Maryland Family Photography // What Should I Wear?

You did it. You finally did it. You found a photographer, managed to scrounge up an open Saturday morning among the soccer games, birthday parties, and ballet recitals, and booked a family photo session!

Almost immediately, that excited, top of the world feeling begins to fade. Suddenly, you’re staring anxiety in the face. There will be a photographer, she will have a fancy camera, and you are going to be paying quite a bit of money to hopefully capture the best side of each member of your family. There is one question that pops up before every family photography session.

“Just what in the heck do I wear?”

Ok, so maybe they don’t say it like that, but they are probably thinking it. It is an intimidating question, especially when, on any given weekend day, you are just lucky if everyone is wearing pants at the same time.

Here are my three go-to tips that will (hopefully!) ease any attire-related woes!
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1. Pick your outfit first.
I put this one first because it is, in my opinion, both the most important and the most difficult to follow.

You spend your days putting your children first. You eat cold meals so they can have theirs hot, you watch Frozen 4 times in a row, and you break speed records when you hear the word “potty”. But when it comes to your outfit for our session, I am going to recommend you do something that may be difficult: put yourself first. Your kiddos are adorable.It does not take much for them to look cute and they’ll be confident in whatever you choose. Kids are awesome that way.

We all look at ourselves first in photos, and we all unnecessarily criticize ourselves. It isn’t hard for you to find a photo of your kids that you love, but my goal is to give you photos where to love every person in them. Including yourself. So start with your outfit - pick out 2-3 items that you love to wear. These are your baselines. Build the outfits of everyone else based on the outfit you want to wear. If you can’t make it work with the first outfit you chose, move on to the second. Family photo sessions can be challenging, it’s important that you feel as comfortable and confident as possible. Trust me, it will make all the difference!

2. Easy on the patterns.
So how exactly do you get the rest of your outfits to match? You do not need to have everyone in the same exact outfit in order to look like you belong together. In fact, too much matching can lead to some awkward family photos. I’m looking at you ugly Christmas sweaters!

To look coordinated, I suggest picking a couple of colors and finding items that have those colors in them. Choose colors that look best on you and go from there. While I’m not picky about the colors you select, I do warn against one thing - too many patterns.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good plaid or a cheerful floral, but there is such a thing as too much. A photo full of busy patterns will distract the viewer from your happy smiles and tender moments. My general rule of thumb is no more than 50% of the people involved in the session should be wearing a pattern. The fewer the better, but if your husband’s only item of clothing in the perfect shade of purple is a striped button down shirt and it perfectly matches your daughter’s purple flowered leggings, go for it!

3. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
So you’ve followed both of the above tips. You’re wearing your absolute favorite outfit and managed to find items for the rest of the family to wear that matched it, with only a couple of patterned items. You’re feeling confident and happy in your choices, and looking forward to your upcoming shoot.

The morning of, you wake up to any number of scenarios. Your three-year-old refuses to wear the dress you picked out. It’s going to be a cold morning, and all of your outfits are short sleeved. Your seven-year-old sneaks out and plays in the freshly cut grass after breakfast and gets grass stains all over his pants.

Don’t sweat it.

Yes, it may seem easy for me to say, but I’m speaking from experience. My background in education and now my experiences as a family photographer have taught me to be flexible. We can make almost anything work! We’ll use poses that hide (most of) the Disney princess t-shirt your three-year-old picked, you can wear coats and jackets between shots, and I can edit out your seven-year-old’s grass stains. We will make it work. Don’t let what should be a happy memory be marred by stress.

My job is to get your photos you will love and I take that seriously. I strive to provide my clients with a relaxed atmosphere that results in timeless photos. That starts with you, and I’m here to e sure you have the most enjoyable experience possible!