What To Wear For Family Photos

Let’s be honest. Deciding what outfits to wear for family pictures is so confusing that can easily drive anyone crazy.

These are the photos that you want to hang on your walls for everyone to admire, and leave to future generations as testimonials of your family’s story. It’s just natural you want to make sure the shooting turns out perfect, and everyone looks, and feels amazing.

No matter if you want to learn photography to shoot the photos yourself or you are just the one responsible for picking up the outfits, don’t panic. Selecting a photo-worthy wardrobe for your family portrait will turn out to be easy-peasy with a little bit of guidance from us.

To help you narrow down your wardrobe choices, in this post we will share with you our do’s and don’ts for proper clothing selection.

1. Pick Your Palette

Pick a palette of not more than 4-5 colors for your group portrait. You don’t need to match all your clothes to perfection but you can definitely coordonate them. That’s why, by narrowing down your shade choice, you’ll make everything easier.

Go for colors that blend well together and look at what shades match each member the most. Try to avoid strong, bold colors like deep red, dark blue or bright red. They tend to attract attention to themselves and this is definitely not the goal here.

With pastels on the other hand, it is very hard to go wrong. They tend to complement almost anyone and are not light reflective like bright colors.

2. Choose Patterns Wisely

Especially when shooting family portrait photos where there’s more people in the photo, dressing up in patterns can easily be an overkill. That’s why, it’s better to stay away from busy clothes or logos that are too large. For best results, try and keep all the outfits as simple as possible, and use accessories. This will make the photo appear more classy and polished.

But if patterns are your thing, we don’t want to stay in the way of your happiness. No matter if it’s plaids, florals or stripes, try and mix them with neutrals for tasteful results.

3. Poses

Don’t force your family members into rigid pose positions. There’s nothing worse than stiff looking photos.

Remember our grandparents black and white portraits where all of them were looking  straight to the camera?

You definitely don’t want that!

Allow everyone to look relaxed and behave naturally. Complicated poses will just bore your children fast and drive any man crazy. And since men usually have the hardest time in front of the camera, a few great male poses they can do is lean back or place a hand in the pocket. These two positions will make them appear more relaxed and cool.

4. Classic Is Timeless

 You want your family portrait to still look great 30 years from now, don’t you?

Then choose outfits and styles that are both classic and timeless. Dressing up according to this year’s latest trends can make all of you appear outdated in the blink of an eye. This rule works for children and babies too. There are many classic children clothing brands that have a great selection of outfits for children of all ages you can choose among.

5. Stay Away From All White / All Black If Shooting Indoors

 One thing you must pay attention too is knowing where you will have the photos taken. No matter if it’s indoors or outdoors, the ambient should fuse with the color scheme you chose for your clothes

If you are having your photos taken indoors, all white and all black clothes can make everyone blend too much with the background. Black is good for when you shoot in a big open field, by a water or inside a house that is predominantly white.