Best Colors to Wear for Family Photos

Family photo shoots are perfect ways to bring everyone together and create memories to look back on. Choosing the right color scheme can be a difficult task when there are so many options to pick from. 

There are specific color schemes and styles that work better than others when it comes to family photos. You want to be cohesive but also have fun with it. Colors can transform family photos, and here’s how.

How Colors Can Transform a Family Photography Shoot

The colors you choose to implement in your family’s shoot impact the outcome of the photos and your memory of the event. Colors can represent many things, and choosing a cohesive color scheme that makes everyone comfortable is the end goal. 

Colors can evoke strong emotions, so choosing a color scheme is essential for whatever feeling you want in your family pictures. Whether you want photos that give off fun energy or a soft calmness, your choice of color determines this.

The Best Colors To Wear for a Family Photography Shoot

Here are some of the best color schemes to wear for family photos that will give you optimal results.

Fall Colors

Fall colors such as tan, brown, red, green, dark purple, and neutral colors all fall under this category and make for a stunning shoot. These warm colors can make us feel cozy and serene, which is a great emotion to evoke in family pictures. 

Another great aspect of utilizing fall colors in your family photos is the abundance of other colors and backgrounds they work well with. These warm tones work well with neutrals, bricks, stone, and whatever color you can find in forestry nature. 

Whether you have a photoshoot outdoors with trees as your canvas or up against a barn, fall colors will work with a variety of locations.

Spring Colors

If you’re hoping to capture vibrant and colorful family pictures, spring colors include a wide variety of bright and eye-catching tones. You can also apply bold colors, like neon colors, here, but you can also go for calmer pastels, like white, light blue, pink, and purple.

The brighter the colors, the more fun and energetic your photos will appear. These colors thrive in outdoor locations with flowers and trees but contrast significantly with the neutral colors of buildings and stone. 

Spring colors work beautifully with various colors, but choosing a background it works well with can be difficult.

Summer Colors

Summer colors are peaceful, like fall colors, but they have a happier and brighter feel to them without reaching the vibrancy of spring colors. They rest between the two and create sunny, happy family pictures. 

These soft colors of green, yellow, blue, and orange are bright and remind us of the sun in the blue sky, sunflowers in a soft green field, the ocean and its sand, and all the other places we envision when we think of the summertime.

Summer is a happy season, so a photo shoot with summer colors will be full of joy and bright, warm colors. 

Winter Colors

Winter colors are holiday colors. When we think of winter, we think of cold weather and a time for celebration. Deep red, green, silver, black, white, and navy blue are some of the most popular colors for winter color palettes. 

They’re rich in color and offer a bolder emotion. These colors can also create two very different photoshoots, one where it’s fancy and strict and the other where it’s relaxed and playful. It depends on how you style these colors and the type of clothes you choose to wear.

Whether you want to incorporate a Christmas tree or greenery like it or have a photoshoot in the snow, these colors will pop and evoke a strong sense of unity, family, and celebration. 

Studio Colors

Studio background colors refer to non-distracting, blank backgrounds and a very straightforward family photo color scheme. These studio colors tend to be very toned down, such as black, gray, and white, and don’t have much room for anything that strays too far from those tones.

This doesn’t mean utilizing studio colors makes a boring shoot or that studio colors are a boring theme; it just lowers your options to choose from in terms of colors and backgrounds. 

It’s a straightforward theme that keeps things simple if you don’t want to stress over all the different parts of a family photo shoot, such as location, color schemes, and if they’ll go together. 

How To Choose the Ideal Color Scheme

With all these family photo color schemes to choose from, here is how you know which one is best suited for you and your family for the day of your photoshoot.

Consider the Location

The location of the photoshoot is one of the biggest determining factors regarding what color palette you should choose. 

It’s simple to correspond your colors with the season you’re taking photos in, but, for example, if you want to wear spring colors in fall, your backgrounds are limited. Bright or soft pastels will clash with a deep red brick or orange and red tree leaves.  

If you’re taking pictures outdoors with green trees behind you, that allows for each color scheme we mentioned, but if you’re taking pictures on the beach in the middle of summer, winter colors will likely clash with these atmospheres. 

Location can impact your shoot significantly, so you should be figuring out where and when you want your shoot to take place around the same time you choose a color scheme for family photos.

Complement Your Skin Tone

For the sake of your photos, consider your skin tone when deciding what color you and your family should wear for your photoshoot. You want something that will complement and brighten your skin instead of picking a color that will wash you out on the camera. 

Choosing color schemes to follow as opposed to a singular color also helps with this dilemma because it allows the members of your family to pick the color within the theme that compliments them.

Family pictures are something to look back on with fondness. Deciding on a color that compliments your skin tone will make you and everyone more comfortable and make for a happy memory to look back on. 

Think About the Decor

The decor is another huge aspect to consider when planning your color scheme. You want to consider the decor or props, if any, you wish to use and how that can impact your shoot and color scheme. 

An example we’ve previously mentioned is if you want a Christmas tree in your photos, winter colors are the only theme that would work with your shoot. Plan it all in your head before choosing your favorite color scheme, so you don’t have clashing colors and themes.

Use the Color Wheel

These color schemes and the first colors that come to mind when we think of them are only the brink of the colors you can choose from. A color wheel can reveal all the different layers of these colors and allow you to pick out your favorite shades and tones. 

Family Styling Tips for a Photography Shoot

When it comes down to the day of the photoshoot, and you have your colors picked out, there are plenty of styling tips to follow to ensure the best outcome for your photos. 

• Iron out wrinkles in pants, shirts, dresses, and skirts, so they aren’t visible in the photos.
• While your photographer will most likely position you, there’s no harm in practicing the way you want your family to pose. 
• Practice smiling in the mirror and individual poses if you’re worried about coming off strange to the camera.
• If you’re having an outdoor shoot and worry about frizzy, uncontrollable hair, spraying hairspray will go a long way in keeping your head tame. 
• Similarly, if you expect your photoshoot to take over an hour, hairspray will keep any hairstyle you have in place.
• Give clear instructions to your family members on whether or not they should wear accessories, and be sure they match your theme. 
• If you have a large family, have everyone arrive a few minutes before the scheduled time to ensure everyone understands their roles and what to expect. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most frequently asked questions regarding family photos and what to expect from them.

Should I bring multiple outfits for a photo shoot?

It depends completely on what you and your family are comfortable doing. One outfit is more than acceptable, especially if you utilize several different backgrounds. Bringing more clothes to change into gives you more options to choose from, but it’s not a necessity. 

Do colors matter for black-and-white photographs?

While colors don’t show up on black-and-white photographs, it’s nice to keep your options open and wear a cohesive color scheme in case you like the way the colored photos turn out. However, if you’re set on black-and-white photos, it is the patterns you have to worry about.

If colors aren’t an issue, conflicting patterns can ruin the photograph. 

Are clothes with logos and graphics okay for family photos?

If your family is okay with conflicting patterns, logos, and graphics, then wearing them to your shoot is your decision. If you’re hoping to have the best, most cohesive family pictures, your family should wear plain colors or matching styles. 

However, if you are all wearing the same t-shirt with the same logo, that would work to keep everyone in the same boat. 

If you do go with graphics and patterns, consider the background again. Your family wearing matching shirts will keep you cohesive, but it could clash with the backdrop. 

It comes down to what you and your family want your photos to come out as. 

Schedule a Professional Family Photoshoot Today!

What are the best colors to wear for a family photo session? It’s completely up to you.

Choosing the color you want to represent your family comes down to many different things, like the emotion you want to evoke, the location of your photos and the background colors, and what compliments you and your family the best. Schedule a session today!

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