I haven't been in a professional family portrait since I was 10! We're going to get one soon - dh, me and 16mth dd. Are there any rules/suggestions to follow when planning what to wear? I don't want to match, not into that, but I want our clothing to work together to make the picture look nice. Any no-no's or suggestions? TIA

By Kaye on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 02:38 pm:

You want to match. Look for everyone in khaki pants or blue jeans, or black bottoms and then have coordinating tops. It really does make a difference in how proffessional the pic looks.

By Marcia on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 02:47 pm:

We've all worn denim and off white, and it looked nice. I agree with Kaye's ideas, too.

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 03:04 pm:

We're getting our family portrait done in a few weeks. I went in and looked at a bunch of family portraits to get ideas. I liked the casual ones where all the family members wore coordinating tops. They didn't all necessarily wear the same colors but they all tied in together somehow. We did a family portrait 5 yrs. ago. It was formal with all of us in dress clothes. This time I'd like the portrait to be more natural and casual. We're all going to wear jeans but we've yet to decide on tops. We also need to decide on a backdrop. Looking at a collection of other family portraits at the studio was a big help.

By Kernkate on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 03:35 pm:

I myself always liked the pics that were very casual. Jeans, off white shirts. My cousins family had one taken like this and it was so nice.

By Vicki on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 03:38 pm:

I agree that the pictures look so much nicer if everyone kind of matches. It just looks so less busy if that makes sense. My favorite was one of my friends had khaki pants, denim shirts and bare feet!! Sooo cute!!

By Andi on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 04:19 pm:

We are getting our family pictures done at the beach next weekend and I was wondering the same thing. I think we are all going to wear jeans I am just trying to figure out what color top we should wear.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 04:25 pm:

I guess what I actually meant by 'match' was something like we all wear red shirts, or we all have Purdue shirts on, or something like that. I just don't want to do THAT. We are all very fair and redheads (all three of us!) so off-white doesn't look too great with our particular coloring, although I'm sure it looks great in photos for other people.

This will be casual for us, too, not dress-up. Probably jeans and I'll try to find us something that at least has coordinating colors in it for the tops. Thanks for the good ideas! I also will look at other portraits...that's a great idea, too. Thank you!

By Eve on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 04:41 pm:

I'm sure whatever you decide will look great!

Oh, Andi--go with white tops and barefoot at the beach--it would be beautiful!

By Conni on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 05:59 pm:

Andi, I saw a family portrait on the beach (they were in Florida) and they all wore khaki and white tops. They had their pants rolled up with no shoes on standing on the edge of the water. It was a GREAT picture.

By Bea on Thursday, November 3, 2005 - 11:01 pm:

Wear matching neutrals...denim, white khaki etc. It showcases the faces, and THAT'S what a family portrait is about.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, November 4, 2005 - 09:22 am:

DH worked at a photo studio for about a year, when Sarah was young and I was pregnant with Emily. He would tell you all to match. Then you notice the faces more and not the clothes, like Bea said. I think denim shirts and khaki pants would look nice!

By Breann on Friday, November 4, 2005 - 06:27 pm:

No prints. Just solid colors. Prints do funny things with the colors of the portrait. And, they draw away from the face.

We did a family portrait last April. We all wore jeans. We all wore spring color shirts. Mine was lime green (not neon!), dh's was a blue, my dd's was a pink and ds's was a nice orange. It looked great and we got lots of compliments at the studio. Dh and ds's shirts were nike t-shirts with no graphics. Mine was a cute top with a fun style to it. DD's was shirred around the empire waist line and had a small flower on the shirring.

By Andi on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - 07:27 pm:

Deanna,
Well I finally decided today we are going with the dark denim jeans and white longsleve button down shirts for everyone. I wanted to do something a little more original but I drew a blank and was stressing over it way to much.

We get our pictures done Saturday at Sunset time how about you guys?

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - 09:03 pm:

Andi that sounds like it will look really nice! We're having ours done next Wed. afternoon, and decided to do a dressier look but still more casual. I'm wearing a denim skirt and sweater, Natalie is wearing a dress (nothing frilly) and dh is wearing Dockers and a polo. I think we're going to try to have more professional photos taken next summer or fall outdoors, and do something more casual and comfortable. You'll have to post your pics if you can when you get them. I'm sure they will be beautiful!!

By Mrsheidi on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - 10:09 pm:

How about khaki's and forest green tops?

By Paulas on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 12:06 am:

Beach...barefoot...wow!

Sounds great but makes me cold. The ground is frozen and we have snow right now.

By Andi on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 12:35 am:

We should have our pictures back on Thursday next week, I will post some if I can.

I like what you guys are doing that sounds really cute, I don't have the legs for a denim skirt.

By Brandy on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 05:16 am:

Hey Deanna i'm being nosy here but where did you decide to go to ?

By Conni on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 10:36 am:

Andi and Deanna, I like what you chose to wear in your portraits!! I cant wait to see them!

You all me motivated to get some photos done. However, it will be of the 3 boys and the 3 lab's. LOL I dont want my pic taken and dh lives at work right now. So this is easiest for me.

Opinions please: thinking of black shirts for the boys, blue jeans and baths/breath mints for the dogs. ;) HOWEVER, I am thinking of an outdoor photo. So will black and denim be kind of blah? This is where I always get stumped, stress out and then cancel the appt...

