What should you wear for a family photo?

A family photographer captures your family in a series of professionally edited portraits. You can be goofy, you can be formal, you can be exactly how you want to be. To that end, you can wear what makes you feel comfortable and confident — feeling good translates to looking good in photos. However, top family photographers do have some style suggestions that will make your family photos more visually cohesive:

• Ask the photographer for color suggestions if you’re doing an outdoor photo shoot. Location and time of day can affect which shades will fade in the sunlight and what will stand out in a good way.
• Stay away from a mix of stripes or plaids on multiple people — the effect is too busy.
• Steer clear of tiny patterns, which blend together too much.
• Avoid wearing matching outfits.
• Do wear outfits that are complementary in color.
• Choose color over black-and-white outfits.
• Do choose a theme, such as pastels, fall colors or summer colors.
• Opt for tonally similar colors.  
• Go easy on makeup for outdoor photo shoots.