Can you believe the holidays are right around the corner? Our family holiday photoshoot is just a few weeks away and I’m in the middle of planning our looks, so I thought I’d share how I plan outfits for our family photoshoots.
Planning Your Family Photoshoot Wardrobe
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- Location The location of your photos plays a leading role in outfit selections. In the photo above, we were at Trinity Tree Farm just outside of Issaquah. It’s a gorgeous venue for weddings and tree cutting. Our photos the previous year were in a studio in downtown Seattle, so I wanted to play up the outdoor aspect of these photos.
- Color Palette Choose a general color scheme that will connect the look, but avoid being matchy-matchy. The intention is to look like a group that naturally fits well and compliments each other without looking overing coordinated. Use the color palette to weave consistency through everyone’s outfit. Here’s another example from a few years ago, where red tones were the anchor color.
- Assess what you have and what you need. This is the most time consuming part, but unless you’re going to run out and buy entirely new outfits for everyone (confession: I have done this and it’s expensive) you’ll want to start by getting a sense of what you have to work with. Think about the location and color palette as you do this and remember that you’re not going for a matchy-matchy look. Instead, you want complimentary tones through with a few hints of your chosen colors.
- Create a Visual I’m a visual person and need to see the options together. You can either lay your clothes on the floor to get a sense of how everything fits together or create a digital version like I have to the right. I like to use a tool like photoshop for this just because it’s easy, but you can also use PicMonkey and any other collage builder.
- Try things on, mix and remix. This is the part by family l-o-o-v-e-s. Just kidding. They dread it! But I get a kick out of them modeling for me. Don’t be afraid to change things up if someone is uncomfortable in what they’re wearing.
- Be open to last minute changes. Don’t be afraid to make last minute changes. As you can see from the final photo and the collage to the right, we added a zip up sweater for T at the last minute because it was freezing and both Gray and I forgot our scarves in the car (🙈). Cooper also refused to wear his jacket, so I didn’t force it. He’d just woken up from a nap and was not in the mood.
- Have fun!
How do you plan your family photos?
xo
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