By Reds9298 on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 01:20 pm:

Brandy, We're just going to Sears for these. Partially because of time getting them back and partially for $$ since we just had a dog surgery to pay for! Next summer we'd like to go with Jenkins in Greentown. She does wonderful portraits. I'm really looking forward to that.

Andi, my denim skirt is long. I have the ugliest legs on the planet!!!

Conni, what's the weather like where you are? I was just thinking of beautiful fall leaves if you do outdoor. I love it that you're putting the dogs in, too. My Jacks would be nutcases LOL! Maybe a light and a dark for your boys....like if you wanted to do black tops then darker khakis or blue jeans and a lighter top??? I'm kind of like you...nervous about what our photo will look like just based on the clothing!!

Plus my dd FREEZES at the photog...just looks like a deer in headlights most of the time. We'll see what happens

By Conni on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 06:36 pm:

Well, I went to the portrait studio this morning and looked at some of the pics they had done. I guess we will *all* be in the pics. My friend shamed me into it. lol We are going to a hiking trail with waterfalls (when it has rained- its all dry now!! ) too take an outdoor pic. It will be a total trip with all the boys and the 3 dogs- getting ONE good pic just may not happen.

The weather here has been warm. This was the last week to get any pics with fall color... I saw some beautiful pics they had taken with the orange/gold leaves!! Too bad we didnt do this 2 weeks ago. We couldnt get in until the week after Thanksgiving. Definitely wearing jeans w/ black or red shirts...

Wish we lived close to the beach! I cant wait to see Andi's pics.

By Andi on Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 10:58 pm:

I saw the pictures the photographer took at the beach of my friends...they turned out so nice! Here is her web site:
www.mkfoto.com
The last three pictures in the Photo Gallery are pictures of my good friend and her family. They turned out so great, that is what helped with my decision about the white shirts and jeans.

By Eve on Friday, November 11, 2005 - 10:01 am:

Andi-those are beautiful! I can't wait to see yours.

By Conni on Friday, November 11, 2005 - 04:52 pm:

Ditto Eve!!

By Luvn29 on Friday, November 11, 2005 - 05:09 pm:

I adore the sunset photo! Stunning!

By Conni on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 09:54 am:

I am hi-jacking this thread *again*... I have another question about the clothing I am trying to shop for, for our portraits... Dh is think he will wear his black button down polo, I have a black button up cute shirt I will wear... my problem is I have been to 5 stores now looking for a black button up (i dont care if its a button down collar or not- just one that buttons up the front for my 3 boys. OMG I cant find any. All I can find are the long sleeve polo pull over style shirts in black. I havent made it to Dillards yet or Abercrombie. Maybe they will have them. OK, my actual question I am trying to ask is does it matter if we all have the same style of black shirt or its fine as long as its the same color???

I tried to do this several yrs ago and I cancelled the appt because I was so stressed shopping for the clothes. lol I ended up putting kakhi's on the boys with navy blue polo sweaters, sat them in front of my christmas tree and snapped pic's of them at home for free! Been doing that every yr since then. *rolling my eyes*

I just need too repeat to myself 'it doesnt have to be perfect', 'it doesnt have to be perfect', 'it doesnt have to be perfect'... But its so expensive that I want it to be PERFECT!!! ya know?

By Luvn29 on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 11:17 am:

In my opinion, it looks fine with different types of shirts. I see a lot of photos with a mix of shirts in the same color. I think that would be fine.

Remember, the focus will be on everyone's face, not what they are wearing! It'll look great no matter what!

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 07:02 pm:

I think if you get them a different style shirt in black, it will look great. It doesn't have to be too *matchy-matchy*.

By Andi on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 10:26 pm:

I agree with Karen.

We did our pictures today...than goodness that is over! Anyway, we all had white shirts on but they were all a little different. They were all long sleve button up but if you saw them in person you would see the mine and DD's had floral patterns (totally different patterns) on them, DS's had a tiny little bear on the front pocket and DH's was all white and plain.

I'm sure it will look great, can't wait to see the pictures.

By Andi on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 11:01 pm:

Well two of our pictures are on her website. I like the one of me with Dh but the family one is not a favorite. I will see all of them tomorrow and I am hoping to find the perfect family picture for our Christmas card.

http://www.mkfoto.com/gallery.html#linkloadarea3

By My3cuties on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 11:45 pm:

Oh Andi those are both so good!!! I love them! Especially the one of you and your DH.. very pretty!

By Andi on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 11:16 am:

Thank you Candis. I can't wait until this afternoon when I get to see the rest of the pictures.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 12:02 pm:

I think they're both beautiful Andi!! So nice.
I love the setting and your outfits, too!

We had ours done lastnight and Natalie was soooo smiley!! We were really relieved because she has not done well at the photogs up to this point. Our family ones turned out well and Natalie's, too, but I look terrible in them. I just don't photograph well at Sears! I prefer home snapshots of myself way over them, but it was overall a nice family pose so we went with it.

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 12:47 pm:

They are gorgeous, Andi! I WISH we lived near the ocean, I'd love to have pics made like that!

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 03:38 pm:

Nice pics. I like both of them! I still would like a family portrait done, down by Lake Michigan.