What to wear for family photos
This is the question I get more than any other, and it causes more stress than it should. Here is the honest version. Read what applies to you and ignore the rest. Nobody has ever ruined a photograph with the wrong shirt.
If you read nothing else
Wear something you already feel good in, and make sure you can move in it.
Comfort photographs better than fashion. If you are tugging at a waistband or worrying about a hemline, it shows up in your shoulders and your face, and I will not be able to edit it out.
What tends to work
Earth tones and muted colors
Creams, tans, olive, rust, denim, soft blues, warm grays. They sit beautifully against green and they will not look dated in twenty years.
Texture over pattern
Knits, linen, denim, corduroy, soft layers. Texture gives a photograph depth without pulling attention away from faces.
Layers
A jacket, cardigan, or overshirt adds dimension and gives us easy variety without anyone changing clothes.
Longer sleeves and hemlines
Skin is the brightest thing in most frames. A little coverage keeps the eye where it belongs, on faces.
Clothes that already live in your closet
Something brand new often looks like a costume. Something familiar looks like you.
What tends to fight the camera
Tight patterns and thin stripes
They can shimmer strangely in digital photographs. A broad plaid or a loose floral is completely fine.
Large logos and graphics
They date a photograph faster than anything else and pull the eye away from faces.
Neon and highly saturated colors
Bright colors bounce onto skin and tint it. Neon green in particular is unkind to everyone.
Everyone in the identical outfit
Coordinated beats matching. Matching outfits photograph like a uniform.
Transition lenses
Glasses that darken outdoors hide eyes, and eyes are the photograph. Pop the lenses out or bring a non-transition pair.
How to dress a whole family without losing your mind
Start with one person. Usually whoever is hardest to shop for, or whoever already has an outfit they love. Pick that outfit first, pull two or three colors out of it, and build everyone else inside those colors.
Vary the tones so nobody blends into the person standing next to them. If two people are both in cream, put one in a heavier texture or add a layer. And avoid dressing one person far more formally than the rest, which is the most common thing that makes a group photograph feel slightly off.
Then lay everything out together on a bed the night before. Thirty seconds of looking at it side by side will tell you more than an hour of thinking about it.
Dressing kids
One rule covers almost all of it. If they cannot climb in it, change the outfit. A child who is uncomfortable will tell you about it for the entire session, and the camera hears it too.
Let them have some say in what they wear. A kid who chose their own shirt behaves differently than a kid who was put in something. Bring a backup outfit for anyone small, because something will happen. And do not stress about shoes staying on, because they usually will not, and bare feet in the grass is a better photograph than a scowl anyway.
Skip the brand new shoes. Nothing looks stiffer in a photograph than footwear that has never been walked in.
A few practical things
- Steam or iron the night before. Wrinkles are the one thing that is genuinely hard to fix afterward.
- Check the forecast and dress for it. Being cold shows up in every single frame.
- Shoes are in more of the photograph than people expect, especially outdoors.
- Bring anything that is genuinely yours. A favorite hat, a well worn jacket, an instrument, the dog. Objects with history make better photographs than perfect outfits.
And truly, do not overthink this. I have never once looked at a photograph and thought about the clothes. If you want a second opinion, text me a picture of what you are considering and I will tell you honestly.
Dressed. Now where and when?
The other two thirds of a good family photograph.