Choosing Colors for Family Pictures

While reading a blogger's tutorial on dressing for holiday card photographs, I realized that although I'm not a "professional," I could offer some tips to take the stress out of getting ready for family photos. Although I'm not an expert, I have experienced emotions from completely stressed out to completely survivable, so I may be able to offer some useable advice. Here are my rules to live by:

1. Don't stress - Use what you have

You don't have to buy all new clothes for the family. Most of us have neutral colors, and if your kids are young, you've probably purchased in a color palate without thinking about it because of your personal taste.

2. Blend - Use colors and fabrics that compliment

Again, it's not necessary to match. I usually do a basic bottom of bare feet or neutral shoe color, then jeans for everyone. Khakis work well also. Keeping the bottom half of us more uniform keeps the eye away from this least important part of the picture. The color palate on the top can be a mix of a color like blue, for example, with neutral beige/tan/white mixed in. Or you can do everyone in the same color, but not the same shirt with the texture and style of each shirt adding the interest. Try to keep the fabrics complimentary also. If everyone is in a light cotton and one person is in a sweater, it looks funny. So balance those different fabrics like you would the pops of color putting at least two of four or three of five in the same weight of fabric.

3. No bold colors or prints that clash

The eye is drawn to whatever pops, and your clothes are not the focus of the picture. If you are going to use colors, make sure they compliment the photo. If one person wears a bright color, another person should have it to balance the photo. Too much bold color or mixing prints makes the photo visually busy and detracts from the subjects.

4. Fancy hair isn't necessary

We've done blow-dryed hair, flat ironed, pony tails, you name it. It's stressful to worry about hair! As long as it's brushed and neat, I'm happy. The girls are happier too.

Here is our gallery of the last few years. The first two are poorer wardrobe choices, the first having too many colors going on, and the second having only one family member in a pop of color.

In the rest of these photos, I tried to think neutral and complimentary. You'll see that not all the photos are professional, nor are all of the outfits perfect. But there is something that works in each one and that is that we tried to keep the focus on us and not our clothes. Most of the time it works.