My Tips for Taking Family Photos

When my extended family was in town for my mom’s 70th birthday last year, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get new family photos. (It had been 4 years since we were all together!)

As sisters, we discussed hiring a photographer (letting Andi off the hook), but we weren’t sold on getting photographed at sunset, outdoors, in a grassy field in July. Bugs. Humidity. Balmy July. 97 degrees. All we could picture was melty make-up and flat, damp hair. We knew we had a full itinerary that day, and a morning shoot would be ideal.

Andi suggested we rent an indoor natural light studio she had previously used for shooting reference photos for my other sister, Victoria. (Found on Peerspace.) A 2-hour window was $180, and it delivered everything we needed: floor-to-ceiling windows boasting natural light, walls lined with eclectic furniture and area rugs, vanity mirror stations for all the touch-ups, and a huge JBL Bluetooth speaker to pump everyone’s favorite songs while on set!

Andi brought her tripod, but we mostly passed the camera around to others who weren’t in that group photo. You could just as easily call it a day with your phone and self-timer.

Here are my tips for taking your family photos:

Before the photoshoot, we recommended a color palette of nine colors for everyone’s clothing. Sometimes people have a color palette that’s too narrow. And contrary to popular belief, please use patterns! You don’t want everyone to show up in solids, because it looks too forced.
We put up a warm, rosy-peach backdrop, which is unexpected. Most people enter spaces like that and set up a white backdrop. Color feels less clinical!
We set the time for 10 a.m., so the kids would be in a better mood (although my poor niece Gigi wasn’t having it). We brought a game for the bigger kids to play between photo arrangements of people.
We kept switching up the playlist to appease whoever was being shot at the time. For my girls, it was the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack to get them smiling. And for Gigi, we tried “Wheels on the Bus,” her favorite (usually).
My sister Andi honed in on the camera settings, and if she was in that grouping, she confidently passed it off to whoever was willing to snap the shutter. We even had another brother-in-law holding a giant mirror up to those in the photo, so we could see what the camera is seeing and adjust as needed!
Also, we turned on a big floor fan! There’s nothing more entrancing in a photo than hair blowing gently in the breeze. Bonus? People tend to get nervous when they have their picture taken and can get flushed—this helped cool them down.

I love how the photos turned out and can’t wait to add a couple to our gallery wall, including this one: