How to style your family for professional photos

How To Style Your Family For Professional Photos

11/22/2016

T-minus 2 days until family photos. {AHHHHH}. Don't freak out. Let me show you how I put together a complete look for our session in just a few hours.

STEP ONE - PLAN

Time to figure out your theme, color palette, and style.
While this might sound daunting. Don't worry, Pinterest will save the day! ;) I spent about 20 minutes browsing for ideas and was able to pinpoint the look I wanted to achieve.

Inspiration

Here are a few of my inspirations I found while browsing Pinterest. You can see they all had a similar neutral tones and a classic theme. That helped me to envision what I wanted for my own shoot.

Color Palette

Now here I got to cheat a bit... I had JUST finished creating my branding board for my website so I knew what color palette I wanted to go with. I recommend choosing 4-5 compatible colors and a few patterns that you can "style" around.

Style

I chose to go with a timeless, neutral style since I'd be using these photos on my website.
Think about the end result. What look do you want to encompass? Edgy? classic? Modern? Dramatic? Holiday? Let that guide you as you choose your outfits and accessories.

STEP TWO - TIME TO STYLE

I started with our littlest human as he has the fewest clothing options and worked my way up (and if you are DYING for our newborn's outfit you can get it here for $10!). I kept the color palette (green, blue, cream, grey) and end-goal (neutral/classic) in mind as I picked our outfits. You'll want to layer, if possible, and avoid being too "matchy-matchy". A great picture flows but still has individuality and dimension.

A great picture flows but still has individuality and dimension.

Soooo.... as I am surrounded by boys, they are obviously leaving all the pink in my color palette to mama {wink}. So, I did my best to capture the femininity with accessories.

Now one of my greatest beauty secrets revealed... PRESS ON NAILS! Fast, cheap, and easy to get OFF. Ha-ha. I prefer Kiss Brand, with glue (not tabs). Another fav is LipSense Lipstick as it literally is permanently on your face, forever. FOREVER. Not really... but for at least 8 hours. No lie. No kiss smudges or re-application necessary. Win. Topped it off with some gold, green, and pink bedazzled jewelry. A gal simply can't shine too much. And of course a set of falsies. Lashes that is. ;)

STEP THREE - SAY CHEESE!!!

Pin or screenshot your favorite poses and show/send them to your photographer. It always helps to visualize what you are looking for. Get ready and go with the flow! Have fun! The more you enjoy yourself, the more your light will shine through in your photos! To see our full photo session, check out the gallery below.

Happy Posing!