Prepping for Family Portraits

General tips for portraits:

  • As long as you feel good, you look good…but hydrating, moisturizing, and getting good rest the day before helps. 🙂
  • Anyone with braces should avoid eating anything that day that might get stuck easily.
  • Avoid wearing transition eyeglass lenses to the shoot.
  • Avoid food or drinks that might stain the mouth (grape juice, frosting, candy, etc).
  • Iron clothes and remove lint the day before.
  • If possible, bring your clothes on a hanger or laid flat, and then change into them upon arrival so they don’t get wrinkled during the car ride.
  • Bring comfortable shoes as we may walk to find various backgrounds or good light.
  • Sometimes the littlest things show up in photos despite being hidden, like hair ties on wrists, phones in pockets, or gum being chewed. Please remove items such as these before photos begin.
  • Give yourself more than enough time to get to the session location, and try not to schedule anything immediately after…the less rushed you’ll be, the more relaxed you’ll look.

The actual shoot:
I plan to take various groupings – posed and candid. I will be using only natural light. Please feel free to suggest any ideas or let me know if you’d like to forgo anything I suggest during the shoot. Here is my usual shot list:

  • Whole family
  • Just the children
  • Each child
  • Just the parents