Family photos are some of our favorite photographs to take. And, admittedly, some of the trickiest to pull off. So we asked the people who have learned a thing or two along the way.
First, our longtime Henry Duvall photographer, Tracy, shares her best advice for keeping everyone comfortable, happy, and (mostly) looking in the same direction. Then, Meghan shares a few tips for putting together outfits that feel coordinated without feeling too matched, plus one reminder from one mom to another.
As the photographer behind so many of our favorite Henry Duvall images, Tracy has photographed plenty of children and has become something of an expert at getting even the littlest (and least cooperative) subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Here are the family photo tips she comes back to again and again.
Moms, start with you. Choose something you feel comfortable and confident in, and build everyone else around it. If you feel good in what you're wearing, you'll be more relaxed in front of the camera, and that makes the entire session easier.
Think about the family as a whole rather than dressing everyone in exactly the same thing. Choose colors, textures, and patterns that complement one another. The result will feel much more natural, and much more like you.
The prettiest backdrop isn't necessarily the best one. Think about where your children are happiest and most comfortable. If your child hates the sand, a beach session probably isn't going to bring out their best side.
Choose somewhere that feels like your family: the beach, a favorite park, or even your own home. Happy, comfortable children make for better photographs every time.
If you find a photographer you love, use them again. Seeing a familiar face can make an enormous difference for children, especially when they're young. Instead of spending the first half of every session warming up to someone new, they can get right to being themselves.
And those relationships become pretty special over the years, too.
They're probably more likely to listen to me anyway, and it gives you permission to stop worrying about whether everyone is behaving perfectly. Relax, enjoy your family, and let me do the wrangling. I really don't mind.
Seriously. That's my job.
When it comes to dressing everyone, my goal is never to make a family look perfectly matched. I want them to look like they belong together, with enough variation that everyone still looks like themselves.
Start with the piece you love most (usually your strongest print or pattern) and use it as the anchor for everyone else's outfits. Pull colors from it, mix in solids, and let that one piece do most of the work.
You absolutely do not have to put everyone else in solids. Once you've chosen your main pattern, you can layer in quieter ginghams, plaids, stripes, or small-scale prints.
The trick is simply to let one pattern be the star. If everything else is subtle enough to support it rather than compete with it, pattern on pattern can make a family photograph feel especially layered and beautiful.
Where you can, give your children a little ownership over what they're wearing. Let them choose between two pairs of pre-approved shoes. Let them pick the bow or headband. Give them a choice between two sweaters you already know will work.
They'll feel like they got to choose their outfit, and they'll be infinitely happier wearing it.
This one is less from me as a stylist and more from me as a mom.
The photographs I end up loving the most are almost never the perfectly posed ones where everyone is looking at the camera. They're the little moments in between: the ones where their personalities come through, or the ones that capture some tiny detail of who they were at that age. Years later, those are the photographs that bring back a memory or an inside joke or something I'd completely forgotten.
Once you remember that those are the photographs you're really there for, it's infinitely easier to stop worrying about whether everyone is smiling at the same time and simply enjoy being with your family.
And, usually, that's when you get the best photographs anyway.
