s how to get started:

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