Guide
What to wear for family photos
The palettes and tips below are the ones we send our own clients. Pick a palette in the planner and it lands on the client page with the tips you choose.
Ten palettes that photograph well
Warm Earth
Cream, sand, camel, cocoa and a touch of sage. Best for fall fields, tall grass, golden hour anywhere.
Cream & Sage
Soft greens with warm neutrals. Best for spring and summer greenery, orchards, gardens.
Dusty Pastels
Dusty rose, powder blue and muted taupe. Best for maternity, newborn and soft romantic sessions.
Navy & Cream
Classic navy anchored by cream and camel. Best for beaches, downtown, timeless family portraits.
Jewel Tones
Mustard, garnet, teal and plum with a cream base. Best for late fall, winter, dramatic evening light.
Soft Neutrals
Tone-on-tone whites, oatmeal and greige. Best for studio, minimal backdrops, in-home lifestyle.
Denim & White
Chambray, indigo and crisp white. Best for casual families, lakes, summer evenings.
Terracotta & Rust
Burnt orange, clay and olive. Best for desert, canyon, red-rock and late-summer sessions.
Coastal Blues
Sea glass, sand and driftwood. Best for beach, harbor and overcast coastal light.
Black & White
High contrast, no color to manage. Best for headshots, branding, urban and studio work.
The advice that prevents most problems
- Coordinate, don’t match. Pick 3–4 colors from the palette and spread them across the group instead of putting everyone in the same shirt.
- Skip large logos, slogans, characters and busy patterns. Small, subtle patterns are fine.
- Avoid neon and very bright saturated colors. They reflect onto skin and pull attention from faces.
- Texture and layers photograph beautifully: knits, linen, denim, a cardigan, a hat, a scarf.
- Wear what fits well and feels like you. Comfortable people photograph better than perfectly styled ones.
- Shoes show in full-length photos. Choose something you would wear with the outfit, and skip white sneakers unless the whole look is casual.
- Steam or iron everything the night before. Wrinkles are the one thing editing can’t easily fix.
- Long dresses, skirts and flowy fabrics look wonderful in motion and in the wind.
- Get haircuts a week or two before, not the day before. Bring a brush or a hair tie for windy spots.
- Hands are in a lot of photos. Clean, neutral nails read best on camera.
- Glasses are welcome. If you have a pair with anti-glare lenses, bring them. Transition lenses can go dark outdoors.
- Try the full outfits on together a few days early, including shoes, so nothing surprises you on the day.
Coordinate, don’t match
Matching outfits flatten a group into one shape. Coordinating lets each person keep their own silhouette while the colors still belong together. Start with one person’s outfit, usually mom’s, then pull three or four colors from the palette and spread them across everyone else. Mix textures: a knit, a linen shirt, denim, a wool coat.
Time of day changes color
Golden hour adds warmth, so cream, camel and rust glow while pale blue can go slightly green. Overcast and blue hour are cooler, which flatters navy, sage and dusty pastels. If you are unsure, neutrals with one accent color work in any light.
Send it as a page, not a PDF
Clients read on their phones. A PDF gets opened once and forgotten; a page with the session time, the map, the palette and the tips gets opened the night before and again in the car. The planner builds that page in about a minute.