What to Wear to Your Family Portrait Session | New Jersey Photographer
One of the most common questions clients ask once they book their family portrait session is, “What should we wear?” You’re in luck - here are a few tips on dressing everyone in your family for your portraits!
One of the most common questions clients ask once they book their family portrait session is, “What should we wear?” Dressing your family members for their photos can be a challenge, because you want everyone to look good together without matching completely. Not only that, you want your kids to be comfortable, or they’re sure to complain and lose patience. It’s a lot for parents to figure out! You’re in luck — here are a few tips on dressing everyone in your family for your portraits.
Avoid bright colors and obvious patterns
Even if you love to wear bright colors, they don’t look good on everyone, they’re incredibly hard to match, and they pull the eye away from the important part of the photo — your faces! To ensure your family is all dressed in the same color palette, stick with neutral colors that mesh well together. Neutrals offer a more timeless look and help you avoid the potential issue of bright colors clashing with one another and distracting from your faces. Large or bright patterns will have the same affect, and if one person is wearing patterns and others are not, that person will stand out. And believe it or not, white has the same effect, unless your portrait is going to be at the beach. I have found that various shades of blue work pretty well in this situation, but that is not cast in stone.
Play with layers
A great way to “stay neutral” and at the same time to spice up everyone’s outfits is by adding layers. This has the added benefit of allowing you to remove pieces for different looks without trying to get everyone changed. Go for jackets, cardigans, or even accessories like scarves and hats that can be easily taken on and off.
Try on your clothes ahead of time
Be sure to have everyone try on their outfits well before your family portrait session, especially if they’re new clothes. Make sure that everything looks good together and each style is suited to each member of your family. You can all wear different fits as long as it’s flattering to your body types. A fitted outfit looks much better than a loose one, as long as it’s still comfortable, which bring us to the next point…
Consider comfort and movement
Yes, you want everyone to look as good as possible, and you especially want your kids to look cute — but you definitely want them to be comfortable. If your kids hate wearing their outfits, they’re more likely to throw a fit or refuse to smile, and that’s the last thing you want! Keep it simple with a nice shirt and jeans or a comfortable dress — something that allows your child to move around easily, so they can play and have fun during your family portrait session.
Stay away from graphics and logos
It can sometimes be a challenge to talk your child out of their favorite shirt, but you want to stay away from graphic tees and other clothing with logos or brand names on them. Like patterns and bright colors, these designs distract from your smiling faces and take the focus in your photos away from you.
Make sure you’re comfortable, too
Don’t focus so much on your children’s comfort that you forget about your own! Ladies, if you choose to wear a dress or skirt, make sure it’s long enough so that you can move and pose comfortably. Try on your outfit beforehand as well and move around the house in it to make sure you have the full range of motion. Avoid itchy fabrics or anything that will be irritating throughout your session.
It takes a little planning, but you can choose outfits that make your whole family look amazing, ensuring you get photos you’ll love and cherish for years to come!
The Pros & Cons of Mini Sessions | New Jersey Photographer
I wanted to break down some of the pros and cons to a mini session. Is it right for you? Click here to find out!
With our recent Summer and Beach Minis announcement and the amount of interest and bookings, we have been hit with many questions and we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to list some of the pros and cons of minis!
The Pros to a Mini Session
For those who don’t have a photographer they exclusively use, mini sessions offer a little peek and a chance to work with that photographer to “try them out” and just see how it goes.
Everything is essentially taken care of, the props and location - you just need to show up!
If you have kiddos with particularly short attention spans, sometimes mini sessions and the shorter times can be helpful! You get their best attitudes and attention for 20 minutes and they are all done. Of course, this could be a con as some kids need some warmup time (we will talk about that later).
It fits busier schedules and are usually held on weekends. Weekend schedules for photographers fill up quickly and as long as you can snag a spot in time, you’re good to go!
They are much cheaper than a photographer’s regular rate and usually have a theme! Since we can stack multiple sessions back-to-back, there’s no travel cost so we can eliminate that off the top which makes it a third of the price!
It’s a great way to keep your family photos updated through the year.
This one mainly is for photographers, but minis are a great way to build your clientele. Usually once you post one sneak peek of a family from your minis, their family and friends will also see your work and may contact you also!
The Cons to a Mini Session
They are short! Going back to one of the pros with the kids, if it takes a while for your child to come out of their shell - it could be tough and a little challenging.
You won’t receive as many images. Typically, our full sessions yield 60-80 images with a wide variety of looks. With our Minis, you can expect anywhere from 10-20 images.
Sometimes there’s a limit on the amount of people. With large groups, it can eat up a lot of time posing and swapping out the groups which can decrease the number of images you will get.
They aren’t as personalized as full sessions. We really like to give each client their own photo shoot and find ideas they love or even a place that is meaningful to them. Mini sessions don’t allow a lot of time for those fun and more artistic photos, though we do the best we can!If you’re late, it will severely cut into your time and the outcome of your shoot. Bouncing off that, we’ve known photographers and heard stories of those who won’t allow you to come if you’re late or won’t refund your money if you can’t make it. It’s important to get that information beforehand so you are at least aware of their policies.
They are super limited and sometimes fill up before even getting a chance, so keep an eye out if you’re holding off for an event!
Those are the main points of the pros and cons, as you can see much of it deals with time. I like to be sure mini sessions fit for those potential clients we haven’t worked with so we can be sure you are going to have a great experience in our short time and beautiful images you’ll love. We love Mini Sessions as photographers, sometimes we catch up with the families we work with all the time or we meet new families that end up being fantastic clients and friends!
We are so excited to meet our new clients this go around and cannot wait to catch up with our friends!