{what to wear for familes} Central Minnesota Photographer

One of the most asked questions I get when booking a photo session is, "What do we wear?" My first response is; clothes that you would normally wear. Like if you wear jeans and t-shirts...then wear them. If you like dress shirts and khaki's...wear that. Nothing is more "un-you" than you wearing something you would never wear in real life, right?

My next suggestion is don't do matchy-matchy. I say there is a difference in coordinating and matching. Like everyone in all one color, white or black, or whatever. What this does is leave the image looking flat, sort of boring. The eye doesn't know where to land and what to look at first. And if everyone is in one color for group shots...it tends to look like floating heads, cause the all-one-color blends everyone together to look like a blob. This I say usually, not always. There is something to be said for shades of white on a beach. If you insist in all one color, I won't stop you, I will say this; go with shades of the color you choose. Pair white with tans, grays...maybe a white linen dress with gray tank.

I do say, pick a color combination of three or four colors, for example; green, brown and off-white or navy, white and yellow. I also would say a few patterns, but not everyone in a pattern. Solids are best, but to have one or two people in a coordinating pattern. This works really nicely when there is someone in the group that has two or the three colors in your combination in the print. It ties the color combination all together.

Another suggestion is no real large graphics or words. There is an exception, if there if we do individual shots, but typically in group shots it is distracting. Certain graphics and words, can also be dating to your portrait and as we would like these to be timeless...if little Michael has on a shirt that says "2009"..well there you go, dated. Literally.

And since my photos are more of the casual nature..I suggest just that. Since most of my photography is taken outdoors, nothing looks more off than fancy dresses, shirt and ties in a field...unless we "grunge" the outfit up, I guess.

I have put together a sample of "what to wear". I hope to add this more often to my blog as I feel it will help in deciding what you and your family should wear to make your portraits the best they can be.


Sorry for the pixelated images. All these outfits can be found at oldnavy.com