Important tips for a successful family portrait:

Your family portrait will be a treasured keepsake and you’ll want to look your best. We suggest solid colors for the overall choices. Try to stay away from large logos, bold stripes and patterns etc. (unless it’s for a specific theme.)  These will pull the viewer’s eye away from the face and result in a busy portrait. Solid colors and subdued patterns are best. Try to keep the colors in the same tone.

When planning your family portrait session, please consider warm tones or cool tones for your main clothing colors. There are warm, cool, and neutral tones. Warms colors include browns, blacks, rust tones, oranges, creams, yellows, greens, tans, and reds. Examples of cool tones are blues, grays, white, teal, burgundy and pinks.  Some colors can go both ways. The neutral tones are good examples of this. Neutral tones include navy blue, black and white. Remember that dark clothing helps to minimize body size and light clothing tends to increase body size in photographs.

In addition to wearing clothing that is similar in color, you should also dress around the same style of clothing. Try to stay with more classic styles rather than the latest style because in time, your portrait will be dated rather than timeless. Choose casual clothing or formal clothing but do not mix the two. Clean and iron the clothing before your portrait so that you and your family will look your best. Long or half length sleeves are recommended if you are unsure of how your arms will look. Short sleeves are always acceptable for infants and children. Glen may choose to photograph your family in full length, and as a result, you should choose your shoes and stockings carefully.

Glasses, when photographed can cause face distortion as well as glass glare. If you wear glasses and want to keep them on for the portrait, think about borrowing some frames from your eye doctor, without the lenses in them. It will surely save you money in retouching fees.  If you will be wearing glasses but taking them off for the portrait, remember to remove them 15 minutes or so before the session to give any little marks on the bridge of your nose time to go away. If your glasses auto-darken in sunlight, bring another pair that’s clear or don’t wear them at all.

Men who tend to have five o’clock shadows should plan a quick shave before photos that are taken late in the day.

If you have a lazy eye, ears that always stick out in photos, or another feature you don’t like, be sure to mention it to the Glen. He can often pose you in a manner that eliminates or minimizes certain features.

And very important, get a good night’s sleep the night before to avoid bags or circles around your eyes.

Just remember that simplicity is the key and a little pre-planning will pay off in a great looking family portrait in the end!