It's all about harmony...
When it comes to choosing clothes for your photoshoot we just need to think a little about how everyone will look when you are all together.
There's no need to all be wearing exactly the same thing. That would be weird. You don't need to be all matchy matchy, just co-ordinate.
What you want are similar tones so that what you are wearing sits harmoniously together and nothing stands out over everything else. We don't want all the attention in an image to be drawn towards cousin Sally's bright orange trainers. Unless that is her thing and it's important that she wears them. But if we want to the focus to be on faces and not footwear, there are some easy ways to do this.
Formal, Smart, smart casual, or casual?
If we're shooting outside, you might not want to wear what you might wear to the office. If you and your kids are normally found in wellies up a tree, you might not even like to go as far as smart casual. Whatever you decide, it's totally up to you.
My suggestion would be you, on a good day. Along the lines of what you might wear to a christening or wedding - somewhere around smart and smart casual. The better you look on the day, the better you'll look in the photographs.
What to avoid:
Heavy/crazy patterns, checked patterns, stripes, big logos or slogans.
It's best if you all have similar tones - so, not half of you dressed in black and half in white for example. Mid-lighter tones will usually be best.
(The location and time of year will also have an influence on what will work well, so we can talk about this and I'll post updates with ideas here on my blog too.)
Better ideas:
Co-ordinate colours. Maybe the most important person (for birthday/anniversary shoots) chooses their outfit and everyone else then finds something to work with that. For family shoots, if you have an amazing dress that you want to wear, wear it and arrange your partner and children around that.
Solid colours, ligher and softer colours like pastels, whites, off-whites, cream, stone etc. Earthy or neutral tones are good. Textured fabrics can work well if the colour scheme is simple, they add something without attracting too much attention.
Something you feel comfortable and confident in. It doesn't have to be the latest thing and this is also why simple is usually best, so that the images don't seem dated in a few years, simple and light can help make your images timeless.
Make up
Keep it natural looking, don't do anything you wouldn't normally do or experiment wildly in case you don't like it in a few weeks. I can airbrush out any small blemishes for you. Basically, anything transient gets edited out. Spots, bruises on your kids shins etc. Birthmarks and anything that should be there, will ordinarily be left in.
But if there is anything in particular your are worried about, just let me know and we can talk about what you would like me to do.
Coats, handbags and mobiles
We're going to want to ditch the handbags, coats and big phones in pockets too. You can of course wear a coat and bring a bag and phone etc! But you want a coat you can easily slip in and out of, phones out of front pockets and a bag that we can pop on the ground without it being a problem. I guess less really is more! All of this is to help reduce distractions, and keep the focus on you! (By all means if you want shots of you wearing the coat/carrying the bag, of course we can do that, it's just that usually they tend to get in the way.)
At the end of the day...
The above is hopefully a useful bit of guidance for you, but by all means, feel free to do whatever you want! If you want to wear, or want your children to wear something and you and they are happy with that, please go for it! If you turn up in a gorilla suit with everyone else dressed as bananas, that will make my day. :)
