How I dress my family for photos

I always start with myself first, I’m going to care the most about the photos and I feel like my body is the hardest to dress. The kids would look cute in anything and my husband typically wears the same thing in photos as he does every day. (haha, could you imagine if I wore what I do every day to a photo shoot?! I’m a total mom… leggings and a hoodie that probably has someone else’s food on it) Anyway, I start with me and that’s where Pink Blush comes in.

• I start with a dress or shirt that has a pattern with different colors.
• I then go to Pinterest and I type in the colors from my dress and the word palette. So if my dress is floral and the colors are mauve, blush and gray – I’ll type in “mauve, blush, and gray palette” this will bring up paint palettes so that you can actually see those colors and the other colors that become options when you put those together.
• I am not afraid to mix and match patterns, I actually think that brings a little bit of personality to the photoshoot. So I’ll have my husband in something solid, 1 son in plaid, the other boys in solids and then my girls in solids and florals.

Last but not least

Be careful with colors, once you match two people too closely, they shouldn’t be posed next to one another and sometimes, that can impact the way a family is portrayed. For example, if you have two brothers who are close in age, and you dress them in the same color – the photographer will automatically pose them on opposite sides of the set since the photographer was trained to create a visual balance. This could give the impression that the boys aren’t close on a friendship level. Since I’m a Mom to twins, this is a problem for me, so I’ll dress my twins in outfits that come in a two pack – one is a pattern, one is a solid but they’re a part of a cohesive color palette.

Photo Shoot Dresses 

That can be used over and over again are hard to find. I feel like before I discovered Pink Blush, I was choosing dresses that I would wear once, and then they would just sit in my closet for years. Once I discovered this brand, it quickly became my go-to for dresses that I could wear to family pictures and then also wear them during my everyday life. As a professional photographer, I wanted to give some tips ahead of the fall photo shoot season, so that you can feel like the confident woman that you are! Here are some tips on finding your perfect photo shoot dress with Pink Blush!

•  Find the style that works best for your body

My best style is an empire waist – this works for me because the section just below my bust is very small, but my hips are pretty wide. So I like to choose a dress that gathers in the middle. Sometimes the dress on it’s own will draw the eye there, other times I pair the dress with a belt to bring the eyes into the small of my waist instead of the feature that I don’t love so much.

• Cover the areas that you’re self conscious of

As a rule of thumb, these are usually your armpits, elbows and sometimes the knees. I don’t usually think knees are distracting, but sometimes, bra straps and armpits can come off as a little bit.. unflattering. Also, if you’ve ever been pregnant – chances are, there are little fat pockets near where your arm meets your torso. As a photographer, I receive requests from tons of women to “photoshop” their arms to be smaller to get rid of that little area, for me – I like to get the perfect shot in-camera and so I try to refrain from offering additional retouching because it’s just not authentic (and it costs more money to the client.)

• Choose cute maternity clothes that fit properly

Dressing your newly shaped body can be quite tough, the size charts at Pink Blush are very helpful, and their dresses were made to stretch to accommodate the changing shape of your body from early pregnancy through the 4th trimester and nursing phase of your motherhood adventure.

• When in doubt, choose a maxi dress!

Maxi dresses are my go-to when it comes to dressing myself for a photo shoot. I always feel like a princess in a maxi dress from Pink Blush. This is mainly because my children like to tell me that I look like one, and my heart basically just explodes from there haha.