Style Guide for Classic and Timeless Family Photos

Have you ever looked at a past family photo and wished you had something more up-to-date?

I am absolutely a believer in regularly updating your family photos—especially if you have young children who are growing and changing before your eyes! The desire to capture more memories with your loved ones is the most natural thing in the world.

But you also want to make sure that you love those photos and can continue to treasure them throughout your lifetime. And to do that, it’s important to avoid trends and also ensure that the photoshoot experience is fun and authentic.

After all, we’ve all had the experience of looking back on a photo and cringing at the outfit choice, or recognizing that someone’s smile is the “say cheese” variety and not their genuine expression of happiness.

My goal is to capture gorgeous, timeless, and candid images that your family can look back and cherish forever. I want to tell your family story in a way that is true and beautiful. But I can only do that if we work together! I will bring an experienced eye for detail, a fun personality, and a genuine desire to connect and create. But there are some things you can do as well to ensure that your photos are everything you hoped for in the moment and will stand the test of time. Here is my style guide for classic and timeless family photos!

Style Guide for Classic and Timeless Family Photos: Part One

Tips for Choosing Outfits

A big part of creating photos that feel timeless instead of trendy comes down to what you wear. Follow these suggestions for clothing choices that will still look classic years from now.

Choose Colors that Complement over Colors that Match

Usually, the easiest place to start when choosing outfits is color. I’ll send you some color palette inspiration when you book your family photo session, but essentially, you want to select a color palette that has a nice balance and variety. This means colors that complement one another rather than too many of the same (or very similar colors). Of course, it’s also important to make sure that the colors don’t clash! A great way to achieve this is through…

A Neutral Color Palette

I highly recommend choosing outfits that follow a more neutral color palette. If you are looking for classic, timeless family photos, neutrals are absolutely the way to go! Especially when you are doing an outdoor session at a beautiful, natural location, it’s great to have earthy colors and tones that complement the background while still standing out against it. Whites and creams, soft pinks, and blues are all beautiful options that achieve this effortlessly.

Of course, you can always have some brighter pops of colors too! It’s just important to remember that these will draw the eye, so they’re best used sparingly. Maybe as part of the pattern on mom’s dress, or in the headband worn by a toddler girl.

Start with Mom’s Outfit

Speaking of mom’s dress, this is where I generally recommend you start when choosing outfits. Women’s clothing comes in many more designs, colors, and styles than men’s clothing, so it’s often easier to choose mom’s outfit first and then build the rest of your style around that. Once you have a dress (or other outfit) picked out, you can figure out a complementary neutral outfit for dad and some cute options for the kiddos.

Limit Patterns and Logos

Next to color, pattern is the next biggest consideration when it comes to designing your photoshoot wardrobe. Even if the colors match, busy patterns can compete with each other and cause your outfits to look mismatched. And big logos are always distracting! I recommend making sure that most of your clothing pieces are solid colors and only then adding in one or two complementary patterns. And if you don’t have any patterns, that’s okay! We can create beautiful images with all solid-colored clothing, especially if there are a couple of nice textures, like ruffles or a flowy skirt.

When in Doubt—Comfort and Confidence!

The most important factor in choosing your outfits is how your clothes make you feel. At the end of the day, you want something you can be comfortable and confident in. So pick clothing that fits well and makes you feel beautiful! Even the most classic styles may come and go, but you’ll always remember and cherish the way you felt as you spent time making memories with family!

Which brings me to part two of our style guide for classic and timeless family photos:

Style Guide for Classic and Timeless Family Photos: Part Two

Tips for Posing and Enjoying Your Photoshoot

Even more important than what you wear is how you feel. If the memories are good, you will continue to love your photos forever, no matter what the aesthetics are like. Natural poses, genuine smiles, and candid moments are what truly make your photos timeless.

Here are a few easy ways we can make sure that you have wonderful memories of our time together!

Go at the Pace of the Shortest Attention Span

When littles are involved, I always like to reassure my families that we will go at their child’s pace. Kiddos are the stars of the show! Don’t worry too much about having them pose. If they are running around having a good time, believe me, I won’t be trying to corral them into a forced pose. I’ll be snapping away with my camera to capture those adorable laughs and smiles!

For moments when we want children to look at the camera, I have a special helper: a toy lens animal that attaches to my camera. (Currently it’s a green dinosaur!) I always let the kids give him/her a name during the photoshoot and they love interacting with my camera buddy!

Get Excited About Your Photoshoot

You can also help your children with some positive and uplifting comments on the way to the photoshoot. Let them know this is a time to have fun and play with mom and dad! You can also plan a fun reward for after the shoot if you worry that your child might not want to cooperate. Sometimes being able to remind them of their prize can provide that little bit of extra incentive. And if they don’t cooperate, don’t stress! Family photos are for memories—and sometimes the best memories happen when things don’t go exactly the way we planned.

Take Breaks

We can take as many breaks as needed. I am always watching the time so you don’t have to, and I will ensure that we are flowing at a good pace during the photoshoot. But that doesn’t mean we have to shoot nonstop. If a kiddo (or grownup—it happens!) is feeling tired or overwhelmed, we can absolutely stop and take a few camera-free minutes whenever we need to.

Relax and Have Fun

Your most important job in creating classic and timeless family photos is to have fun! Truly, if you take away nothing else, remember this: All you have to do is enjoy being with your family. I will take care of everything else!

Whitney Marshall Photo, Your Colorado Springs Family Photographer

I am so very excited to document this chapter of your family’s life together! I hope this style guide for classic and timeless family photos makes you feel more confident about our ability—together—to create photos that will become lifelong treasures for you and your loved ones. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I would love to connect with you!

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