Family Clothing Guide

Your inspiration piece is what you are going to base your color and style around. It can be a scarf, boots, your favorite shirt, or whatever inspires you.

Choose colors from your inspiration piece to use throughout the family outfits. Keep the color intensity the same throughout all pastels, mids, or darks. For extended families, keep your palette to 2 or 3 colors to avoid color overload.

Avoid vibrant colors like scarlet red, neons, whites, and pastels that stand out and can overtake the photograph.

Making sure to consider everyone’s body type when creating outfits is just as important as coordinating colors. Dark colors are more slimming, lighter colors accentuate curves.

Lay out all the chosen clothes and see if there is balance in your choices. If there is too much of one color switch something around. Avoid busy patterns and stick to solid prints. If you have a favorite pattern there are tricks to incorporate them in without it overwhelming the eyes. Use sparingly. This rule also applies to logos on shirts!

Don’t forget the little things, jewelry, scarves, hats…whatever fits your families’ personality. However, avoid fashion extremes. They can date a photograph very quickly.

Have everyone in either casual, business casual, or dressy… don’t mix. Flip flops or neon green running shoes would not fit in a more dressy portrait.

Long sleeves, longer skirts, and long pants are a must. Shorts, sleeveless shirts, or that tight skirt may feel comfortable to you but can detract from a beautiful portrait.