Photographer's Guide: Tips for Your Family Photo Session
**Click On Images To View Fullscreen**
Family Photo Sessions
Photographer’s Guide to:
Let’s face it, family photo sessions can be challenging!
We’ve all been there: spending hours picking out the perfect outfits, stressing about the weather and location, searching hours on end for shot ideas, all in hopes of capturing one decent image of your family. And for the little ones, they get many sets of new boundaries to go along with their adorable new clothes when they just want to have fun. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way! By following a few tips to consider before your session and using the a few smart tactics during, you can be sure to get the most out of your photography experience.
Know what you want
Absolutely no one would plan and throw a party without any sort of thought to what the party should look like, so why would you do so for a photo shoot? Or maybe, you’ve done some research and have an entire vision of how the photos should look but have yet to communicate that to your photographer. These are both examples of how to start a photo session totally unprepared, and often times sets you up for disappointment in your photos later. How can you avoid that? Know what you want! Spending hours searching for the perfect shot isn’t necessary, but you should have a general idea of how you’d like the shots to look. Do you prefer formal photos or candids? Dreamy and airy feeling shots or sharp realism? Once you have an idea of what you’d like, communicate that with your photographer. Lots of people think that booking the photographer is the only contact you need to have prior to your session, but in doing so you’re missing out on the best session advice available! They can give you the best advice on what to wear, whether or not your specific shot inspirations will work, and the best conditions to achieve your overall look.
2. Ready the Troops
Now that you know what you want to achieve, it’s time to get ready! First up: Clothes! Selecting your clothing will be much easier now that you’ve determined your vision. Formal photos will require more formal clothing, where as fun candids can be a little more casual. Fabric and color choices also play a big role in the final product and certainly should be considered. Lighter, airier clothing would be perfect for shoots during the warmer months where as darker, heavier clothing is commonplace in the Fall and Winter. There are lots of color guides online that can help you select corresponding/complementing colors, so you can make sure your family looks cohesive without looking too uniform. Also, stay away from bold or busy patterns, which could take the focus away from you in the picture. Try to keep these tips in mind while selecting your family’s attire, all of these seemingly small details can be the difference in a well-coordinated family photo and a photo of various people seemingly experiencing various temperatures.
3. Prepare for Battle!
The day has arrived! You’ve done all your prepping for the session, you’re ready to capture some great memories. Getting to your booked session time a little early (not too early, kiddos get bored!) gives you time to adjust clothing and hair, and get everyone used to the idea of the session. So great, now you’ve got to dread being ON TIME while trying to get distracted kids disgruntled dad out the door! To lessen the stress of getting out on time, have a game plan for your day. If your shoot time is early am, make sure everyone is in bed a decent hour the night before, ensuring not only a smooth departure but also keeping the little ones from being uncooperative due to exhaustion (Bonus, well-rested looks GREAT on you). Once you arrive at the location, your photographer should be giving you details on how the session will go. Discussing this quick gameplan gives you the opportunity to know what’s coming next as well as the ability to let your photographer know of any additional considerations that may require adjustments. For example, if your tiny baby just couldn’t stay awake in the car and is still sleeping, your photographer can start with the big brothers and sisters instead of beginning with the full-family shots as planned. Or maybe one family member is a little grouchier than usual, we can adjust the session so that we include them first, in case their model expiration date expires before the session ends.
4. Murphy’s Law
Now that you’ve done all this planning, it’s certain this session will go off without a single snag! WRONG. Planning for your session is essential to ensure that it will go as smoothly as possible, but as a well-versed parent would know: Anything that CAN happen, WILL happen. But don’t fret, this is not saying that you should enter your session waiting for the moment that everything will fall apart, but being prepared for when things may go awry. A good photographer will know how to diffuse possible situations and keep everyone upbeat, but sometimes it will take a parent’s touch to smooth things over. Be prepared to roll with the punches.
5. Remember what you came for
Don’t sweat the small stuff! All of this planning and preparation has brought you to this day, to capture memories of your family. YOUR family. As much as we’d all like to think our family is Brady Bunch level of cohesive, with the photogenic capabilities of top supermodels, more than often that is NOT the case. Life, love, and happiness are messy; and families are a combination of all three! Keep this in mind when you’re considering yelling “be still!” for the 5th time in an hour, and have faith that your photos will be a true representation of this moment in time. Worrying about perfection only increases your stress and puts unrealistic expectations on everyone else.
And who knows? Sometimes, the messiest of photos make the best family portraits!
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” -Henry Thoreau
Click Here To View More Family
Also, check out our Facebook and Instagram for updates and the latest with Shebee Photography!
Please Enjoy, Like & Share :)