What to wear for family photos may feel like a big decision, but it doesn’t need to be as hard as you think.
Congratulations! You’ve made the beautiful choice to schedule family photos. Perhaps you’ve already given thought to where the session will take place, and maybe even what type of activity you might plan to do to keep everyone engaged and relaxed during the process. If you’re like many people, the next question you may turn to is, naturally:
What are we going to wear??
Like a suitcase full of possible outfits, let’s unpack why this may feel like a mission-critical question. You are invested in a good outcome from your session. You want everyone to look great. What clothing your family will be wearing is something you can control. What you are wearing in your family photos will influence how they look and feel.
What to wear for family photos starts with your family’s style
I would ask you, gently, to consider a different question than ‘what outfits are best for a photo shoot.’ Instead, I encourage you to consider how what you are wearing will convey your family’s style.
During a family session, I am looking to capture a slice of your authentic style as a family – but by ‘style,’ I’m not referring necessarily to fashion. To me, your family’s style is defined more by who you are, not how you are dressed. Are your kids young enough still that you’re down on the floor playing with them? Or have you moved on to actually sitting on your furniture? When you lay out a picnic, does it feature goldfish or charcuterie? If it’s raining, are you up for going out to play anyway?
My simple advice on what to wear for family photos
First and foremost, your clothing choices should complement, and not fight against, your family’s style, as well as whatever you’ll be doing during the session. I’d suggest that it doesn’t make sense for you to be on the floor playing with your toddler in an uncomfortable skirt, nor a shirt and tie.
Because you know your family’s style so much better than I ever could, I am hesitant to make specific recommendations about what you should wear. But here are a few of my general principles:
- Don’t battle your kids on what they must wear that day just because you said so. You risk degrading the whole experience for everyone (yourself included).
- If you plan to be outside, dress (your kids especially) for the weather. Frigid fingers and toes mean grumpy kids!
- If you DO want to curate a coordinated look to satisfy your own aesthetic, do so while still honoring reasonable expectations of your kids. Your toddler who loves to play in the dirt shouldn’t be wearing a white dress. (That said, if you don’t want the dirt-loving side of your toddler featured in the photos, then let’s not meet at the park or playground, okay?)
Being intentional about what to wear for family photos
NOT curating doesn’t have to mean ‘pay no attention at all.’ There are ways to be intentional about what you are wearing that can amplify the storytelling in your photos. If your family loves making pancakes together in the morning, and you invite me to photograph this (yes please!), then the kids SHOULD be in their pajamas! And if the kids are in their pajamas, that doesn’t mean you have to be – but your business casual wear probably isn’t the right choice either.
My recommendations flow from my belief that kids shouldn’t be asked to perform for family photos. This includes dressing for a part they didn’t ask to play. Allowing kids (and grownups) to be authentically themselves will result in photos that you can look back on and say “yep, that’s US.” And love what you see.