You’re running around your house in a frenzy, trying to get your family ready for family photos. You’re pulling everything out of your kids’ closets to find something for them to wear. They need to match…and you can’t find an outfit for everyone. You get your kids and husband ready to go and realize that you’ve forgot about yourself! Your hair is a mess and you haven’t put any makeup on and you start to panic. Well…it’s that wonderful time of year again! The time for family photos! Many of you dread this time of year because you have to have everything perfect, but it doesn’t have to be that hard. Here’s some quick, simple tips to help you prepare for your photos.
Plan your outfits ahead of time…not last minute!
Get your outfits together in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to pick it out. If you need to go shopping, you need to know that. So don’t procrastinate and pick them out now! Gone are the days of white shirts and jeans! Why not pick something more fun? Maybe even something with a pattern! A great rule of thumb is to pick out 3 different colors. Have all the members of your family wearing at least one of those 3 colors and have 1 or 2 people that have all 3 colors in their outfit. Great examples of this are the two families below…there is 1 person wearing all 3 colors and everyone else has at least 1 of those colors on. This is a great way to match your family without having them all look exactly the same!
Have a dress run a week before your session.
Nothing is worse than having your outfits planned months in advance and realize that your kids have outgrown their clothes! Make sure to have everyone try on their outfits a week before the session. If the clothes are too tight, you have time to get new ones and you won’t freak out last minute because they have nothing to wear!
Know the Season and the weather.
This goes along with the clothes that you choose to wear. If you know that it’s October and the temperature starts dropping, don’t buy or plan to wear short sleeves! You & your kids will be cranky within 15 minutes if it’s cold outside and your photos will suffer because of it. There’s only so much bribing that you can do to get your kids to cooperate! Also, make sure to blend with your season. If you are taking fall photos, don’t wear yellows & oranges…if you are taking winter photos, don’t wear white! Know your season. You don’t want to blend in with the beautiful scenery around you, but you don’t want to stick out either. Make sure you know your surroundings and what colors will look best with your season.
Make sure you have at least 2 hours before your shoot dedicated to getting ready.
If you have to work until 4:30 and your photo shoot is at 5…either get someone to cover your shift or reschedule your shoot for at least an hour later! Photographers don’t like it when you’re late…and some photographers won’t wait for you because they have other clients after you so make sure you plan enough time for you to get ready and to make sure that your family is ready as well.
Be comfortable!
No one likes fake smiles and sometimes the best photos are the giggly ones when you don’t know that the photographer is snapping the photo. Just relax!
Everything doesn’t have to be perfect.
I cannot stress this enough! You can try and try and try to get everything perfect but you never will. Things will go wrong…kids will get dirty…children cry…changes will have to be made. Getting photos taken means preserving your memories. If your child always gets dirty, don’t expect them to stay clean the day of the session. You can try to keep them clean, but if they get dirty and it’s captured on camera then it’s something to laugh at later!
Lastly, HAVE FUN!
Don’t forget to have fun at your shoot! This is the one time a year that you get to capture your families memories…so ENJOY it!
Visit E + C to see her delicious recipes & DIY projects.
To go along with your seasonal photos I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to Shutterfly. Contest ends next Thursday!
