Your session is booked. Your location is set. It's time to start thinking about what everyone will wear. Your outfits can be good old favorites, new combinations of clothes you have at home, or you could pair clothes you love with new accessories to provide a pop of color. Read below for some tips on how to coordinate your family's outfits to help create photos that showcase everyone's personalities and look great hanging in your home. 

Where to Start

• Choose clothes that make you feel comfortable and reflect your family’s personality. Wearing something that makes you feel comfortable and beautiful will help you relax during your session.

• Pick clothes that are appropriate for the weather. We want your family to be comfortable throughout the session, so consider if the day is likely to be hot or cold and plan accordingly. Layering can add texture to a photo and allow for wardrobe adjustments if the weather is warmer or colder than you expected. 

Colors

• You are likely planning to display some of your photos in your home. Do you like bright bold colors? Natural colors? Subdued colors? Pastels? Choosing colors and styles that fit your family will help the photos to fit into the look of your home. Choosing a simple, classic, look will help your photos stay stylish over time.

• Consider the location of your photo shoot. For example, if we will be shooting outside near green trees, choose clothes that look good with the green background. Yellows and blues can help give your photos a smooth integrated feel; where reds and violets compliment green well and provide good contrast. If we are shooting in your home, consider the color of the walls in the room (or rooms) that we are likely to be using.

• Choose 2-3 colors that coordinate well and use them to accent the outfits of each member of the family to tie everyone together without matching exactly. Coordinating colors make your photos come together with a natural look.

Putting the pieces together

• Simple patterns can help add variety to outfits, but having many different patterns can be overwhelming. Using a simple pattern on one or two family members can work well when coordinated with solid colored clothing to prevent a photo from looking too busy. You could pick a key patterned outfit (shirt, dress, or skirt) with more than one color in it and coordinate everyone else’s outfits to tie into the key outfit.

• Split the colors up on your family. Having everyone in colored shirts and neutral pants can feel overly planned and unnatural. For some family members, you could use colored tights or pants with a neutral top, for others, colored or simple patterned top with solid neutral colored pants. You could also bring your accent colors in through shoes or other accessories.

• Adding accessories and layers can help bring character to your photos. A cute headband, stylish hat, cardigan, scarf, belt, or fun necklace. Adding tights to your little girls dress or a button up shirt with a t-shirt underneath on your boys can add texture and depth to your photos.

• Try to avoid graphic tees, these are often distracting and can detract from the overall photo.

Final Details

• Having clothes that fit your kids well will help make your photos look their best. Outfits that are too large and baggy or too small can draw attention to the outfit instead of bringing the focus to the faces of your gorgeous children.

• Don’t forget the shoes (unless barefoot is your style)! Your feet will be in some of your photos and a great outfit can be completed with a pair of shoes that fit your style of choice.

• Mama, we know how much you do for your family and want you to feel fabulous in your family photos. Some mama’s find that it’s easiest to first choose an outfit that makes them feel amazing and then pick out outfits for the rest of the family that coordinate well.

• Plan ahead =) Go through your closets at home or purchase any new items to add to your outfits ahead of time to make sure that all of the pieces you want your family to wear are available, clean, and fit well. This will be one less thing that you need to think about on the day of your session and will hopefully decrease your stress so you can enjoy the day more!

• Contact me if you have any questions or need any help choosing outfits. 

More Tips on How to Feel and Look your best for newborn photos during those early post-partum days.

Updated May 18, 2024

© Eickhoff Photography