5 Tips To A Less Stressful Family Photo Session

Everyone wants to create lasting memories and make the most of your photo sessions.This investment is worth it but the day of the event can be hectic. This blog post provides 5 tips to ensure your family's next family photo session is less stressful.

Photo shoots sounds great, right? But how about with toddlers? In 90 degree weather? Everyone loves a beautiful family photo, it's just a fact. Now that we have kids, it is really important that we take family photos as frequently as we can. Kids change so fast so it is amazing to see the differences in the few months between photo sessions. Professional photos can be expensive, though, so it makes sense that you'd want to make sure you get great photos.

Your Next Family Photo Session

We just had our summer family photo session with the amazing Hilary Lynn Photography and it could not have gone better! I am so excited to share five tips to ensure your photo session goes off without a hitch:

1. Schedule according to your schedule

2. Complement not match

3. Dress for the weather

4. Kids first

5. Make it fun

When to schedule your photo session

It is important to consider what time you schedule your photo sessions. If you are able to, try to schedule the session during your child's longest stretch of wake time. Lighting is great at dusk but depending on how old your kids are and the time of year, that may be difficult. Also, depending on the time of year, the weather will play a factor in how successful your photos are. If you can plan for your photos to be taken when the weather is better, it will be worth it.

What To Wear

I am a big fan of coordinating outfits for your family. My suggestion: complement but don't fully match. When families wear totally matching outfits it can look like they are trying too hard. Solids and neutral colors are always a great option especially if you plan to hang the photos in your home and want the colors to work with your home decor.

Dress for the weather

Let me tell you... 90 degree weather, long sleeve shirts, pants and boots maybe was not the best decision I've ever made. Learn from my mistakes and make sure you dress appropriately for the weather the pictures will be taken in. When I planned our photo session this time, I thought it would be cooler than it was, but I was so wrong. As a result, we ended up having to take off the boy's shoes and roll their shirts up because they were literally sweating. I wore a jean jacket to tie in the blues that my husband and son's were in and that was a mistake. My hair... let's just say the heat did a NUMBER on it. Lesson learned: always make sure you'll be comfortable in your outfit.

Kids First

From newborn pictures to this most recent photo session, we always shoot the kids first because their attention spans are just so much shorter. Getting them out of the way is the best way to avoid a meltdown. I would suggest getting family photos with the kids done first since they are the freshest, then single shots of the kids, then single shots of the adults. A great photographer like Hillary will direct this order and work quickly enough to make sure you get all the shots you wanted.

Make It Fun

One of the ways that I love to make photo sessions fun is to use props. Hillary happened to bring some fun props like a throw blanket that we could use to entertain the boys with and captured some amazing candids from it. She also encouraged the boys to play and run around and got some great shots of them interacting that way. With other photo sessions I've brought stuffed animals and decorations to the shoot to make them interactive as well.

Disclosure: This photo session was gifted in exchange for my honest review and social media promotion.